more keepers than strikers at spurs these days
― pandemic, Tuesday, 28 August 2012 14:44 (eleven years ago) link
mean old avb is going to ruin friedel's consecutive appearances run.
― tubular, mondo, gnabry (Merdeyeux), Tuesday, 28 August 2012 15:12 (eleven years ago) link
Friedel's been great but you get the feeling his form could suddenly go at any moment and never come back, and Lloris has years in him.
Did Fulham start off basically playing Dembele upfront? This was possibly pre-Jol.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 28 August 2012 16:15 (eleven years ago) link
yeah he was more of a second striker attacking mid until January or so when he started playing in the central midfield
― mizzell, Tuesday, 28 August 2012 16:19 (eleven years ago) link
bit of talk about esteban granero now. could be good...
― r|t|c, Tuesday, 28 August 2012 16:27 (eleven years ago) link
what the fuck are you cunts going to do with dempsey
― Nilmar Honorato da Silva, Friday, 31 August 2012 22:43 (eleven years ago) link
this is just another bit of spousal abuse between alpha levy and beta boas
― Nilmar Honorato da Silva, Friday, 31 August 2012 22:44 (eleven years ago) link
He can play on the right of a 4231. Better scoring threat than Lennon.
― boxall, Friday, 31 August 2012 22:45 (eleven years ago) link
Midfield from sandro parker livermore bale lennon sigurdsson dempsey dembele huddlestone bentley jenas
― darraghback (darraghmac), Friday, 31 August 2012 22:47 (eleven years ago) link
tends to play off the left ie bale's position
not got the speed or game stretching capacity of lil aaron
― Nilmar Honorato da Silva, Friday, 31 August 2012 22:47 (eleven years ago) link
Demsey will be useful cf cover tbfh
xp Two true statements, neither really contradict my two though.
― boxall, Friday, 31 August 2012 22:48 (eleven years ago) link
i like dempsey but he just doesn't look like an avb player
― Nilmar Honorato da Silva, Friday, 31 August 2012 22:49 (eleven years ago) link
deems otm but even though he seems to be potentially a useful cover cf, has he ever actually played there
― Nilmar Honorato da Silva, Friday, 31 August 2012 22:51 (eleven years ago) link
Idk has he but ito getting onto aerial ball i'd have fewer concerns than adebayor tbh
― darraghback (darraghmac), Friday, 31 August 2012 22:56 (eleven years ago) link
long nightmare over: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1153053/spurs-midfielder-bentley-joins-rostov-on-loan?cc=5901
Rostov have Pletikosa as well, and Florent Sinama Pongolle.
― boxall, Thursday, 6 September 2012 20:50 (eleven years ago) link
Ha! Levy must have been hitting all the +007 numbers in his phone book.
― Temporarily Famous In The Czech Republic (ShariVari), Thursday, 6 September 2012 21:00 (eleven years ago) link
bond, kevin bond
― r|t|c, Thursday, 6 September 2012 21:22 (eleven years ago) link
Dempsey wouldn't get into our first XI (I dunno unless he displaces Sigurdsson) but I can see him playing virtually every game for us. Better to have one effective guy who can play in four different positions than sign two or three mediocre squad players.
Areas where he's especially necessary - cover/competition on the right. Lennon is usually injured for about a quarter of a season.
Wouldn't want him as CF on his own. But when Adebayor is injured, Demspey should allow Defoe to function better in the team because he can provide some more height, presence and link play further up the pitch.
― Matt DC, Friday, 7 September 2012 09:10 (eleven years ago) link
in a 4-3-3 i think dempsey offers more than lennon on the right, basically what jonathan wilson says here what he doesn't say and what i am interested in is whether defoe could be effective playing wide in that system.also i probably missed it on the pl thread cause i was away, but dembele's goal v norwich was class.
― mizzell, Friday, 7 September 2012 14:49 (eleven years ago) link
LIVERMORE FOR ENGLAND
― Number None, Monday, 10 September 2012 14:06 (eleven years ago) link
Perhaps the best insight into how Levy operates as the clock ticks down can be found in the recently released autobiography of former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan – although admittedly the stories within are probably to be taken with lashings of salt.
Back in 2004 Palace had just won promotion to the Premier League under the management of Iain Dowie and academy product Wayne Routledge had been one of the team’s stars on the right hand side of midfield. He’d caught the eye of Spurs and at lunchtime on deadline day Levy contacted Jordan with an offer for the player in the region of £1m. Jordan laughed that off but says he was then contacted at regular intervals for the rest of the afternoon by Levy and people acting on his behalf increasing the offer in increments so small they barely covered the cost of the fax paper they were sent on.
Eventually, at 11pm that night, the bidding had increased to £1.2m and Jordan lost his temper, saying the whole thing was going nowhere fast and in any case even if Spurs did make a serious offer for the player there was now only one hour to go until the deadline and it would be impossible to get Routledge to White Hart Lane, have a deal agreed and complete a medical in time. It was at this point that Levy admitted that Routledge – a contracted Palace player who hadn’t been given permission to speak to Spurs or had a bid accepted for his services – was sitting in a hotel round the corner from Tottenham’s ground with his agent Paul Stretford with everything in place ready to sign.
a heartwarming anecdote from the ever-brill loft for words' match preview which i recommend to anyone
― r|t|c, Friday, 21 September 2012 09:45 (eleven years ago) link
Couldn't care less about Routledge but any opportunity to punk Simon Jordan should be enthusiastically taken.
