Guest blog: What’s your favourite chant? [Part 4]

Such is the response to our chants blogs, this was a contribution by enthusiastic reader @GavChandler. A great read, enjoy!

 

There’s nothing I like more than a decent football chant and have been known to while away the early hours of many a morning singing about random players or trying to adapt them to suit players in our own side; much to the mirth of partners/housemates/bystanders on the tube. In fact I’d go as far as to say that I judge the success of a night out on the tune buzzing around my aching head when I wake up; for example if your last memory is strolling down Stockwell high street at 3am, shirt off, singing songs about Nicola Berti being aged around Thirty then it’s fair to say it’s been a good evening.

Guest Blog: What’s your favourite football chant? [Part 3]

My best ever chant has to be Spurs at Real Madrid, “Tottenham in the Bernabeu, Arsenal watching Emmerdale”.  

This echoed through Plaza Mayor during the afternoon of Tottenham’s Champions League Quarter Final visit to Real Madrid as the travelling supporters took joy in surviving longer than the old enemy in tournament . Unfortunately, it wasn’t sung in the Bernabeu for too long as we trailed 1-0 in the 5 minutes (eventually losing 4-0).   Although, on current form another rendition might not be too long away.

Other great moments supporting Spurs over land and sea in recent years include numerous spine tingling “Oh when the Spurs go marching in” throughout last season’s European campaign and spending the whole of the first half away at Bayer Leverkusen in November 2006 singing “Martin Jol’s blue and white army” without a pause.

BCC Football: Club vs. Country

Your club or your country? The press frequently covers this debate from a playing perspective, but the Football Watercooler now looks at what is more important for the fans. Does an England game have you on the edge of your seat or are you counting down the days ’til your club is back in action? Two football fans, the Football Watercooler’s very own George Woffenden (@GWoffer) and Tottenham Hotspur season ticket holder Charlie Marks (@cdmarks90), get involved in a debate about what they prioritise – club or country.

Guest blog: Simply an “okay” transfer window for Spurs

One of the clubs I always look out for in the transfer market is Spurs. Not only are an annoying number of my friends fans and even season ticket holders, but they have a Chairman in Daniel Levy and a manager in Mr Harry “leaning out the car window to speak to SKY” Redknapp who are particularly interesting during this time. Therefore I thought it would be worth hearing from avid Spurs fan and, once nicknamed, “football brain” @NickOD84‘s thoughts on this summer’s activity down at the Lane… 

I would like you all to cast your minds back to September 2008, around 23.30, and pictures of Dimitar Berbatov at Old Trafford waving to the Manchester United fans that had stayed up late to see their new £30.75 million striker arrive at the club. Just a couple of weeks prior to that, Dimitar had refused to start against Middlesbrough in Tottenham’s first game of the season – and consequently the season was altogether disappointing, resulting in Juande Ramos being sacked in early October and a resurgent Tottenham, under the stewardship of Harry Redknapp only managing to climb to 8^th.

Fast forward three years and a sense of déjà vu was in the air as another “big club” were looking at Tottenham’s talisman Luka Modric to make their side complete. The first game of the season this year came round and Luka Modric told Harry Redknapp that “my head is not in the right place”.

However, in 2011, Daniel Levy had learnt from his mistakes and there were no pictures of Modric at Stamford Bridge or Cobham, but simply him training with his Croatian team-mates. Modric is not for sale at any price – and that includes £40million (apparently).

On the outset, many Tottenham fans will look at this and say that the transfer window was a success, and Tottenham, unlike their neighbours in North London had not sold their “Best Players” to their rivals.

However, my personal opinion is that this has simply been an “okay” transfer window and not as successful as many might believe.

Levy has succeeded when it comes to the huge wage bill that has been relieved … Bentley, Jenas, Hutton and Palacios were on big wages and losing them (along with Mr. Crouch) probably saves around £1million a month on wages. Saying that, how much West Ham are really paying of Bentley’s wages we don’t know.

