Utd 2 Spurs 1: A Review in Quotes

Quotes from around the web on Saturdays FA Cup exit at Old Trafford, including a choice pick for best pre-match blurb.


Pre-match:

If a team no longer strives to win, and admits even before taking to the pitch that it doesn’t want to win, it ceases to be sport. The team in question ought not to be there. The attitude towards the UEFA Cup is similarly odd, in that having strived so hard to get there for years, we’re now encouraged to view it as an unwanted extra burden, one we’d be better off without. If we don’t want to win any of the cups, why bother staying in the Premiership?

We’re certainly not going to win that any time soon, so why bother? It’s just one fixture after another. We don’t want to qualify for Europe, as that creates too many games, so let’s avoid the problem by dropping down a division. In fact, let’s just avoid the entire problem of playing every week and disband the team. Let the players become full-time celebrities, without the hassle of this 90-minute malarkey. (Depressingly, I can think of a couple of players who might be genuinely taken with the idea…) - Mike Lac and the All-Action-No-Plot world


Post-match:

In places we played brightly and threatened. But what frustrated was that lack of oomph to go that extra yard. You get the impression if one of our lot started tearing around like Tevez he'd be greeted with looks of bemusement from his colleagues. It's a case of perception. And if you stop your average Yid in the street and ask, the response is that many of our lot don't look as if they're all that bothered. I do hope the gravity of our league position is clear in the minds of whoever plays against Stoke - Harry Hotspur

A complete roll-over by Spurs. They should have f*cked off back down the motorway at half-time - LaNausee (GU sports)

We were so dreadfully lethargic that I was wondering if Harry told them to play like that - Mulletperm (glory-glory.co.uk)

I thought it was another pathetic performance...........no urgency or desire to really get the result, just going through the motions really even when space opened up at times on the counter we never looked like we wanted to get at them. Even when we went 1-0 up I just knew what was going to happen, just isn’t enough backbone in so many of the players and we got knocked out without so much as a whimper - DC_Finsbury_yid (glory-glory.co.uk)

Also noticed that Redknapp defended his players like a real manager today, in response to the harsh comments from Teddy Sheringham and others. On high time. Criticising lack of effort, lack of fight and character, players out of form etc. is relevant, But my main worry is that even on our better days there are no trace of a football team, a unit with a clear idea about how to play. In that respect we've gone from bad to worse.

Under Martin Jol we had a clear style of play, arguably very dependent on individual players and not based on the foundations of a system, a philosophy and well defined roles in the team. Under Ramos we saw clearly what he was trying to do, over ambitious maybe, not successful definitely, but recognisable nevertheless. Under Redknapp there's not a trace of anything but panic and turmoil, the players play for themselves to avoid being booed by their own fans or hung out to dry by the coach and his mates in the tabloids. For my life I could not tell what Redknapp is trying to do in terms of tactics, direction and leadership.

And that scares the s**t out of me - Terje H (spursornothing.co.uk)

That was the closest thing to the games running up to Leeds relegation I’ve seen since. No passion, no heart and if I was a fan having travelled up for that id be asking for my money back. Spurs are side in deep sh*t, I’ve sat through a carbon copy of this. Players that can’t be bothered getting paid far too much and don’t really give a shit. Disgraceful display - dermot mulligan (GU sports)

We do not play good football, we are rubbish. Completely devoid of anything resembling a midfield, nothing going forwards, no creative spark, passionless rubbish. To make it worse we have a 'winger' in charge who is already covering his own arse with the spectre of relegation looming large. I honestly believe we are the most boring team in the premier league, slow, dull, predictable and were in serious serious trouble - Vienna Spur (glory-glory.co.uk)

The way Spurs rolled over in that game was pathetic. Looked as though they wanted to go out of the fa cup. Man Utd just sat back most of the second half a little bit like they did against Derby in the cup and what did Spurs do? A lot of them players should be ashamed of themselves I would be well pissed off paying out all that money to go and watch that shower of shit. Don’t think Harry was too arsed either otherwise he would have brought Defoe on well before he did or started him - Stacki (rumourwhores.com)