Reckon this happens quite a lot tbh. When Man United signed Berbatov, Fergie basically picked him up at the airport and handcuffed himself to him.
― Matt DC, Friday, 21 September 2012 09:47 (eleven years ago) link
yeah it's more the troll bidding than anything
250k for phil neville probably being the high point of the artform iirc
― r|t|c, Friday, 21 September 2012 09:52 (eleven years ago) link
like think about it with that routledge story, that is 12 whole hours to go up by 200k
― r|t|c, Friday, 21 September 2012 09:54 (eleven years ago) link
Nothing impresses me more about the Swansea project than apparently making Wayne Routledge resemble a competent Premiership-quality player.
― Matt DC, Friday, 21 September 2012 10:01 (eleven years ago) link
This was the same summer we got Aaron Lennon for £1m. Good times.
― Matt DC, Friday, 21 September 2012 10:02 (eleven years ago) link
routledge has always been a decent mid epl level player tbh, just an old fashioned winger that went out of fashion
― Randy Carol (darraghmac), Friday, 21 September 2012 10:33 (eleven years ago) link
Nah he never really established himself even at PL clubs who still played wingers. I think dropping back down to the Championship for a few years probably helped him.
― Matt DC, Friday, 21 September 2012 10:41 (eleven years ago) link
too old fashioned as wingers go but technique good enough to excel as nippy inside forward guy, perfect for swansea in other words
hard chap to love but really impressed for qpr in championship and would have done so again in the prem imo, ending up with swp instead was p much a tragedy in the end
― r|t|c, Friday, 21 September 2012 11:20 (eleven years ago) link
lennon's still only 25, fucking hell
― r|t|c, Friday, 21 September 2012 11:21 (eleven years ago) link
Bar that brief few months under Ramos he's been a fixture in the first team since he was 18. It's only injury that keeps him out.
― Matt DC, Friday, 21 September 2012 11:24 (eleven years ago) link
think it's fair to say a large part of my surprise there is down to feeling like he still hasnt matured as a player yet
― r|t|c, Friday, 21 September 2012 12:28 (eleven years ago) link
but then again i've been lennon-sceptic for years
i'm pretty excited about avb and the midfield, but lennon defoe bale won't be a very effective front 3. bale and lennon maninly looking to get down the line and defoe not being able to get on the end of crosses enough. everyone seems to hate it, but i think bale should play on the right so he can cut in and shoot, and maybe have dempsey on the left. or play adebayor.
― mizzell, Friday, 21 September 2012 14:25 (eleven years ago) link
villas boas is just trying to keep defoe interested and adebayor motivated
defoe is unlikely to start 10 more pl games unless ade is injured
― A.R.R.Y. Kane (nakhchivan), Friday, 21 September 2012 14:27 (eleven years ago) link
Please god not Bale on the right ever again. Just play Adebayor really. Or have Dempsey at the tip of a midfield triangle.
Suspect Defoe gets way more goals assisted by Lennon, who is better cutting in and passing than he is at crossing, than he does from Bale.
― Matt DC, Friday, 21 September 2012 14:31 (eleven years ago) link
i think nakh is right about defoe, but not sure. matt certainly right about lennon/bale assistsbale is a good finisher though, so i think he can improve on the right and score a lot more.
― mizzell, Friday, 21 September 2012 14:38 (eleven years ago) link
is adebayor injured?
― Chris, Friday, 21 September 2012 15:47 (eleven years ago) link
He was yesterday yeah.
― Matt DC, Friday, 21 September 2012 15:50 (eleven years ago) link
adebayor and naughton are doubts for sunday. might see vertonghen at left back.
― mizzell, Friday, 21 September 2012 15:56 (eleven years ago) link
without ferdinand, mbia, traore, and fabio hughes could be stupid enough to play clint hill and ryan nelsen together so it might not matter who you put out tbh
no johnson, taarabt, diakite either
:/
― r|t|c, Friday, 21 September 2012 16:31 (eleven years ago) link
knew we should have tried to sign some players this summer
― r|t|c, Friday, 21 September 2012 16:34 (eleven years ago) link
bale's a bigger goal threat on the left.
― Randy Carol (darraghmac), Friday, 21 September 2012 17:54 (eleven years ago) link
Hughes said: ‘Maybe Michael’s situation had happened too quickly for him to understand what his future is at Spurs. He would have been a good buy but it wasn’t to be."
― r|t|c, Friday, 21 September 2012 22:29 (eleven years ago) link
Hughes revealed he played a part in ensuring Fulham placed a £15m minimum release clause in Dembélé’s contract, with the Welshman confident the forward will thrill Spurs fans following the departures of Luka Modrić and Rafael van der Vaart.
“I was the one who stipulated to place a bigger figure on him. I made sure it was at a decent figure,” he added.
milan badelj getting rave reviews since his move to hamburg. considering he was zagreb's replacement for modric, i hope spurs were at least aware of him.
― mizzell, Saturday, 20 October 2012 23:09 (eleven years ago) link
watching hamburg, they're being completely outplayed but badelj hasn't done anything except rattle the crossbar with a 30 yard thunderbolt. think spurs should sign stuttgart's martin harnik, though.
― mizzell, Sunday, 21 October 2012 16:19 (eleven years ago) link
ryan smith looking v useful for eng u21s
― ben foster five (darraghmac), Wednesday, 6 February 2013 01:22 (eleven years ago) link
yeah but so did jordan henderson
― mizzell, Wednesday, 6 February 2013 14:56 (eleven years ago) link