Beef Bagel

I feel like I should be starting with all the Berba-talk but the one that’s got me today is the quote from ex-Spur Luke Young on his expectations of us lot when ‘Boro come to visit tomorrow in a rare Saturday 3pm kick-off. He said:

“I used to get a good reception when I first went back.”

Did he?

“Now I get a good reception for about three minutes. If I take throw-ins I get a little bit of stick and then it turns sour, especially if we score.”

And it was only after reading the rest of the article that I realised he was referring to his strike in the reverse fixture earlier in the season. I barely remembered it, and as if it’s really had any relevance to our season. We give him stick because he’s a bit of a knob. We may have given him one good reception the first time he came back with Charlton but it’s not like we boo him either. He’s not good enough.

Robbo still looks a doubt for tomorrow’s match with his ankle injury but other than that and the long-term casualties, we’re fighting fit.

King Ledley has come out, yet again, in the only story older than the stadium move and the Berba-talk, to say that he is not and never will be considering early retirement. Our god and and leader’s, who’s sitting out the remaining fixtures of ‘07/’08, said:

“I’ve read a lot of stories about my situation over the last few weeks but I honestly believe that when I do finally get it all right there won’t be any more problems in the future.”

“It’s just talk. I’ve heard it but I have no idea where it came from. It’s never nice to read stuff like that about yourself but I don’t feel like I have to prove anything to anyone, all I want to do is play football. I’m not retiring, let’s put it that way.”

Everyone feel better now? Good, and if you want him to shoot down another common misconception, he can do that too. What a guy. Is Dimitar the Great the moody player we’re led to believe? What do you think Ledders?
“I think the way he plays sometimes gets misconstrued as sulking, but that’s just him. He’s a quiet player but he’s very passionate about his football.”

Passionate about his football, there we go. See, it just pains him not to score every time he gets the ball and it’s not just us who’d be mortified to see the beautiful Bulgarian leave.
“I’ve played with some very good players over the years but I think his touch is possibly the best I’ve seen. The way he pulls the ball down out of the air is incredible. You can play him a bad ball and he can make it look good. I’m sure the club will be doing everything they can to keep hold of him.”

Well, fingers crossed Ledley. Everything Dimi says is under the microscope right now. When asked if he was happy at Spurs our striker said:

“Of course I’m happy. Don’t I look happy?”

Good gag; like it.

“No, that is not a fair question. You can’t ask me that. I am here, and I try to do my best and score goals for the team. I think I’m doing that, with the help of my team-mates and everybody else at the club.”

And that’s not the best answer but all we, and the press, and the fans of the clubs that want him, can do is wonder for what purpose he’s being cagey: for a bigger contract or a bigger club? But while we all sweat, there’s one man who remains cool. Let’s face it, he remains cool no matter what. He could be wearing a black hessian suit in the midday Saharan sun and you could still use Juande to chill your beer. El Boss has made it crystal clear how determined he is to keep Dimi, 40 million times over and on all the latest will-he-wont-he-Milan-or-Manchester saga, he said:

“We are delighted if clubs are coming in with big offers for him and talking about big amounts of money, because it means he is a great player.”

Love that man.

The interesting part comes in when he talks of his vision for the future and our Champions League ambitions and there’s one key hurdle for him on this one - money…

“The four teams involved in the final stages of the Champions League have the highest budgets. Therefore, they are able to buy the best star players, they have the best options to buy those players. Now and then there can be a team that can break into those four as a surprise but it’s very difficult and it all comes down to budget.”

Wait a minute, he’s not after money, is he?

The good thing is, you can’t help but feel that whatever Juande wants, Juande gets and after Damian Comolli put his dick on the line over the Spaniard’s appointment, there’s going to be another big player on our manager’s side.

The obvious side of things is that he wants some kind of gargantuan war chest full of Enic booty to hurl at Real, Barca and whoever else to tempt over Little Bob, Ronladinho and Modric/Kameni/God bloody knows, what’s easy to ignore is that he wants this “budget” for wages too. What better way to tempt the players themselves and convince certain others to stay if we can free ourselves of the shackles of the £50k wage limit. If Man City and Newcastle can grab transfer coups, then we certainly can.

For now, think on that and on the stat that we’ve scored more goals at home than any other team in the Prem (40) and - you know what’s coming next - we conceded more than any other too (30). Let’s try to redress that tomorrow, eh chaps?

I was adjusting your bagels. You fainted and they… shifted all outta whack. There.

The Bagel.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 2:30 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.