Palacios to Madrid? It's an exclusive apparently, with The Sun running the story that Wilson would one day like to play for Real Madrid. And one day I'd like to return to the white island, Ibiza, and dance my arse off on the terrace at Space (although ideally would prefer to be part of the chemical casualty mess that is/was DC10). But that's not going to happen because DC10 has shut-down thanks to the corrupt police force and government. But that doesn't mean I won't return to Ibiza. I'm sure I will. Just wont be able to go exactly where I want because the choice won't be available to me. Much like Wilson probably won't join Madrid, but might end up at another club that plays CL consistently.

Look, let's be honest here. If he rediscovers the form he had prior to the death of his brother, someone bigger will attempt to pluck him from our grasp. It always happens. It's big fish eat little fish. On current form, and believe me he is imperative to our backbone, he's Premier League class, international class but not world class. Not to say Madrid don't sign their fair share of not-great players, but at the moment we can sleep peacefully about it. He won't  be moving on anytime soon.

He's ambitious. He obviously has much self-belief and it's a shame not all our players think the same way because then the collective eagerness to be better might pull the whole club forwards. And if we move forwards, enough to finish 4th, then Wilson wouldn't have to move.

The Sun have lifted the quotes from this interview here.

And in fact (thanks to a part translation from Cule-Spur), Wilson actually states the following:

"I'll keep working hard so that I'll soon have the possibility of playing for a bigger club."

Which is probably more worrying (if you're that way inclined) than the quote from the tabloid that reads as follows:

"I am really happy at Tottenham but I will continue working for a future move to a bigger club"

If anyone can translate the interview in full, please do. Other bits translated - from Cule-Spur - include Wilson talking about the anger he felt after his performance against Arsenal earlier in the season. He states he would love to play for Real Madrid (no shocker) and before you crucify the guy, he does say that he's never thought about playing for a bigger English club because he's very happy at Spurs.

Obviously, without question, if any player at the club no longer wants to be at the club, then show them the door. If the time comes, then take the pin and move it slowly towards the effigy. It does make me shake my head though how footballers don't stop to think how their comments might be perceived and latched onto and then possibly have their quotes distorted (not that they have in this case) and cause an ever so slight air of despondency. All quite unnecessary really.

Wilson - you play for Spurs. Talk up Spurs.

But regardless of all this non-eventfulness, sing up for The Panther and the team. Don't let the bed-bugs bite. This will be forgotten about tomorrow.

Will shed tears if we botch up the replay. One game away from Wembley, be it a semi-final. I bet tabloid hacks across the country are busy sacrificing virgins in the hope that we beat Fulham and set up a triffic contest with Portsmouth. Redknapp slap bang in the middle of one massive journalistic clusterfuck of a story.

Harry up against the club he left behind, the club he returned to pluck the likes of Defoe, Crouch, Niko and whatshisname, the French dude with no eyebrows. The club in administration, practically gutted to the bone. There's still plenty of meat to get your teeth stuck into, and with Fulham about to enter a titanic fixture list of games, I would personally be devastated if we somehow managed to allow them to win through the replay and see them face the south-coast club instead of us.

Yes, 4th spot is important. But ffs, this is the business end of the FA Cup. And it's been an age since we got our suits measured. Silverware. You can stick it on a trophy cabinet.

Having said that, Pompey in a cup final is drenched in ye old FA cup magic irony. So expect the footballing Gods to be wearing their colours, ringing out a cowbell in that traditional annoying manner that grates eternally. Considering their plight it almost feels like destiny. Or probably does from their fans perspective. No doubt if this (us v them) is the game that does take place, most will be rooting for the underdog.

I'd happily accept our role as party-poopers/villains in this.

COYS.

Fulham 0 Spurs 0

Not exactly your quintessential cup tie that. For all the talk about squad depletion and recalling of yoof players to make up the numbers, our starting line-up wasn't too shabby. Defoe on the bench, but the switch on the left-side (BAE slotting into left-back and Bale into left-midfield) was something I was keen to see and Modric in the middle is something that's always up for discussion - can it work? Crouch upfront with Pav and Niko on the right. Regardless of the kids on the bench keeping JD company, it's a line-up good enough to beat Fulham, or at least make the effort to do so.

