Too many Spurs fans are intolerant cretins.
I may well be accused of being detached to the point of autism, but I really cannot, for the life of me, get anywhere close to being as worked up over all this, as many of you are.
The lack of perspective and the frankly brutal application of hindsight in the last 24hrs has been withering.
I don’t believe that this team will hit a point whereby they will play coherent, or consistently entertaining football until at least February or perhaps even March.
I’ve said this a number of times, and sensed that it’s a response that actually makes people even angrier!
I’m almost hesitant to skip through the list of rational explanations as to why we are where we are, for the fear of being bored to death by having “you’re just making excuses!” screamed at me.
The impact of introducing 7 new first squad players was always going to be seismic. And highly unlikely to be seismic in an immediately positive way. Some would have you believe that given the price tags and the wages, that players really should just ‘click.’
In the movie Escape To Victory, this happened. But I have some very bad news. That was not a documentary. It was a actually movie. It was fictional. No matter how carefully you selected as many players as we brought in, the odds would be against it working quickly.
Modern football (as some of you are grimly evidencing) has no patience, no attention span, no forgiveness. In a balanced, fair and reasonable world, I don’t believe a sane person running a football club would go out and drop £100m in one window. It makes no sense whatsoever.
But it doesn’t work like that. Everybody wants a fast return. Get on with it. Chop chop.
And here’s a small newsflash. £100m isn’t very much money in 2013. Roman Abramovich has spent over £700m since he took over at Second Hand Fridge. Manchester City have spent over £900m.
On the lack of perspective thing, it might be worth to give staring at our own navels a break, and take a peek at what other fans are going through.
Manchester United fans have only just managed to move up to the lofty heights of 5th place. Their only real change was bringing in David Moyes, a name whispered more than once by Spurs fans as a Arry replacement.
I wonder if he had joined us, our fans would have been singing “Come On David Moyes, play like Bill Nick’s boys”? Yeah right.
Chelsea are a whole point ahead of us. Only a late dive saved them from being beaten at home by West Brom.
Manchester City were beaten by second from bottom of the league by the mighty Sunderland.
If it’s more or less guaranteed entertainment you are seeking, then I suggest tickets to a Bruce Willis film. Of course you’re allowed to boo and jeer at a football match. But what on earth is the point of going if you’re not enjoying it?! You need to ask yourself if your expectations are going to be delivered. Other live events, at a similar and at a lower cost are available.
The nastiest part though, is the fervor, the zeal with which much some of the intolerance is delivered.
This season, is going to seem like a very long one. If you’re that way inclined, I’d keep some venom put by for after Christmas, you don’t want to get caught short.
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So back to the game itself. As daft as it is to conveniently turn a blind eye to the influx of personnel business, it is equally laughable to ignore what was plain for all to see. Tim Krull made more saves in one game than any goalie since 2007, or something. Every news outlet on the planet is praising his amazing performance.
If you watch the highlights back, you’ll see we were denied. Nobody apart from belligerent Spurs fans is laughing at how woeful our attempts were, the guy was on fire. That was the story.
Before the game, Pardew made an interesting comment. He said that the kick off time suited his mob. He said that this was their training time. It wouldn’t be a problem. And boy was that ever the way of it.
Tactically it’s easy to say AVB got it wrong. If again, you want to pick and choose your evidence. Should Sandro have started over Mousa or Paulinho? The answer isn’t “yes.” rather it’s “yes, if you knew that either of the other two were about to make such naff contributions.”
What else didn’t AVB get right? Well, bringing on Defoe was an act of blind panic. Despite the goodwill towards Lamela from some, André felt he needed a game changer. He felt if someone, anyone good roll a ball into his feet, we could get back in the game.
It’s arguable of course that had the boss not had his hand forced to replace Vlad, then Erik might have been thrown into the mix as well, but we’ll never know.
Paulinho didn’t stink the place out but aside from one or two touches, he didn’t make a great deal of difference to much. Mousa had a bumbling first half. We’ve seen glimpses of this before, where the effortless gliding degenerates into what looks like a man trying to put his y fronts on whilst wearing roller skates.
Monica Flapinksi Brad is what happens when you play a line higher than a flat back four. It’s not unreasonable to believe that Hugo would have stood a better chance preventing the goal. If you watch the tape back, there’s a hesitancy there, there’s a slowness. Ah well.
On a positive note, Vlad was very close to excellent. 32 out of 34 passes until he was shot, point blank in the face; a pass completion rate of 94%. His stunningly well timed challenge – his second since joining us – was what we call in the trade “a bacon saver.”
Dawson was Dawson.
Bonzo‘s infuriating habits such as the anguishly slow thought process, and passes that rarely benefit the recipient seemed to have been successfully picked up by just about the entire team. So it would be plain vicious to single him out this time.
Jan was almost a mover and a shaker. He won tackles and saw quite a lot of the ball, but I’m unconvinced he actually achieved a hell of a lot with it.
Eriksen is a man doing a bad impression of himself. He’s like one of those tribute acts that have the outfits down to a tee, throw all the right shapes, but three chords in sound like some teenager squawking into a hairbrush in their bedroom. Should have scored. Didn’t.
Soldado could be forgiven for handing in a transfer request by Christmas. Where is Adebayor?
Siggy managed to turn another pretty dull performance. That sounds damning because it is. You minus the odd moments of individual brilliance from his performances so far this season and you’re pretty much left …well, with not much.
Townsend revealed himself today. I’m not scapegoating, but when push comes to shove his default settings are identical to Defoe’s. He’s more predictable than your father in-law ordering in a Chinese restaurant. Time to urgently re think this inverted winger thing and get his, make a yard, make a yard, blast it business under control once and for all.
Sandro single handedly brought us back into the game.
Defoe needs deporting. Stick him the Witless Witness Protection Program. Lose him. I don’t know what Magic 8 Ball André has been consulting, but this guy is a habitual waste of a shirt. It’s pretty obvious that the record breaking pest still counts for something in the boss’ eyes. Nobody appears to know what “THIS WEEK’S PROBLEM” with Adebayor is, but when we are crying out for creativity, it is soul destroying to bring on Defoe. Soul destroying.
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