I have been a Tottenham Hotspur fan for over 50 years and having watched their match against Manchester United, I am ready to dissolve my relationship with the Spurs. The pre-match comments didn’t really help my blood pressure. Spurs spiv, nee manager, Harry Redknapp was asked why Spurs have such a wretched record at Old Trafford. They have not won there since 2001, and his response was to say nobody does well there.
He also claimed that Spurs would be competing to finish fourth in the premiership which would be a great result for the club if achieved. Are you kidding me? He is telling fans not to expect anything better than 4th. It’s time to get rid of the barrow boy mentality that Redknapp has introduced to White Hart Lane, and the same goes for his cronies. What exactly are Clive Allen, Tim Sherwood, and Les Ferdinand doing to justify their positions on the pay roll?
Okay, Spurs lost away to Manchester United 0-3. Predictably (if you are a Spurs supporter,) they more or less held their own for the first half, but the writing was on the wall. In the second half it was only a matter of time before United scored which they did, and the only question remaining was how many goals would they score against hapless Tottenham who ran out of steam well before the finish?
Two of the goals were scored from headers by Wellbeck and Rooney who are not the tallest strikers in the league. They were completely unmarked by the central defenders Dawson and Kabul who proved they are not good enough to lace the much missed Ledley King’s boots. Playing two attacking full backs who couldn’t mark a one legged man with a walking stick was also disastrous.
Redknapp’s attacking formation had as much threat as the “Charge of the Light Brigade.” Using Defoe as the main striker doesn’t cut it. He is happier playing off the shoulder of a big striker. Bale had a few moments but Lennon’s final ball predictably was atrocious. Due to injuries, United played a young back four: Smalling, Evans, Jones and the experienced Evra in front of a jittery young goalkeeper David de Gea, but were never under pressure from a powder puff Spurs attack.
I knew Spurs’ fans were in for a long evening when they announced the line up. Modric, subject of much transfer speculation, was left out because “he was not in the right frame of mind to play.” Forgive me, but I don’t believe his replacement, Livermore, touched the ball during the game before being substituted by the pedestrian Huddlestone late into the second half.
Redknapp assured fans recently that there would be as many as 10 players moving in and out of the club before the 31st August transfer deadline. The 2011-12 season is under way and now he decides it’s time to make moves in the transfer market. Surely it makes sense to conduct transactions in early summer to afford a team time to gel before the season begins.
In an earlier post I addressed the weaknesses of this squad, and I felt a new goalkeeper was a priority. Redknapp apparently agreed with me and signed Brad Friedl on a free transfer from Aston Villa. Friedl is a solid performer at this level and earned the man of the match award against United, but he is 40 years of age for goodness sake!
Spurs usually have a plethora of midfielders to choose from, but Palacios and Sandro are injured while Jenas and Huddlestone are not fully fit as demonstrated by the latter’s indifferent late appearance to the game. Why are there so many players unfit or unready to play in what was Spurs’ opening game of a new premiership season?
Decisions have to be made with regard to the two best players in the squad: Modric and King. Clearly Modric wants to leave for richer pastures in West London and there is little point in retaining an unhappy player. King remains the club’s best defender but his chronic injuries cannot help the team in the long term. The squad is also carrying a lot of dead weight, but these are issues which needed to be addressed in the off-season.
Some protagonists would argue that even Manchester United was forced to sell their best player, Ronaldo, a couple of seasons ago, and as a consequence, now have a stronger squad. However, Spurs continually sell their best players: Berbatov, Carrick and eventually Gareth Bale only to be replaced by inferior players. By the end of the game Tottenham’s players were consigned to chasing shadows, and the final whistle was music to their ears.