Turns out the traffic cones wore white. Spurs never developed any rhythm, defended well in spells, yes, but offered far too little going forward, rarely causing United to raise an eyebrow, never mind break sweat, and conceding what little possession they did enjoy far too cheaply. Not bothered, though. Progression in the Cup would just have been an unwelcome distraction from the job of survival in the league, and an opportunity to collect damaging injuries - Dave Gallagher (spursornothing.co.uk)

Damage limitation in a cup game. What has happened to Tottenham? - Diego_Maradona (glory-glory.co.uk)

I thought we did well. It is tough to come here - you have to be careful, if you open up you can get beaten by four, five or six goals.We started well, but a bad two-minute spell cost us. In the second half neither keeper had an awful lot to do. But I thought we were always in the game and I could see us nicking a goal and earning a replay - Harry Redknapp (BBC)

I was encouraged by the performance on the whole. I thought Bentley put in a good shift and really caused a good Utd team some problems.. Gunter kept Ronaldo quiet for the most part. Pav scored a very good goal from the Huddlestone cross, (so who ever was saying Thudd dint get near the Utd box, what game where you watching..?)

The equaliser was unlucky and Scholes was 45 yards from the goal when the corner was taken, I’m sorry but if you mark someone on the half way line you lose someone in the box, it’s a Utd trate and its very hard to defend against you have to play the law of averages and say you’re better off with the extra man in the box marking and take the chance Scholes isn’t going to hit a screamer from 30 yards and yesterdays was going wide if not for the deflection... The second was the reason they paid £30m for Berbs we all know his class and that showed. Other than that Utd didn’t really cause us that many problems and Alnwick looked comfortable - LillyWhite Yid (glory-glory.co.uk)

We put up a better performance than usual, and their equaliser was lucky. Knocked our fragile confidence severely. To be honest, that was more than I expected before the kickoff, seeing that we have been gutless and lethargic lately. And that's not to say we wouldn't have lost had Utd not gone in at half time ahead, they would've broken us eventually. Utd were playing with belief. And for the record, Utd sat back and made us chase the game, meaning our fatigued players got more knackered as the game went on and posed less of a threat, we came up against a better team and lost, I don't think we disgraced ourselves, which is a change, but equally we didn't put in 110% but there are factors for that - Laudski (rumourwhores.com)

Wonder if everyone is still in love with the "Redknapp Revolution" - David Soul (GU sports)



The Tottenham we want is the type that would run through a thunderous storm into a herd of stampeding steroid enhanced rhinoceroses just to look upon the shirt. To put the shirt on they would stare up to the heavens, laugh at the lightning bolts and silence the Gods with a dirty look before turning to the rhino’s with a war cry of such ferocity, they’ll curl up like kittens.

What we’ve got instead is a Tottenham that holds an umbrella while it apologetically shrugs towards a ditch until the herd has passed then decides the walk is too long so heads back in the opposite direction – Spooky (this here blog)

In Defence of Redknapp

“When I see it devalued like a couple of years ago when teams suddenly didn’t want to get involved, like Manchester United did, it’s very disappointing. As far as I’m concerned I’ve always had a go at the FA Cup wherever I have been. I’ve never been at a club where we weren’t interested in winning the FA Cup. We start the season in two cup competitions where we have a chance of winning — the FA Cup and the Carling Cup — and we go for it. We’re not going to win the Premier League at Portsmouth, so we need to have a go at the cup competitions.” - Harry Redknapp, April 13, 2008

“I can’t risk [Jonathan] Woodgate on Saturday because we’ve got Stoke on Tuesday and I will go to Old Trafford with the weakest team I can possibly find.” - Harry Redknapp, January 21, 2009

For any Spurs fans having a dig at our King of the Soundbites manager, get a grip and look at the bigger picture. If we sat on 31 points rather than 21, or for that matter, had we beaten Pompey at home in the Prem the other week and avoided extra-time against Burnley, we probably would made plans to go to OT with a strong(er) team. Not that the desire to do well shouldn't be evident on Saturday, regardless of the team fielded.

