Thursday 15 January 2009

Spurs Gray day

If you frequent the Spurs forums you'll have probably seen the match report for the Spurs v Grays friendly. Nice write up provided by the referee. Yes. The ref. Don't tell Sky Sports. They'll have Jamie Redknapp officiating games in no time.

Game was for Appiah's benefit and included the likes of Gunter, BAE, Gilberto, Rocha, Gio, Taraabt and Ghaly.

Sir Les, Clive Allen, Jordan, Bond and Redknapp all present at one point. Spurs won the game 2-0, but here's the extract that you'll probably be interested in reading:


Appiah, who looked comfortable all game, spreading it around at times with ease will without shadow of any doubt, be a wonderful addition to our team Being in the middle allows you the opportunity of not only seeing a player ply his craft but also listen to the way he dictates play.

His command of the English language is extremely competent.

I can only hope that Harry and co saw enough of him to agree with me. Steven, well we did finish the game on first name terms, went off after 82 minutes suffering with slight cramp.

Understandably considering he hasn’t played a full 90 minutes for 18 months or so. I asked him direct whether he would be signing for us, to which I got a huge grin and a “we’ll have to wait and see!” – In my opinion, the game today was a work out, medical for him before we get him to put pen to paper.


Could well be a big risk regardless of his undoubted quality. All the DM's in the world and we go for a crock on the road to recovery.

What is of far more interest to me - and should be to the boo-boys - is Ghaly. Sure, this was Grays and it was nothing more than a training exercise and yes, Hossam may well be an average player in the grand scheme of things, but we have plenty of average players who wear the shirt every week resulting in very little heart and determination. Time for the second extract from the match report:


On the final whistle, the excited fan in me made tracks to Hossam Ghaly. Not as some might think to give him a piece of my mind in remembrance of that fateful night against Blackburn in May 2007 but to shake his hand. Hossam for me was man of the match. He won every tackle, covered every blade of grass and is showing the attitude of a lad who is obviously hurting because he’s not playing first team football. He put in a performance which demonstrated he has reached the age of maturity and possible regret for his actions that night.

I told him we – THFC need him and that I really hope he gets the chance he deserves. As we walked off the pitch together, Tim Sherwood approached him and made exactly the same comment.
To every Tottenham fan who reads this, we’ve heard Harry come out in support and fellow team mate’s like Woodgate make comments about giving this lad another chance, I would like to appeal to every Spurs supporter to consider this He demonstrated a wonderful attitude and is showing great signs of maturity.

If the same guys who booed him (and I was one when he threw his shirt down on that fateful night) showed the same level of maturity and dedication (and perhaps a few other of our players), our football club and its supporters would be a far greater place to be.
Hossam – I hope Spurs fans throughout the country give you that opportunity, the rest is down to you mate.


Gut feeling is, he'll be involved on Sunday. I say this because with Pompey visiting and the Harry/Defoe back story along with Sol Campbell - if there is any day in the year that Spurs fans won't notice Ghaly run onto the pitch, its this one.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

nice article...i hope he is involved on sunday i for one rated the guy as a grafter, he got his teeth smashed in for us and wanted to play on. I hope Redknapp has the guts to play him on Sunday. They'll be so much booing he won't realise if its aimed at him anyway :)

vinnysqu1234 said...

Hmmm interesting...any news on the other trialist Quincy whateverisnameis & did Gio & Taarabt still look up for it?

Anonymous said...

Gio and Adel are decent players and cant understand why Harry doesn't get them involved more often in first team affairs. Well I can. I guess they are both luxuries we can ill afford at the moment but Gio is worth a final 15 minute sub. He has the spark to change things and was lively prior to his injury. Adel always shines for the reserves although that includes insane moments that are better suited to the playground. Great skill, immature footballing brain.

Anonymous said...

Not surprising that Appiah's command of English is "extremely competent" - it's the official language of Ghana.