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The True State Of Tottenham's Squad...
In response to Paul Lees, please allow me to retort.
Rocha is gash. Ghaly is gash. Taraabt tricks himself more than he tricks the opponent, even if he is a kid. Gilberto is gash. Boateng is gash. And Darren Bent is the worst striker to ever don the Spurs jersey - you can throw Andy Booth ahead of him for crying out loud.
Granted on paper it's a strong team but for 45 minutes last night it didn't take a magician to see that Spurs are weak in the midfield. Lennon was awful, Bentley not much better but consider himself unlucky being taken off as being played on left. Modric, the supposed "weak" player was the strongest going forward and going back. Zokora had poor first half but improved in second.
I am in 100% agreement with Harry that we need 3 or 4 good players to come in. We need the left midfielder that we never got since Ginola left and we need the commanding central midfielder that we haven't had in absolute donkeys years. According to almost every newspaper, rag or tag, we are in dire need of a goalkeeper and and a centre-half as Dawson is gash and King has knees like Paul McGrath, leaving Woody as the only regular centre halve.
So there's your 3 or 4 players he's on about. Not that hard to figure out really, now was it?
Karl "We've got 1 Euro to the Pound (nearly) which means a cheaper ticket for Wembley", Dublin
...Dear Sir,
How can Paul Lees in Wednesday morning's mailbox say that Spurs have '27 very decent players'? The players he named are either rubbish or over-rated:
GK: Gomes: Rubbish/ Cesar: Who?
RB: Hutton: Over-rated and not very good/ Gunter: Over-rated and not very good.
LB: Assou-Ekotto: Who? Bale: Over-rated and not very good
CB: Corluka: Good player. Woodgate: Over-rated but decent. Dawson: Rubbish. King: Always injured so Rubbish. Rocha: Who?
CM: Zakora: Rubbish. Huddlestone: Rubbish. Modric: Not suited to Premier league so Rubbish. Jenas: Rubbish. Ghaly: Rubbish. Taarabt: Who?
LM: O'Hara: Rubbish. Gilberto: Rubbish. Boateng: Rubbish
RM: Bentley: Over-rated. Lennon: decent player
FW: Pavlychenko: decent player. Bent: Over-rated and Rubbish. Defoe: Good player. Dos Santos: Rubbish. Campbell: Rubbish
Just because they cost £180 million doesn't make them good.
Aidan, Dublin
...Paul,
Just a few little points from your list:
Assou-Ekotto - currently suspended
Huddlestone, Bent, Jenas, Hutton - Injured
King - we all know about his knee
Dos Santos - returning from injury
Defoe - Technically not a spurs player.
That is already 8 of your 27 ruled out from last night. (I am aware Giovanni was on the bench)
Now add in the fact that Gilberto has never had a decent game for Spurs and Rocha is very patchy. Ghaly is not on best of terms with the fans. Boateng and Taarabt are classic Spurs "prospects for the future" (IE we pay to much, never play them and then move them on)
And that only leaves 15 of your originally 27 as fully experienced, "acceptable to all" squad members. Obviously Defoe will make it 16, and some of the others should be returning soon and that if everyone is fit we have a good squad, but I have to agree with Harry that we need a lot more experience and fitness in our squad as he didn't have much to choose from last night.
Roy Henderson
The Second Paragraph Of This Mail Includes One Of The Best Lines In A Long Time
Given Paul Lees' rather desperate attempt to try and put down 'Arry in the most pathetic way possible i'd like to know where he got some of his figures from? Dos Santos £8 million?!? Did he broker these deals?
The mailbox should ban letters like his as he offers no interesting debate. My nan could write more insightful things on football, and shes got no arms.
One more thing which i can't let slip...Paul, even football fans in primary schools know that Spurs haven't actually bought Defoe for £15 million. Then again you might not be that old.
John (This probably won't get printed as my name isn't Robert Melia or Conor Byrne) London
Hypocritical Hypocrisy?
Having read the mailbox I thought I should make two points. The first is to ask why Spurs fans' abuse of Sol Campbell is hypocritical in the context of the Defoe sigining? The two cases are entirely different unless
1) Defoe was brought up through the Portsmouth youth system
2) He refused transfers to other clubs whilst his contract was running down
3) He let his contract run down to join Portsmouth's biggest rivals on a free transfer
One of your other contributors claims that Gilberto can play at left back. I think he has conclusively proved against PSV and Spartak Moscow that he can't.
Adam Jones
Junior Lewis And Peter Taylor Is Surely The Record
Watching Jermaine Defoe receiving a heros return at Spurs last night it got me thinking - he has now played for Harry Redknapp at 3 different clubs, West Ham, Portsmouth and now Spurs. Have there been any other players who have played for the same manager at 3 or more different clubs?
An interesting one for the afternoon.
Aaron Collins
The Berbatov And Tevez Solution
The Man Utd fans calling for Tevez instead of Berbatov are talking through their backsides but then they've probably only been supporting United for 5 minutes anyway.
Carlitos is a fine player and the club should try and keep him as long as they are not held to financial ransom by his minder, but there is room for both him AND Berbatov in the squad always assuming that the pair of them are prepared to rotate around the virtually immovable Wayne Rooney.
