Levy’s Catastrophic Blind Spot

Some of the opinions in the comments section haven’t aged so well though, sadly. I particularly enjoyed the insightful ‘Cavani is no better than what we have!’

Best ever points tally this season? Great. Pity AVB wasn’t given the tools to finish the job.

Let us see who we can attract now with the awe inspiring prospect of another Europa League run. In January I was told that it was ‘easy for me to spend someone else’s money’. Well, I would disagree. If that were the case myself and many enlightened others would have done just that in January and now be handing back to ENIC a lucrative Champions League run in return.

If I read one comment about being ‘proud in defeat’ from one of the sad minority who are relieved they haven’t had to leave their comfort zone of mediocrity, I’ll burst a blood vessel somewhere in my face. Therefore, no comments.

Happy Groundhog Day.

Twitter – RobertReedUK

Personally, I am of an unshakeable belief that we have a much better manager than we did last season. Whether our results will bear that out remains to be seen, but is our first eleven also an improvement on that of last year?

Here I rate and compare last season’s players with their replacements, and also where applicable compare the contrasting form of the same player. It’s only my opinion, so feel free to air your views in the comments section.

Goalkeeper

Friedel/Lloris

Friedel was great for us last season but let’s face it, after ’sack the juggler’ Gomes anything would be an improvement. It was never any secret though that, now at 41, Brad was a short term option. All credit to Levy & Co therefore for securing the services of one of the world’s top goalkeepers in Hugo Lloris. Some were slightly critical of us investing in a top goalkeeper this early when we still had Friedel in the ranks, but as was evidenced against Swansea being able to swap quality with quality can never be a bad thing.

Hugo may have had a bit of a shock when he didn’t walk straight into the team upon his arrival, but the fact is Friedel was playing well and deserved some respect. It would of course only be a matter of time though until Lloris was our number one and now that time has come he has not disappointed. He is the ideal goalkeeper to compliment the present team, with his ability to come running off his line to (usually) deal with a ball over the top of the advanced defence having observers compare him to a sweeper. His play is reminiscent of Peter Schmeichel in that way and may explain the big Dane’s voicing his admiration on Twitter of the qualities of our goalkeeper.

There has been the odd error, but this is his first season and I expect him to be even better next year.

Ratings (last season/this season)

Friedel – 7 / Lloris – 8

Full Back

Walker/Walker

What a difference a year can make. England’s future right back and Young Player Of The Season last year, lacklustre and potentially replaceable in the Spurs team this year. ‘That difficult second album’ is the curse of flash in the pan recording artists; this is definitely a difficult second season for Walker.

Last year young Kyle had a little trouble coupling defensive stability with his attacking play, but that is something which can be taught. This season however his defensive proficiency appears to have gone backwards, and he has also let us down on the attack on too many occasions with his crosssing.

I have a feeling the lad will come through this season’s poor form and improve next term, he should be given that chance at least due to last season’s promise. Another outing like this however could see him in danger of losing his first team spot.

Walker – 8 / Walker – 5.5

Ekotto/Ekotto

Controversial; Mr Ekotto. Say he is rubbish in the pub and people will shout in your face. Say he is brilliant and different people will do the same. I can seldom remember a player who has so polarised opinion among Spurs fans. The fact is though he is neither unfit for the Premier League (which I have heard said) nor is he the best left back in the league (which I’ve also heard said).

In my opinion Ekotto is a decent player but one who has games where he makes crucial mistakes, often leading to a game changing goal for the opposition.

He is proficient at going forward and forged a good partnership with Bale down the left last season, but with Bale’s move to a more central position that plus point to his game has been reduced. I definitely think we can do better than the 29 year old Ekotto at this time, and AVB appears to be of the same mind.

Ekotto – 7 / Ekotto – 5.5

Centre Back

Kaboul/Dawson

As a club we have something of an embarrassment of riches at centre back I feel, and see no need for recruitment in that area at present.

Kaboul was immense last season and one of the best in the league. He has all the physical attributes you look for in a top centre back and with decent distribution coupled with his storming runs from defence he would surely have been first choice this season if fit.