So, how did this game end 0-0? Simply put, because it wasn't very good. There were moments for both sides. We dominated possession but Fulham had the shots on target. Palacios marshalled the midfield but Modric struggled to dictate or find the time to hurt the opposition. Perhaps this wasn't the perfect stage for him to play central, but then Harry was forced to do so thanks to our bare bone crisis. Had we another CM capable of fulfilling the role then perhaps Modric starting out on the left would have allowed him to roam, dink and cut inside in that wonderfully jinxing manner we love to watch. His passing was a little off-key too. Not the best of days. But perhaps not the best of pitches (although no excuse, he worked his magic up at Wigan a few weeks back).

First half was congested, untidy. No real FA Cup magic to behold, in fact no real evidence of this being an FA Cup tie full stop. Second half, better, but frustrating. For all the ball at our feet and defending when called upon to do so there was still moments when Zamora and company threatened. The threat thankfully always ended with a sigh of relief. Fulham not really causing us anything more than half a missed heart-beat. But you know how it is, we dominate, they break, they score and we rage. You could almost see it happening, compounded with what smelt like ominous irony (smells like sick) mainly because we lacked cutting edge up front. This game was made for the sucker-punch.

I guess with Fulham playing so deep and defensive, there wasn't enough about them to make us that nervous. Not really.

As for us; cutting edge, the lack of. How you haunt me week after week. I'm actually not going to knee-jerk and perhaps the more astute amongst you will reason why the Pav/Crouch combo failed to ignite today. IMO, it failed because it was just one of those games. I love the word 'fragmented' (to be copyrighted). And today it just felt like our forwards were snuffed out of it by the resolute tenacity of the Fulham defenders and the tactics of Hodgson. It was all a bit too fragmented.

I think Roy was quite clever. If this was a traditional cup tie and had Fulham gone out and attempted to give it some proper gallivanting play, we'd had beaten them. We have the better footballers. And they lacked the presence of a Murphy in the middle to make them truly tick creatively. So what Roy did (the git) was have his players work their socks off. And their more direct play pushing forward (not talking long ball but speed of attack) allowed them the opportunities to test us, so from their perspective they could contain us and counter. Good tactics.

The problem we had in countering this, is one open for debate. Pav didn't really have any goal-sniffing opps that he thrives off. No 'one second' to think moments. He disappeared in some of the build up play, sometimes struggling to bring the ball under control quickly. Could he have dug deeper? Can he dig deeper? Is it the right game to knee-jerk on his performance? No. Let this one be. Watch the difference in the replay. Although if a play fails to find another way into a game and a trend develops, we have a problem. Said player can only play effectively if the game suits him (Darren Bent anyone?)

Crouch was okay. Felt at times that we didn't really use him properly. Crossing was not great and there seemed to be the usual confusion with when exactly to aim for his head and when to play the ball forward to his feet. Towards the end (when JD came on for Pav) someone (sorry, forgot who) pumped the ball up to Defoe. I mean seriously, Crouch has gone off and we're still pumping it up forwards. This time to a midget. Giving him 60/40 against him to win it. Bit of common sense sometimes let's us down. I know this isn't exactly criminal, but sometimes a little bit more intelligence is required - especially in the final moments of a game.

edit: Crouch was in fact still on the pitch. Slight balls up there in my reporting. Soz. Evidently, one too many beers it would seem. I guess you might argue that even though he had not been subbed, he was invisible. Boom boom.

I'll add this - there were moments in the game when players made mistakes when a LEADER was blatantly required to shout at them. Sometimes it looks like discrepancies are accepted.