Berbatov is nothing like Tevez and that's why United need them both. Come to think of it, Tevez is not very much different to Rooney in that they both cover miles and give what has become known as "110%" every game (what a ridiculous expression!) Berbatov gives just as much effort but in a far more languid style. He is more of a "touch" player and it is that very contrast with United's other two main strikers which makes him so invaluable to Sir Fergie.
I hope United sign Tevez on a permanent basis but if it really must be a choice between affording the Argentinian and Berbatov then it's a no brainer, for those of us with a brain at least.
Russ Hawkins in Formby
It's A Good Question
Where the hell are Real Madrid getting all this money from?? In summer we were told that the quoted £70 million price tag for Ronaldo would be met by them taking a loan, due to them being in massive debt. We were led to believe that this loan was a desperate, last-chance measure to get the one player they wanted.
Now obviously the bid failed, but since then they have signed Van De Vaart (15 million), Huntelaar (20 Million), Diarra (20 Million) and are supposedly after Valencia (£15 million) and Tevez (£30 Million). Surely in the current climate no bank in their right mind would give a team already hundreds of millions in debt an extra £100 million loan simply to spend on players?? I know they had that *ahem* nice bit of business with the training ground and the Spanish government a few years back but surely even that money has run out by now.
Any Spanish football experts in the mailbox who can explain why Real seem to be perfectly capable of spending so much money every season despite being deep in debt?
Joe (Real are like the Empire from star Wars) Norris
And It's A Good Answer
The answer to Birdy's question is simple really. These men insist on going bare chested at freezing cold football matches because they are from Northern England.
Lord Fotherington-Smythe, Southern England
Let's See If We Have Any Biters...
Does anyone remember the transfer speculation surrounding Arshavin and Arsenal during the Euro's? I seem to recall needing wellies to wade through the bullshit spewed forth by all the Gooners falling over one another to tell us how amazing Arshavin was because they had seen him on YouTube.
However they all fell silent when Zenit said that £2.50 would not be enough to secure the transfer, and in fact Tottenham were now at the front of the queue.
Now of course he is again linked with Arsenal, and again he is an amazing player, and anyone who doesn't agree must not have a clue about football because anyone who Arsenal are interested in is obviously the bestest!
I also seem to read a lot of opinions about how brilliant Eduardo is, and to be fair and honest (Gooners look those words up) he has great potential. However proclaiming him to be such an unbelievable player when he has appeared in a grand total of 31 matches and scored a solid, but hardly earth shattering, 12 goals is a little bit premature, no? (incidentally 8 of those 12 goals have been in the 14 cup ties he's appeared in)
So, are Gooners the most one eyed, biased fans in the league? And if Eduardo returns and performs badly will they boo him?
Jelly (they're rhetorical questions; the answer to both is obviously yes!) Salford
A Ghost Story
Dear Sirs,
Just read this piece from a certain Robbie Savage in the Mail,can anyone tell me exactly when this haunting occurred?
"Fergie called me in and told me, it was horrendous. I remember it was nerve-racking," he explained.
"He told me, 'you're not going to make it here, but you will somewhere else and I think you'll come back to haunt me' and I proved him right."
Aido Mooney, MUFC
Conclusive Evidence Of Newcastle's Decline
I have to say, the decision of Newcastle Utd to reward Shola Ameobi a new contract until 2012 shows just how far backwards we've gone in the past year.
Towards the end of last season the club decided to let him go out on loan to Stoke City while they were still in the Championship as he wasn't deemed good enough for us at the time.
Stoke didn't rate him so decided not to sign him permanently and throughout the summer he was linked predominantly with moves to Ipswich and Norwich as the club tried desperately to flog him.
Now, after a brief injury crisis earlier in the season in which he came into the team and performed passably while scoring a few goals (complete slice against Man City, unmissable tap in against Fulham) he's suddenly worthy of a new 3 year deal!
How this club expects to move forward whilst rewarding players deemed not good enough for Championship clubs 6 months ago is truly beyond me.
Kris (2 days running? No chance) Garthwaite, Darlington
Not Quite As Great A Return As This Bloke Reckoned
Surely the biggest hit on a return to a club was Martin Keown. Left Arsenal as a lightwieght replacement centre back. Returned for what was in 1993 a huge fee yet was a regular for 12 more years. He even pushed Steve Bould out of the team who was an Arsenal legend at the time.
His greatest moment is probably not his best remembered. In 1994 cup winner cup final he played centre midfield with Ian Selley and marked a young Italian called Gianfranco Zola out of the game.
James Bowman
Off the top of my head, I'd put money on Keown actually being ineligible for that match and Arsenal's midfield being comprised of Selley, Morrow and Davis. Which is almost as remarkable - Mailbox Compiler
And Finally...
Incidentally, Jermaine Defoe is neither interested in Spurs nor Portsmouth.
His new love is acting, as was evident when he appeared before last night's Carling Cup semi still dressed in the clothes he'd worn auditioning for the part of an extra in Bugsy Malone. He has to start somewhere, for kerrist's sake.
Steve Smith