I must confess that I thought AVB’s willingness to let Michael Dawson leave at the start of the season was the right idea. The manager has admitted that was a mistake, so I’d look pretty silly not doing the same. I honestly thought Boas’ high defensive line would be anathema to Dawson and his traditional English type of game; as it had been for Terry at Chelsea. Strong, good in the air, leader of men etc are fine qualities but mobility was never an attribute I would credit Dawson with and I could see his inability to deal with pace from high upfield as an issue.

What can I say? Unlike Terry, Dawson has adapted his game well and that is probably more down to his attitude than anything. Apart from his unnecessary penchant for wasteful long balls, he has had a good season.

Kaboul – 8 / Dawson 7.5

King/Vertonghen

OK, this is a hard one. King is my favourite ever Spurs player and a club legend who will always be remembered as such. That is why this will pain me a little.

Last season King made the difference in defence as he always did, raising the game of everyone in the back line. Sadly though it was his last season for Spurs and, while not a ’shadow of his former self’, he was not the player we know would have been first choice for England for the previous decade had injury permitted. He was restricted to fifteen league games, but oozed class in every one. At least that’s how I remember it.

Vertonghen? Signing of the season. Honestly, did any one of you know he was this good? He is a rock at centre back, he can pass like a dream and he scores goals. He started brightly, tailed off a bit and is now in outstanding form. He’s a class player and if this is what he is like in his first season I can’t wait for the next.

King – 7.5 / Vertonghen – 8.5

Midfield

Lennon/Lennon

There has been a tendency to underestimate Aaron’s importance to the team and, although I think AVB’s handling of the situation didn’t help, Lennon’s absence in recent games has shown how important he is to our style of play. He may not be our best player but he was a vital component last year and is continuing to be this year. Overall his form this season has been better than the last.

Lennon – 7 / Lennon 7.5

Parker/Sandro

Scott Parker last season was the type of player we had been missing for years at Spurs; a decent midfield tackler to break up play. With his arrival the soft underbelly of our midfield was gone and he was the platform for the attacking play we exhibited.

This year we have had Sandro. Again, the type of selfless defensive midfielder vital to any team but it soon became clear this season that Sandro was a class above Parker. In terms of discipline, passing, awareness and general ability the Brazilian was proving to be one of the best in Europe in the holding midfielder role. Parker has filled in for him since his injury but that has only served to emphasise the gap in class between the two players.

Parker – 7.5 / Sandro – 8.5

Modric/Dembele

In the light of his nightmare season in Spain, some Spurs fans would have you believe that they always knew Modric was crap and not worth anything like the fee we sold him for. Although upon reflection £33m was steep, the fact is we’d have all rather kept the player if we could. Modric was the catalyst of the majority of the attacking moves during his time at Spurs an he was brilliant for us last season. He didn’t score enough goals and, although able to handle the rigours of the Premiership, wasn’t much of a danger in the tackle but he remained one of our most important players.

Dembele has been something of a revelation to me this season. I knew he was a creative player and a dribbler who could ghost past people but I didn’t realise how strong he was. Opposition players bounce off him and he is an accomplished tackler also. He can pass, score, get forward effectively or stay back and defend equally well. Due to his having a lot more to his game I believe he has proven a worthy replacement for Modric, leaving our midfield not quite as creative but definitely more solid.

Modric – 8/ Dembele – 8

Van der Vaart/Sigurdsson

Rafa was another player who divided opinion, but not even his detractors would deny he was class. the Dutchman had a reputation which made opposition defences nervous before a ball was kicked, and he was certainly good box office. He scored goals and could unlock defences, but had little discipline regarding team formation and was a liability if played anywhere other than in the hole. It was pretty much necessary to build the team around him in that position, but it could be argued that he was good enough to make that worthwhile.

Sigurdsson didn’t impress anyone before Christmas, and many questioned the wisdom of turning down £10m from Reading for him in January. In recent games however, and with a run in the team, he has started to show his worth and looks like he could become a useful player for us.

Van der Vaart – 8 / Sigurdsson – 7

Bale/Bale

‘A unique and frightening player’ is how none other than Zinedine Zidane has described Bale recently. Gareth has everything to his game except maybe notable agility; you won’t see him scoring any overhead kicks, but apart from that there appears to be no real weakness in his skill set. He was great last season, but the rate of his improvement since then can be measured by saying that if he were to improve by the same amount next season, he’d be pretty much the best player in the world.

