More Than Half A Page Of Scribbled Lines

Around about a montgh ago, one of the fellow Spurs fans that I follow on Bluesky  Steve Shearman  reposted the post below with his own first choice for the challenge. It seemed that it might be fun to have a go myself and started that day. Where it all started. As you see, part of this was to make no comment or put them in any kind of order, literally its just a case of using a picture of the album cover to show your choice. I decided I would be as spontanious as possible and try not to think too much about it until the moment that I would make my daily post. That is a lot more difficult in practice than in theory as I tend to overthink even the most simple of decisions. I also thought that when I've finished the twenty days it would be quite theraputic for me to put down my reasons for making the choices I did.  This was how it panned out:- DAY ONE DARE - THE HUMAN LEAGUE (Released October 1981) This was a very easy place to start for me. The album that spawned the numbe...

It has suddenly occured to me today what Ange Postecoglu's biggest problem is, and its as plain as the nose on his face. Apart from the obvious one, that he's the manager of Tottenham Hotspur which brings its own internal problems when trying to create a winning team, its the fact that he's Australian and Australia as we all know is not a 'proper' football country. If only he were German, Italian, Spanish or Portugese. Second top scorers and joint third best defence (despite not having one) For me, then can be no other conclusion given the unbelievable reaction to our 4-3 win in last nights League Cup quarter final tie with Manchester United. Now you don't have to be a genius to know that the broadcaster (Sky TV) and the current sponsors (Carabao, whatever that is) would much rather have preferred United to get through, especially given the subsequent semi final 'draw' that paired Spurs with Liverpool. But for them to show such open annoyance at the end ...

Firstly I have to explain that I believe that Marcus Rashford is a very good footballer who plays in a position that is vital to the way Spurs currently set-up. He would be a very good addition to the squad if he was to rediscover the form thats been missing for the last year or so. This is not really up for debate but I'm more interested in the thought process that leads people to think that this transfer might actually happen. Rashford is a 27 year old England international who earns around £350k per week and is contracted at his club until 2028. Assuming that he's not prepared to take an enormous pay cut and would want a minimum four year deal, without even thinking about the potential transfer fee, his next club would be committing to approx £65-70m in wages. Lets say United were in a generous mood or the new boss really wants him out, you'd still be looking at a £40-50m transfer fee in addition to that. Its quite well known that Spurs have a somewhat 'restrictive...

Having been away I didn't get the chance to put my thoughts on last Thurdays match in Glasgow against Rangers down on paper but in summary it was pretty much what we've seen barring one or two exceptions for most of this season.  Star man again was Fraser Forster, who is making me meet eat so much humble pie recently I'm thinking about joining 'Weightwatchers'. Like Spurs, Rangers played exactly how I expected them to and could count themselves a little unlucky not to win the match. Although Ange called out the performance of Timo Werner after the game, he could have been talking about any of the front five or Bissouma all of whom were dreadful in the first half. Given the situation, the defenders did well and the team improved with the second half changes. Kulusevski scored a fine equaliser, so now we roll on to the last two matches in the league stage still with a half decent chance of avoiding the extra round by finishing in the top eight. Sometimes the footballi...

  Just over a year ago Chelsea brought Ange Postecoglu's unbeaten start as Spurs manager to a crashing end with a 4-1 victory at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The circumstances were slightly unusual in as much as we traditionally just lose to Chelsea without the players seeming that bothered about it but this time there were two players dismissed and long term injuries sustained during the game to key personnel. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly we finished the game with a 2-3-3 formation. This time around, one of those long termers from the previous game made a surprise return from yet another injury and one of those issued with a red in that match also returned from injury, both giving a boost to a depleted defence. Unfortunately, Romero lasted just 14 minutes before comically injuring himself. Conversely, Van der Ven who'd been rushed back due to the complete lack of foresight shown in last summers transfer window, managed to make it through to the 79th minute befor...

Desperately trying to avoid getting in any way highbrow here but back in 1972 (just to point out to new fans / ENIC supporters that Spurs won a European trophy that year) a poet called Stevie Smith wrote a very short little ditty called 'Not Waving But Drowning'. It tells the story of a man in the sea, the people on the beach think he's waving from the sea but he's not, he's actually struggling in the water, drowning in fact. I'm thinking that the current squad, or at least the part of it that's left on the pitch and not in the treatment prison  room at the training ground, find themselves metaphorically in a similar position. To someone who's not taking too much notice Spurs are in tenth but they're in the last eight of the league cup and doing OK in Europe. This is despite having half the team unavailable on a regular basis. Even though they've lost six league games, its always by the odd goal. When they win they tend to tonk the opposition, he...

Whilst walking the dog on Sunday morning I was thinking that just for a change, certainly in reference to this season, wouldn't it be nice to have a uneventful one nil victory with no injuries and not too many chances at either end. You know, the kind of game that we saw week in week out in the George Graham era and what we would have had if the tactical plans of Mourinho and Conte had ever come to fruition. Brennan puts us ahead.....again As it turned out, Spurs kind of played their part in an attempt to fulfil that wish by not really creating much over the 90 minutes. This is probably a good point in the story to mention not excuses but reasonable reasons why this may have been. Firstly, the annual injury crisis is beginning to have a serious effect on the team. Now this can be countered if you assemble your squad with this almost inevitable eventuality in mind. But that's not the ENIC way. Not when there's hotels to be built and pop concerts to be arranged. Not to mentio...