Perhaps its time for a new directive. Play the ball on the ground unless you're passing the ball up the field to someone's feet. There is a time and place to play the knock down via Crouch. But anyways, if we haven't worked it out yet, I can't see us working it out any time soon. It's what births the questions about how Crouch is more successful for England than he is for Spurs - and if its because Crouch is an out and out striker for England - then it means we've got the wrong player up front to aid the Spurs 'out and out' forward.

Moving on.

Bale was stupendous to watch. Powerful and silky. Our best creative outlet, but alas not enough on the day to craft out a chance. No fault of his. He had plenty of success but cut backs were limited. Gomes, confident in goal, helped as survive any potentially heart in mouth moments. In the end, tbh, I'm happy with the result. Neither side deserved to win it and had, let's say Fulham nicked it, I'd have been furious for what was such a lacklustre game to have allowed a winner to head towards Wembley for the semi-final. Mainly because I'd have looked at our players and questioned their belief and determination to force the issue and score. Losing games of this manner is far more frustrating then losing a ding dong cup tie.

Corluka almost scoring an own-goal and earlier in the game, BAE attempting to be smart in the box and losing the ball - two moments that had me screaming out WTF expletives. Crouchies header and Pav's attempted over-head kick not enough.

Far from over, mind. But Fulham have a mental fixture list in the next few weeks, so as long as we can recover some of our walking wounded and get through our games without any further damage - we should...should be able to get the right result at WHL (Wed 24th).

As important as 4th is, the FA Cup is something I'm desperate for us to win again. Been too long.

(translated into English)


Made toast. Dropped it. Butter side up. Made more toast. Dropped it. Butter side up. Made another round of toast. Dropped. Butter side up.

-

There is a trend developing here. Perhaps I should not butter my toast.

-

Cruz, my pet cat brushed my leg and I collapsed in agony. I cried.

-

At training. Penalty practice has began. No one has scored. Yet to take up my position.

-

Still training, jogging. Saw birds nest blow in wind, egg falling. About 20 feet away.

-

Run towards falling egg, impossible to reach, dived, one arm out-reached, caught egg with finger tips.

-

Gave egg to Spurs fan in tree with binoculars and asked him to return it to the nest.

-

Brushed up against some stinging nettle. The pain was intense. I collapsed in agony. And cried.

-

Left car keys in changing room. Daws throws them at me. I place my hands up to catch. I miss. Don't understand, my positioning was good.

-

Back home. Knock on door. Spurs fan with his wife. Fourth one this week I'm allowed to sleep with. The wife. Not him.

-

Alan Hansen on Match of the Day. I collapsed in agony. And cried.


England's super-sub, Tottenham's super-drab...

Crouch for England and Crouch for Tottenham appear to be two completely different entities. One is a goal scoring machine, confident, always in the right place at the right time and finding the target with simplicity thanks to his confident positioning. The other doesn't quite hit the same giddy heights (insert 'tall' joke here). But then that's no shocker.

Placed into a forward's forward position (that's really forward) and asked to run into the box looking for the ball will pretty much result with him (probably) finding the net. Much like he did last night, much like he does all the time for Engerland. Play him alongside a main striker (i.e. up front with Defoe) and it probably won't work out too good. In fact we know it doesn't quite work out good.

This might have a lot to do with the hoofing up to him some of our (Spurs) players are obsessed with doing, even though he is more than capable of playing with the ball at his feet, but a Robbie Keane link-up player (at his peak) he is not. Which is the reason why the tall giant figure of Crouch is lost in all the build-up play at Spurs.

So basically, what we have is a player far more comfortable knocking them in than setting them up. The Defoe/Crouch partnership does work at times (as seen at Pompey) but long term, Spurs need a far more mobile complete forward who can slot into playing alongside someone like JD or Pav or even Crouch. Spurts of it won't aid the free-flowing football we've seen when Pav starts alongside Defoe.

Until then, it's fragmented football up front for Spurs. But plenty of joy for England.

Discuss.

