More Than Half A Page Of Scribbled Lines

Going to the RAMS stadium in Istanbul to face Galatasaray in a European competition is always a tricky ask of any side, let alone a Spurs side short of half a dozen players that could possibly have started the match. This however doesn't completely excuse the first half display which being kind could be described as disjointed. Some of the social media reaction at half-time would be a lot more cutting and direct. Ange was in a difficult position selection-wise for several reasons. Not least the mounting injury list, but also the close proximity of the next Premier League fixture against Ipswich. For once, the International break which follows immediately after is quite welcome with regard to this. He went with Forster in the nets, a back four with just one first choice Porro. Dragusin, Davies and Gray made up the quartet. Bissouma was the only remotely defensive midfield selection, sat in behind Burgvall and Maddison who both turned out to be equally ineffective. Captain Son and Jo

When in the ninety-sixth minute James Maddison bent a free kick around the Aston Villa wall into the net that left keeper Emi Martinez rooted to the middle of the goal to put Spurs 4-1 up yesterday manager Ange Postecoglu stood on the touchline and politely clapped. This applause was similar in its manner to the way that you might as a teacher clap as the Headmaster introduced a local councillor to open the School Fete. Maddison makes it 4-1 This was by no means a slight on Maddison, who he cuddled father-like at the end of the game. He'd actually applauded in the same way when Solanke had made it 2-1 with a sublime finish following some beautiful build up play starting with Ben Davies and going through Pape Sarr, Brennan Johnson and Dejan Kulusevski. It was more to me that a week after watching the side do basically exactly the opposite of what he'd asked them to do, this week his message had got across and they'd carried out his half-time instructions to the tee. Solanke

A surprising first goal scorer led to a surprising performance which in turn led to a surprising result. That would be my own personal summing up of last nights Carabao Cup match against Manchester City. Ange had brought Archie Gray into the side at right back, Dragusin into the back four with Van der Ven moving across to left back. Pape Sarr started in midfield alongside Bentancur and Kulusevski with the much maligned Timo Werner on the left side of attack with Solanke in the middle and Johnson on the right. City of course made changes, although not as many as some had predicted after Guardiola had previously said how low this competition sat on his list of priorities. Five minutes in, an excellent move starting right at the back with Dragusin and involving a deft flick by Johnson and a pinpoint cross from Kulusevski led to Timo Werner providing a fine finish to put Spurs ahead. Just read that line again to make sure I got that right.  Timo proves he can hit a cow's arse with a ba

I think it was Harold Wilson who famously said that "A week is a long time in politics." He supported Huddersfield Town and not Tottenham Hotspur but he could easily have been referencing seven days in the life of our club. It only seems five minutes ago that West Ham were despatched, followed by an efficient home victory in the Europa League against AZ. As is quite usual for Spurs though, it all came crashing down yesterday in South London. I don't think too many fans would have been disappointed with the starting line-up. In fact, in among the return of the Premier League regulars Ange selected Mickey Moore for his first league start in place of the chronically out of form Timo Werner.  Mateta, the only one in the ground shocked how bad Spurs were. We've recently seen the absolute classic Spurs performance at the Amex where they were terrific in the first half only to completely fall to pieces after half-time when Brighton upped the tempo. This week was different th

Part three of what will hopefully be a fifteen part series, this years Europa League adventure, came to a more than adequate completion last evening in N17. The result, a fairly rare one nil victory for Spurs over the Dutch side AZ Alkmaar leaves us alongside Italian team Lazio and Belgian side Anderlect as the only clubs in the revamped competition with a 100% record at this stage.  As usual, Ange took absolutely no notice of my opinion / worry / paranoia and made nine changes from the weekends victory against the Hammers with only Destiny Odogie and James Maddison (captain for the evening) retaining their place in the starting line-up. In a rather strange twisted juxtaposition the fourth minute provided both the best moment for the completely confidence adverse Timo Werner and worst moment for the full of confidence Player Of The Match, Mikey Moore. Werner put a beautiful cross right on the head of Moore who somehow managed to direct the ball wide from a yard out. Mikey Moore, treati

Previous to Troy Parrott, who joined AZ in the summer, the last two players to represent both clubs were Vincent Janssen and Mousa Dembele. Much as we we all loved dear old Vincent, I reckon that every Spurs fan will be hoping the current AZ line up are closer in ability to him than to Mousa, surely one of the best players to represent Spurs in the Premier League era. Any excuse for a picture of Mousa Troy cost his current employers around £7m from Spurs after his loan season at Excelsior Rotterdam where despite his sides relegation via the Dutch play-off system, Parrott managed a very credible nineteen goals last season. By all reports there was interest in him from Germany, Italy and Spain in the summer. The fact he chose to stay in the Eredivisie would suggest that he's comfortable and settled in the league.  At Spurs it would always be difficult to break through into the first team with not only Harry Kane playing in his position, but the constant changing of coaches most of wh