Play a strong team against Utd, lose more players to injury, then lose to Stoke at home in the league is not the way I want to see things pan out over the next few days. Rock and a hard place at the minute for us. And unfortunately, in a competition which has a rich history for Spurs fans, its a sacrifice we simply have to deal with. Sums up our season really that we have to make the Prem the priority, but for the wrong reasons...which are the right reasons if we want to be playing top flight football next season. At least we've got a day trip to Wembley to look forward to.

I wonder how many copies of the 2008/2009 Season Review DVD the club shop will sell when its released? As long as we secure rights to have the theme tune to the Great Escape as the soundtrack, I'll be more than happy to kick back with some popcorn and a can of coke zero and relive those magical moments.....like the thrashing dished out to Stoke City at White Hart Lane on the 27th January.




Cough.

Let’s sum up the weekend

3-1 Wigan win. Not vintage, but then again, we haven’t been outstanding at any point this season. Side was balanced if not perfect (by not perfect I'm referring to most of our players having an abundance of space with regards to climbing the personal improvement chart). One or two (or more) still need to get on top of their game. Patience? I’m sure they will buck up their ideas once the transfer window signings arrive at the Lodge.

Wigan, toothless, so home win was never in doubt. Bale on a winning side, so crack open that bottle of Bucks Fizz and get on with snorting those lines off that hookers cleavage. Might not happen again, our Gareth, celebrating a win. Man Utd next. Away. Have to adore those warm balls in the Cup draw.

Ghaly. If you search the labels (bottom of the blog) for Ghaly posts, you’ll see I’ve been critical of the lad in the past. What’s done is done. He fucked up. Sure that night against Blackburn, he was all over the place. More Ollie Reed than Christopher Columbus. But you couldn’t fault his effort. His reaction was an emotional knee-jerk. Other players out on the field were just as bad as Ghaly performance wise, but not as forward as him with the ball, so obviously if you’re going to fail you’re going to look twice as bad if you are attempting something twice as bold.



His Birmingham transfer collapse and the consequent complaints about training sessions again didn’t help the Ghaly PR machine.

Now he’s back, and it’s obvious Harry wants to try him out in the first team. Would have played on Friday but the crowd’s reaction – the idiotic minority – were at it again. Difficult to pin-point what type of fan this is. The one who prefers the negative to the positive. There’s plenty of them in the South Stand, and in every other stand. Not a majority, but enough to make an impact strong enough to make Harry change his mind on the substitution. The club have since had to release a statement on the official site to help mitigate the situation.

Boo the team – as a whole, at half-time – if you’re getting stuffed 3-0 and the performance has been shambolic. It gets a reaction, at least it should. But pin-pointing individuals, and then harassing them? Well, we know all fans love a bit of this. And we are no exception. And much like all sets of fans, when things aren’t that great, we tend to find it easier to have a go, with zero tolerance.

When things are great, loudest noise in the world, White Hart Lane shakes the foundations of the planet. Space time continuum gets ripped a new one. But groans and moans, we do that just as good.

I might not rate Zokora. Or Jenas. I’ve never boo’ed them. Never. Why should I? And why would I think that boo’ing them would actually gauge a positive reaction from them? A monstrous call to get it together would be about a million times better for the individual who’s struggling.

We are meant to be the 12th player. So giving it in the way of support is the logical thing, no? Well no. It seems some of our fans have found it far easier to give up on a player and make sure they get the message.

Nothing new in this. And Bentley/Ghaly aside, Jenas tends to get it along with a few other players who have lost form or struggling since return from injury.

Eboue, who was having a mare for the Arse, got applause on his return. Ok, sure. He didn’t take his shirt off and throw it aside. And much like Ghaly, he’s an average player. And you might argue that he shouldn’t be anywhere near our first team. But if you or I were the manager we’d have Sergio Agüero upfront with Kaka playing just behind him. So let Harry pick the team. Let Ghaly - whether you rate him or not – play. And then we can pass final judgement.