Looking at who Tottenham have bought, I believe that Parker is a good addition – however, we could have bought him before the season started and not waited until the final day (as per usual with Tottenham) and Adebayor is a good signing on loan. Once he has a contract, he normally relaxes, but while playing for a contract Adebayor has always produced. On his day he is unplayable and alongside Defoe or with Van der Vaart behind him, he could do really well this year.

However, if Adebayor gets injured in the Barclays Premier League this season, then Spurs are left with Defoe and Pavlyucenko up front – on last season’s performances, not exactly a threatening strike force that will result in a top 4 finish. If Dawson gets injured, I have no idea who will play at the back (Can we rely on Gallas and King to play much this season?). And this is the key area of the squad where Tottenham did not deliver in the transfer window … for Redknapp to say that Spurs could not agree a fee with Bolton for Cahill is beyond me! Tottenham sold Crouch for £10 million, Palacios for £8 million and Keane for £3.5 million this summer. Even if Spurs had to pay £17 million for Cahill they would still be in profit this summer (and they have a young England centre-half, who will only get better)! If Cahill signed, Bassong could have gone on loan to QPR and more wages would have been off the payroll as well. If I’m honest, this is my main area of concern for the season … this is a team that has conceded 8 goals in their first two games after all!

Away from who has been signed and who has been sold, my overall feeling of the transfer window is the same as it was in 2008 … taking away the joy (not!) of watching Jim White on Sky Sports News, the start of season has resulted in Spurs being in a state of turmoil at the end of August, and now having to play catch up on the rest of the pack.

Liverpool, Man City and Man Utd all bought early in the window (only adding a couple of freebies on deadline day) and the effect has been shown by them all starting the season settled and looking good (although, I am still not sure about Liverpool if honest – Henderson isn’t good enough, and if they lose Suarez to injury, just like if Spurs lose Adebayor, I feel they will struggle a bit).

But deadline day has gone now and Spurs need to pick up points against Wolves in a week or so time.

So, until January, when Chelsea come sniffing back to Chigwell for Modric, the next three months should give Tottenham some much needed time to settle down and start playing the fast, fluid football that the Spurs fans have come to live with over the last couple of years. Admittedly a lot of this will depend on how good Mr. Redknapp’s man-management skills are and whether they work on rejuvenating the little magician from Croatia!

Head to Head: Brighton vs Spurs

As the beginning of the season draws tantalisingly ever closer, the Football Water Cooler introduces the new 11 a-side head to head format, answered by a fan of each team involved in a big clash (or pre-season jolly to the seaside in this instance). Ahead of this weekend’s friendly action, Brighton fan Knotty and our very own Director of Football Gerts go head to head…

1. How’s the pre-season gone so far?

Knotty: Pre-season has gone reasonably well: comprehensive victories against the local Sussex non-league outfits before heading out to Portugal for games against a Spurs XI, PSG and Ohlanese. Gus’s boys secured a hard-earned 2-2 draw against the second string Spurs side before losing 1-0 against a PSG side who have recruited a great deal over the summer. We have a number of new players after a spending spree of astronomical proportions by Albion standards, but from the reports I’ve heard, the new boys have all settled in well. 

Gerts: Fairly mixed bag. The 1^st team headed to South Africa where we lost to the Kaiser Chiefs 1-0, drew 1-1 with the Orlando Pirates and then comfortably beat them 3-0 at the 2^nd time of asking to claim our first piece of silverware; the renowned “2011 Vodacom Challenge”  title. A strong Spurs XI beat MK Dons 5-3 on Tuesday night with Niko Kranjcar stealing the show.

Guest Blog: All aboard the Spurs rollercoaster

The Football Water Cooler’s man upstairs, Director of Football David Gerty, weighs in on the Modric saga, the rightful position of Tottenham Hostpur and a whirlwind last year…

Tottenham Hotspur on the backpages has a feeling of normality. “Never a dull moment” is a cliche often uttered to describe a football club, but for Tottenham it seems more than apt. As the final whistle blew on a 2-1 win to Birmingham City, it finally gave Spurs fans a chance to catch their breath on what had been a whirlwind 13 months.

