The Legendary Back Four
I’m a little nervous about tomorrow. Nervous; no maybe not nervous. Somewhere between frustrated and depressed, leading to a touch of anxiety. On Sunday we showed what we can do with potentially the best defence in the Premiership, particularly when we get Gareth Bale involved as well. Remember him?
The problem is that straight away we get the news that Woody suffered a knock to his ankle in the final, which apparently he kept shtum about until the final whistle went - who can blame him? - and according to the Mail, King Ledley suffered a bad reaction with those tender knees of his which he is having to carry around in a wheelbarrow and smother with ointment until the shrunk down to normal size again; and that’s in three-games time according to the surprisingly reliable semi-tabloid. Of course, the official site and Beeb just leave it as “Ledley King could be rested” which is a lot easier to cope with. If the Mail is to be believed, it’ll be the away leg at PSV where Ledders makes his return.
So with three of our best back four out, we go back to a makeshift defence of Kaboul and either the Man Mountain or Didier Zee, given that Safety First is only just gone back into training after his hamstring tear. Suddenly, we look like an MJ side, God rest his soul, and no offence to the big guy but it just smacks of that early season frailty of rugby union scorelines and nightmare set-pieces, and I start to wonder whether the Tottenham back for is to become the stuff of legends with me aged 60 mouthing off to any youngsters I see down the Lane that I saw Bale, Hutton, Woodgate and King all play together once. It was the same day that Satan skated to work.
I suppose it’s not about Woodgate, Hutton or Bale. It’s just Ledley really and my mind niggles and inflames just as much as his knees do every time I think about it. Call me a fool but I don’t believe all this bollocks about his career being over, whether it be arthritis, chlamydia, leprosy, dropsy or oversized genital warts rubbing against his bones. But one does wonder how he’s going to be next season. What is it going to take for the guy to play consecutive games? Can we buy him some bionic knees? I’ll gladly add the cost onto my season ticket.
On second thoughts, we could sell Sergei Bent and have enough to clone our captain. According to a recent report, Bent is the 19th best paid player in the world. Sitting just between Carlos Tevez and Rio Ferdinand - can you sodding believe it! - the perennial bench-warmer and non-netter of goals manages to bad himself £4.55m per year (£88k/week), which comes as a bit of a shocker given that no Tottenham players were supposed to receive more than £50k until Woodgate arrived. So, let’s flog the waste of space and buy ourselves another Ledley. We can have one for the week and one for Sunday best.
As much as I may be concerned about our trip to the Brum, I’d be disappointed with anything less than a win. Sure arsenal could only manage a draw against 10 men but that’ll probably mean we walk away with a 3-1 victory, you know, given we just beat the scum 5-1. Don’t think I’ll ever get sick of that.
Have an excellent time if you’re off to the game; our first as Champions. It’ll be a good old sing song I’m sorry to miss, so let me know what wonderful new hymns the Tottenham choir come up with.
Now there are just two of us - young Aubrey Montague and myself - who can close our eyes and remember those few young men with hope in our hearts and bagels on our heels.
The Bagel.
February 29th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Bagel
Ledders and our injury probe defence is a concern but at least the management got Woody and King in shape for the final. If they can do the same for our UEFA cup games then we will just have to wing it at the back for our league games.
Normally I would expect 3 points froma game like tomorrow, but what’s the worst that can happen? We will still be League cup winners and already qulaified for Europe. Yep, the more you say it the better it sounds.
Maybe give Benty Dazzler a run out so he can start earning all his wages and save Berbs for next week?
February 29th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Bagel,
whatever, are you coming out for beers tomorrow night? Is this the only way to contact you?
February 29th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I agree - if we are to break into that elusive Top 4 we will need to have Ledders or a Ledders clone consistently in the team alongisde Woody for the 75% of games he’s fit, and Safety First for the others.
Im sure Juande will be thinking the same though, so I would expect us to buy in 1 centre half in the summer (and maybe offload Daws or Kaboul)
Also agree that we should give Bent a run in the side - only then might he start to repay that ludicrous price tag
February 29th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Well put Bagel, as always.
I am nervous too. I also worry about the confidence of our goal keepers behind that make-shift back four! I dred any set pieces tomorrow.
All this talk about Robbo and Butterslav Fingers being let go next year, is of course realistic and I know its necessary if we want to succeed. BUT that’s IF we have a reasonable replacement. Maybe Carlos Kameni will be a good buy in the summer, but until then, I don’t see how the chit- chat about our current goallies being on the way out is going to boost their already shaky nerves.