Modric doing 'the worm' old skool style

Elsewhere this weekend. Defoe has been receiving death threats to his home phone. Looks like his Pompey days are over and out. Whether Spurs is his destination, we’ll have to wait and see. Again, why he was sold in the first place considering the Berbatov situation at the time. But hey, old ground. Been there, done that about 1000 times already. Ironically, £20M for a player we sold for £9M? That’s some accountancy if we make the deal happen.

Downing has – or will be – handing in a transfer request. Uncertain about this one because I haven’t really taken much notice his weekly performances. Would mean having a left-winger for the first time in an age, so if you have another bottle of Bucks Fizz, keep it chilled.

Harry has also told us that we have ‘fantastic options’ in the transfer window, whether the Defoe deal happens or not. Fantastic is obviously debatable as a description if he means Bellamy. It’s not just his age (29) that bothers me, but personally, never liked his complaining/bitching attitude and his injury problems. He’s like a more gobby Robbie Keane, but far less likeable. Can he do a job for us? I’ll have to support Harry and the side he selects if Craig finds himself in it. If avoiding relegation means spending £8M on a West Ham player, then you know we’re in trouble. So let it happen if he can score the goals to lift us out of the bottom bit of the table.

At least Pav is finding his way a little more now. Learning the lingo and settling into English Prem life isn’t an over-night occurrence. As many seem to forget.

Utd in the 4th round. Again, yet another hiding to nothing up at OT. Makes you want to cry that.

Burnley at home on Tuesday night. Need a good tidy professional performance there. 4-0 will do me.

And no 'Stand up if you hate Arsenal' chants. Even if you want to annoy the stewards who ask you to sit down. There's eleven Spurs players out on the pitch. I know it's a bit drastic, but how about pushing aside all references to them lot, Judas and Defoe and concentrate on a bit of pro-Spurs support? I'm stuck up in the South upper stand on Tuesday as I forgot to reserve and purchase my seat in the lower tier. Bless me. No standing up all game for me then.

FA Cup 3rd Round

Wigan at home.

I'm happy with that.

FA Cup draw

Manchester United away at Old Trafford if we get through the reply. The conspiracy and anti-Spurs FA agenda continues.

Spurs 2 Reading 2 (FA Cup 3rd Round)

I’m now officially bored of Paul Robinson and the managements persistence in starting him, waiting for him to somehow iron out all his goalkeeping quirks (which are working out to about 3.9 mistakes per game). He’s shit. He knows he’s shit and yet everyone inside the club appear to ignore the simple fact of the matter that he has no self-belief and he’s shit. One or two show stopping television saves doesn’t redeem him from his weekly David James impersonations. Calamitous is too gentle a description.

Take Reading’s first goal. Softest ever? Robinson got his positioning all wrong. It was hilarious. The second Reading goal was also partly his responsibility with another lame effort of a save, pushing the ball out to Hunt for the equaliser. Not that Robinson can be blamed for the draw. Keane and Berbatov both missed guilt-ridden opps in front of goal. On another day, we would have notched up 3 or 4 more goals. But it’s a bit frustrating when we’ve rested 3 players and they’ve changed 8, and we don’t win. But what you gonna do?

One thing we can do, other than work miracles in the transfer window is to resolve the goalkeeping problem once and for all. Playing him week in and week out waiting for him to change form to positive from shambolic is a fruitless exercise.

Drop Paul Robinson.

FA Cup odds

4/1 Chelsea
9/2 Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool
12/1 Spurs
20/1 Blackburn, Everton, Newcastle, Portsmouth
28/1 Man C, Villa
33/1 West Ham
50/1 Bolton, Middlesbro, Reading, Sunderland
66/1 Birmingham, Fulham
100/1 Wigan

I think William Hill have taken the 6-4 win over Reading in the Prem as the template for Tottenham's 'we will score one more than you' tactical assault on this years FA Cup. I think they are being overly generous. I actually have a bad gut feeling about tomorrow. Another goalfest is highly unlikely, and Reading won't want to see a repeat performance (four goals away from home and nothing to show for it). Kitson will fancy his chances again, so it's probably down to Spurs and how they defend corners. Not sure how much improvement can be achieved in training since the Villa defeat, considering the general lack of improvement we've shown in defending set-pieces in the past two years.