A period in which the club had secured a historic Champions League spot with a win at Manchester City; nearly thrown away all of the hard work by going 3-0 down to Young Boys; and then beaten Inter Milan at home and AC Milan away from home in some good old fashioned glory glory nights.  It wasn’t all heads in the clouds and broad smiles though and Spurs will indeed be back in the more familiar grounds of Europe’s second club competition this season.

The main frustration is that a return to the top table in Europe was ours for the taking, had we won the games we were capable of winning. Every team chucks away points here and there, but only 1 point each from double headers with West Ham, Wigan and Blackpool tests the patience slightly. The January transfer window also left a fairly bitter taste. Any Spurs fan could have told you we needed a striker, but the window came and in came Steven Pienaar – and a 10.45pm dash for Charlie Adam – but no striker. I heard Suarez’s name mentioned umpteen times but as Redknapp later revealed our scouts didn’t think he’d fit in. Hmmm….less said about that the better.

So might some utter (out of ear shot of `Arry) that 5th place constitutes failure? I’m not so sure. Having followed the club since childhood and first taken to White Hart Lane as a snotty 7 year old in 1992, good times haven’t been in abundance. Safe to say last season was by far the most exciting that anyone in my age category has ever witnessed; indeed, my passport came out for trips to Milan (twice), Berne and the Bernabeau – all unforgettable for different reasons. And I still believe any sort of European qualification represents an achievement – even if not the heights of the last year.  Some of the older generation of Spurs fans wouldn’t agree though and the thing is, being a spurs fan in your 20s means that there is always someone there to tell you how good it has been before, how the club deserve better and how they were once upon a time England’s best. Quite rightly so, too. A club’s history (and in Spurs’ case, the likes of Bill Nicholson, Danny Blanchflower, Steve Perryman, Glenn Hoddle and Ossie Ardiles) should be revered and given the respect it deserves. However, history, unfortunately, doesn’t impact on the here and now and doesn’t give you a god given right to finish higher up the table. 

So to the here and now, and the challenge for Tottenham at the moment is undoubtedly Luka Modric. The little magician wants out, expressing his desire to move to pastures new and play UEFA Champions League football. A right kick in the private parts. Daniel Levy is well rehearsed in this kind of scenario and his stance is admirable. Last night’s quotes to Sky Sports News suggested to me that Modric will take a hell of a lot of persuading to stay. Redknapp has cranked up the pressure by saying Spurs should expect to occupy midtable if we sell Modric. But how do you keep a player or who wants out?  A few high profile transfers would help but for how long? A sloppy start to the season would heap pressure on the team and realistically we could be drawn into a 11th hour transfer saga, or worse, keep a player who has no desire to play for the club. Battle lines are drawn and I’m in two minds. If we can keep him and convince him to play his football in a positive attitude at White Hart Lane for a year or so, then happy days, but very much easier said than done. However, the more realistic scenario is that he remains unhappy and even becomes a drain, saps energy out of team mates and produces soundbites which cause issues. Harry and Levy have their hands full, which hopefully won’t impact on our ability to do ourselves justice in the transfer market. It is clear that the club needs to strengthen (I’m not talking about a 41 year old Brad Friedel here) and at the top of the list is a centre forward who can score goals. 

A big year and a tougher task than ever awaits – an assault on 4th place seems harder than ever this season. United and Chelsea are miles away, City’s monopoly money is being thrown about, and Liverpool are already stronger than last year. Only our “friends” down the road seem in a weaker position and we’d still have to shift them and one of the above. On the plus side, we aren’t the laughing stock we were 5 to 15 years ago, when I once tuned into an England women’s international at half-time to see if we’d qualified for the Fair Play League and could finally go on a European tour. European football is now the staple diet of the White Hart Lane regular and for that, we should be more than grateful. 

As Bill Nicholson once said, “It’s magnificent to be in Europe, and this club – a club like Tottenham Hotspur – if we’re not in Europe…. we’re nothing. we’re nothing.” All aboard next season’s adventures.

David Gerty – Director of Football – Spurs fan – @GertBox