March 1st, 2008 at 12:38 am
‘carrying his knees around in a wheelbarrow’ !!
great that. reminded me of classic Viz - Buster Gonad and his unfeasibly large testicles !
March 1st, 2008 at 11:02 am
88k? Bollocks surely.
March 1st, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Bloody hope so.
The Bagel.
March 1st, 2008 at 6:26 pm
GRRRR!!! 4-1, still day dreaming I think.
March 2nd, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Tottenham are shit!
I know the league isn’t that important to us since we’re already in europe next year but for fuck’s sake! - get a grip juande!
March 2nd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Tottenham are shit!?! we’re all disappointed mate but your taking it a bit far!
March 2nd, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Yeh, you’re right, we’re not shit on the whole. But to beat the third best team in the country at wembley only to come crasing back to earth with a 4-1 loss to one of the league’s worst teams….. to me, that smacks of utter turd.
But as i say, the league is now less of a priority, although we can’t be losing EVERY league game between now and the end of the season… that really would be shit…
March 2nd, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Sorry, but certian players were shit yesterday. Chimbonda was hopeless in the back. Robbo made a couple of very important saves, but also failed to position him self on the free kick, which gifted Birmingham one goal and was worng footed on one or two of their others. It was sad to watch.
Bagel, your lead this week was spot on this week. The squad’s too thin and the investement in new players can’t come too soon . Let’s hope they can get the back some depth with the money they’ll have to spend in the summer. I also hope its Juande and not Comolli that will be making those spending decisions!
March 2nd, 2008 at 7:33 pm
I heard you scums lost 4-1 againts brum..hmm
Hopeless in league, hey but don’t worry you still have your “World Cup” to enjoy with..haha!
- MU Fan -
March 2nd, 2008 at 7:35 pm
You guys are sitting pretty near to the relegation..think about it!
We gonna beat Arsenal to the title..really shame that your team was hot to tip arsenal n replace top 4 which will be great but now you will be surviving relegation..pity :>
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:58 am
Whoops.
A bit of a slip that wasn’t it ?
Woodgate injured - hahahahahaha, that’s really funny.
King out for season probably.
While newcastle are around to press the self destruct button, I expect you wont get relegated, but it would seem that spuds doing enough to placate the fans is the current going concern.
The plusses and minuses of a spuds season ticket holder:
Getting to see spuds go to wembley and win.
Having to watch uninterested players thrash out meaningless games from march til the end of the season.
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:48 am
Who let Ki Ki and Yidassholes! out?
Cannot believe that about Darren Bent. Ludicrous.
Well, we had to come back to earth eventually, didn’t we? Ignore, suck it in and let’s carry on. COYS.
Rosie x
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Well said Rosie, besides you can’t put three points in the trophy cabinet, can you?
The Bagel.
March 3rd, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Ki Ki / WHS /
How about Brum away and Villa at home? Surely, you would have expected more than 2 points out of 6 from these 2 games?
And in the blink of an eye your 5 point lead was down to 1. Looks like you’ve got more to worry about than us. After all, we’ve already got some silverware this season and we are in Europe again.
March 4th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Well, we are also in Europe again, unless we should lose every game til the end of the season, so that’s not a worry.
We are also still leading the title challenge, which kinda slaps all those who dismissed us in August slapbang in the face.
Tonight we plan a great AC Milan side in a real European tie, against some of the games greatest players. These are the games we aspire to, the games that lend an edge, a game we look forward to for weeks, games you can only admire, games that you can only sigh with heartache at not being involved.
Of course, your only recourse is to tell me that, in fact your dreams were fulfilled by winning the monkey cup (Bagels name). I expect nothing less than illogical defence of all spuds’ shortcomings.
While you stargaze through the game tonight, you can dream of having these players, this management, and this team, with the wonderful stadium, and the riches and glory that beckon.
Perhaps you could be part of it if you didn’t spend £16.5M and a whopping great £88K a week, yep, £88K a week on some benchwarming hacker.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Yeah, but how about answering the question?
Maybe like Wenger you only choose to see what suits you?
March 4th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Sure I’ll answer the question, we picked up an away point from St Andrews after a shock to the system for our players and a disputable penalty decision.
We struggled at home against a rapidly improving Aston Villa side and managed to scrape a point mainly due to our persistance and their nerves.
So from being out of the title race to being clear winners and being level within 2 weeks just shows what a close race this title race is, but it’s great fun to be involved.
Not that you’d know of course.
once again - £88K a week for Bent ? His agent must be a hypnotist !