Bale – 8 / Bale – 9.5

Centre Forward

Adebayor/Defoe

Emmanuel Adebayor’s traditional honeymoon period last season saw a great effort from the player. He was the powerful attacking focus of the team and made everything tick in that respect, holding the ball up and bringing others into the game. He scored seventeen league goals and was a major loss when unavailable; we weren’t the same team.

Jermain Defoe this season has been Jermain Defoe; you know exactly what that means. He has had a period of the season where he has been a free scoring menace to opposition defences, as well as a long goalless period where his selfishness and inadequate team play has been detrimental to the team’s attack.

Adebayor – 8 / Defoe – 6.5

Having added up the totals, the result is 84 for last season’s team and 82 for this season.

On the whole I feel we’ve not adequately replaced the class we lost in the summer, but that’s not the whole story. Sigurdsson nor Dempsey are a match for VDV, but the collapse in form of our full backs and strikers has been alarming.

That said, I actually believe we are a more effective unit this year; even with a slightly inferior squad. I did say we had a better manager!

COYS!

You can follow me on Twitter @RobertReedUK

Assuming however that all our top players don’t in fact end up leaving; who should we be targeting to take this squad on to bigger and better things?

There are a lot of factors to take into consideration of course, the most obvious being whether we qualify for the Champions League or not. I believe we will, but for the purpose of this article I am going to assume that we will. Indulge me.

Champions League is of course not the only factor in our deciding what areas need strengthening, and with whom. Another factor which could come into play is what formation AVB decides to play next season.

While sweeping all before them Porto played a fluid 4-3-3 formation which the manager obviously felt suited his favoured tactic of playing a high defensive line. Combined with a midfield which is ready to convert from three to five at a moment’s notice this strikes me as a good way of keeping, or rapidly regaining, possession. I got the impression when he came to the club that AVB wanted to play with this formation rather than the variant of 4-5-1 we’ve been employing, but didn’t feel he had the right personnel.

If that is the formation we play, then one other real quality central midfielder is a must. Sandro and Dembele are shoe-ins, so a cultured passer would be preferred. Modric would have been ideal if the silly little sod hadn’t been so eager to screw his life up but definitely someone of that ilk who combines passing skills with good vision and an astute reading of the game.

With Dembele and Sandro being so proficient defensively, it wouldn’t hurt if the player was also adept at getting forward and joining in with the attack when needed. Moutinho would be a good fit but £20m+ is more than we want to be paying for that position.

Personally I would like to see young Christan Eriksen sign for the club. Due to his contract situation at Ajax and current wages he would be a very tempting low budget option which might appeal to Daniel Levy. We also have his friend Vertonghen already on board to work in our favour.

Lennon’s injury has highlighted the lack of cover on the wings, but a 4-3-3 formation would lessen that problem. One would think that Lennon and Bale would be first choice, with a licence to cut inside and swap positions.

Bale would not be nearly as restricted as he is playing down the wing and would be able to get in and around the box, causing mayhem as he has been, but also enabling him to perform some of the runs and devastating crosses which are seldom seen from his new position.

Holtby would be adequate cover for either Bale, Lennon or one of those from the midfield three; as would Sigurdsson or Dempsey. More so than now with the conventional winger’s role they are expected to perform. Therefore I think we do not need extra strengthening in those areas.

Just as well, because we need plenty of cash for the centre forward positions which are a mess.

Jermain Defoe, who can hopefully put his drought behind him after his two goals for England, will doubtless once again avoid the chop. He is a good impact sub, and as such a handy squad member. Adebayor though has got to go, surely. Easier said than done, but I certainly hope someone is stupid or idealistic enough to take him off our hands. With a lone centre forward role, three main strikers in the squad should suffice.

I am looking forward to young Coulibaly coming of age as I think he could be a major asset one day, but that won’t be next season. Therefore we must sign two strikers I feel.