Remember the days when Lennon was accused of being all pace, no end product or composure and pretty much someone who was tagged as a one-trick pony with a limited shelf-life (thanks to defenders quickly working out how to stop him in his tracks)? He had that one single season, that one blip, where he struggled for ideas, lost his way a little. But his progression returned the following year and he continues to improve - in all areas. Not the finished article by a long shot, but a key first team player and one that is a sure fire inclusion for the World Cup, as long as he recovers from his injury. He can score, cross and has a more than decent first touch and is excellent at nicking the ball off opposition players, skipping around them and running off with the leather at his feet. Off the bench for England, he's the definitive impact player. They'll try to hack him down, cards all over the place from the ref.

Theo Walcott on the other hand has done little in the way of anything in the past few seasons. Once you place the hype aside and box it back up and then take the ridiculous decision to take him to the last WC and flush that down the toilet, he's basically a player with plenty of pace - but nothing else. He's a blindfolded Lennon.

Okay, so he's been plagued with injuries - but if this kid played for anyone else, he'd be nowhere near the England team. Even Arsenal fans have run out of patience.

He runs but shows no crafty clever movements and his touch is abysmal for a player much cited as some sort of Henry prototype (see what tabloid hype does and how detrimental it can be?)

Yet our esteemed English tabloids continue to perpetuate fantasy. As though they are attempting to force the issue that surely a young English player at Arsenal HAS to be good and good enough for England. Sven took him to the WC ffs!!!111

Re: tabloids, I'm referring to The Sun and Steven Howard. Which brings me onto today's 'Forum Post of the Day'. Even though its not even 11am (at time of writing), I read this nailed-on reaction to Howard's match report of England's 3-1 win last night which included two gems. One stating Carrick made no impact and the other rewarding Theo a healthy 7 out of 10 for his performance when 4 or 3 would have been far more justified. Considering what SWP did when he came on, the gulf between the two is massive, let alone when comparing TW to Lennon or even David Beckham. Or even David bleeding Bentley.

It would be great if this guy could perform to the level most people remember (the hat trick v Croatia) but that appears to have been one spike in a land of blips. This is a bit like waiting on Jenas to excel because he smashed up Arsenal that one time. It's not happening. It's not going to happen. It's The Happening directed by M. Night Shyamalan. A strange, horrible and unprecedented crisis begins at the Emirates and transcends across to Wembley. The mysterious neurotoxin causes any Sun reporters coming into contact with it to commit common sense suicide. This all started several years back when our young protagonist, playing for Southampton at the time, run down the wing and chipped it in. Have you not see the video of that chip? That goal when he chips it in? Haven't you seen the chip? He chips it. Sky Sports News played that one clip all the time at the time. Over and over and over again. It's the chip. The goal where he chips it over the keeper and into the goal. The kid had chipability. He chips the ball in against some team and scores.

I'm just bitter he rejected us and went to them because of the number 14 factor. Bitter until Gareth Bale pulled himself out of an almighty lull to regain the potential we always prayed he had.

Others are not quite infected by the tiresome hype.

Waddle nailed it on 5 Live: "I've been analysing Walcott's wing play and I've come to the conclusion he does not understand the game".

Fact.

So, thanks to Markysimmo04 over at GG.co.uk and his e-mail to Steven Howard which wins today's 'Forum Post of the Day':

My work colleagues and I were wondering if you actually watched the game last night or maybe was in the bar during the whole of it..
 
How on earth can you give Walcott a 7, apart from one run in the first minute he once again looked like a little boy lost on the pitch and somebody who is only in the squad because he plays for one of the sky / media top 4 cartel, 67 games in 5 seasons for the trophy-less Arsenal shows he isn't even good enough for the premier league let alone international football
 
Or maybe your an Arsenal fan or one of Monsieur Wenger's disciples who hang on every biased comment he makes as the comment about Carrick not making an impression, he had a very good 20 mins or so and made the team tick a lot more than with Lampard on
 
Anyhow your ratings have made for much merriment in our office this morning and we are looking forward to seeing more one eyed clueless reporting in the upcoming weeks and months leading to the world cup 

Well in Mark. I do appreciate a good letter.

Update on Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 1:42PM by spooky

Looks like Steven Howard has replied to Mark's e-mail. Have to say, if this is geninue, he has slightly (ever so slightly) gone up in my estimation. Single notch mind. Nothing more.

I'm afraid I didn't do the player ratings. These were done by my colleague Ian McGarry. Sadly, as they sometimes do, they missed outhis by-line. So, once again, I'm made to look a mug. I can do this quite easily on my own without anyone else's help!

Yrs Steve H

 

Excellent.

For more Tottenham 'motivational posters' click here to access The Gallery.

We never win the easy way. If the average Spurs fan doesn't lose a few months off their life expectancy after every game, then that's not the Tottenham way. I'm due to die the middle of next week.

I'm ecstatic we won. I'm ecstatic we held on to win. First half we were rampant going forward. Sexy football? Yes, but not of the love-making type. We're talking lights on and frantic rogering. We ruined Everton at times.

Pav scored his 5th in three games, Huddlestone releasing Defoe who shot towards goal (wasn't quite on target) but as the ball cut across, Roman was there to slam it home. Our second was majestic. Made in Croatia, the passing in the build up was patient and slick. The finish a corker, right-footed over Howard and onto the underside of the bar and in.

Easy street. Dominant. Modic an absolute delight, every box ticked. Pav in the side allows for that free-flowing football to creep out from the shadows of starting with Crouch and having us hoof rather than force players to move and create space as much as possible.

Easy street. You'd think. Right?

Er, well no. This is Tottenham remember. Clues to an uneasy second half was Gomes hovering his finger over the self-destruct button. Flapping and missing the ball on a couple of occasions and then trying to, well I don't know what he was trying to do when Everton scored. Not that I blame Gomes for the second half drop in tempo.

Huddlestone going off rocked us. Kaboul is not, I repeat NOT a central midfielder who can create in the manner that Tommy can. Not sure what type of midfielder he is. Well, he's not a midfielder, is he? But losing big Tom to an ankle injury is not reason enough for blame.

Blame that pesky Moyes and his half-time team talk. Must have spat some fiery words to inspire a supposed jet-lagged Everton side to rediscover some of that Mersyside stubbornness and pull themselves back into the game.

Aided by Gomes trying to reach around (ooh) to punch the ball and then what looked like the bundle of the ball (and keeper) leading to the first goal conceded in the last 10 hours of White Hart Lane football. Need to catch MotD2 to see how bad it was. But no matter, because people will long remember Landon Donovan's expertly placed effort the wrong side of the post when it was easier to tap it in for 2-2. The ripples of the side-netting have never looked so good.

Last 10 minutes were the usual textbook hearts in mouth experience copyrighted by THFC. With additional 6 minutes of injury time to further prolong the agony. Had an effort or two ourselves as the game died out and I guess some form of karma or balance or luck saw the game end with us taking all three precious points.

Hard way is the Spurs way.

Moddle and Bale were outstanding. Huddlestone's injury has yet to be confirmed with regards to the amount of games he'll possibly miss. Do we have any CM's left? Flux capacitor required, January transfer window the destination. Also hearing Bentley has a groin injury. And with Azza out, things will get harder and harder as the season edges towards its conclusion.

Still 4th. Still hanging on in there. Credit where it's due though. We ain't letting go.

COYS.

Sandro to Real Madrid? €15 million bid. Pre-contract signed. Internacional haven't (apparently) accepted the bid officially yet but legal documents have been drafted and placed into motion.

I'm not ITK.

I just have nothing much to post at 23:43pm and noticed someone left some gossip on the blog about this potential transfer which I've only just noticed. Would be quite funny (ironic) if the above happened, considering the alleged effort to sign the lad and our supposed 'relationship' with the Brazilian club.

Not all is lost. No doubt Zokora has a buy-back option in his contract if we fail to find another available defensive midfielder this coming summer window.

If anyone spots anything that either confirms or contradicts this (Sandro, not Zokora) then feel free to share.