I am surprised to be hearing of Chelsea’s apparent lack of interest in their player Romelu Lukaku. I was very much hoping we could sign him when he came to England but, having missed out then, I think we should be very eager to take him off of Abramovich’s hands now.

For me Lukaku is exactly the kind of player we need at Spurs. He is young enough not to expect to play every game, yet is already an experienced Premiership performer following his impressive season at West Brom. He is big and physically imposing, great in the air and scores goals. Also he is deceptively fast for his size and can make barnstorming runs from deep when the team is on the break; that more than anything suggests to me that he would be a good fit at White Hart Lane.

Chelsea paid around £10m for him so would want that back, but given our recent history I’d expect them to ask for an extra two or three million from us. Still a bargain for a player who will mature into an excellent striker in my opinion, and if possible I think we should try and take full advantage of Chelsea’s foolhardy impatience and desire to always buy the finished article.

It is hardly a novel idea though to suggest that what Spurs need is a world class centre forward, and Lukaku is not that yet. Gonzalo Higuain however, is. Previously I would have thought the idea of signing a player such as the Argentine very fanciful, but this rumour does seem to have something about it.

It has been widely reported that The striker’s pregnant girlfriend has just started a job at the BBC, and so Gonzalo understandably would like to join her in London. Realistically then, as Chelsea are going to be paying silly money for someone like Cavani or Falcao, Arsenal or Spurs would be his most likely destination.

If ever there is a time to prove that this ‘partnership’ with Real Madrid is anything other than hot air, this is it. The rumours are that Higuain could be available for around £22m, and that his wages won’t be astronomical either (although you’d expect him to be one of the clubs top earners), so the suggestion that Spurs could sign the player is not quite as crackers as it would usually sound.

I am happy, once Kaboul returns from injury, with our centre back situation. No tinkering needed there. Ditto with our goalkeeper (although a reserve will probably need to be signed if Friedel retires). Full backs on the other hand I am not too happy about.

With a 4-3-3 formation you obviously need fullbacks who like to get forward to give some width. Benny and Walker do that, but both are suspect defensively. I would love to see us go for Baines, but being 28 and expensive that would be a definite no no for Levy so I suspect we will go into next season with the same two players. I wouldn’t be amazed if one or both made way; with Walker arguably the most at risk, but I think it doubtful.

So, for me, those three players could make all the difference. Eriksen, Lukaku and Higuain would probably set us back around £45m. Levy isn’t likely to fish that out of his piggy bank, but with players like Huddlestone and possibly the likes of Livermore and Townsend moving on it would be more a matter of him making up the difference.

Will we sign all or any of those players? Will we change formation? Who knows. These type of predictions are notoriously difficult to get right, but it’s the sort of thing we chatter about for hours in the pub. If you disagree entirely, it would be great to hear your opinions. Let’s hear who we should sell, who we should buy, and how you think AVB will set the team out next season.

COYS!

You can follow me on Twitter @RobertReedUK

Personalised Shirt, Les?

I was contemplating our current plight when a startling thought occurred to me. Les Ferdinand; what the hell do we pay him for?

In theory ‘Sir Les’ has been coaching the strikers at White Hart Lane since 2008. In that time we have had the most sorry bunch of goal shy wasters I can remember at the club. The cow’s arse has been a complete stranger to the banjo.

They have played as badly as that guy who signed for us in the nineties…who was it now…scored a total of 39 goals in 149 games…what was his name…oh yeah, Les Ferdinand.

Some strikers arrived with a great reputation, none left with it. Darren Bent, Peter Crouch, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Jermain Defoe and Emmanuel Adebayor have all been at the club during his tenure; benefiting from the molten bronze droplets of soccer wisdom he has been bestowing upon them. In that time not a single player has scored twenty goals in a season.

Some people are saying we would be better off without AVB today, I am certainly not one of them. Ferdinand though! How has he lasted this long?

COYS!

Follow me on Twitter @RobertReedUK

I will admit that I didn’t expect to be in this situation. Chelsea have effortlessly sailed passed us with a cheery wave and now sit one point ahead with a game in hand. Meanwhile Arsenal, doubtless at the start of their usual strong finish, sit four points behind us; also with a game in hand.

A week is a long time in football. Last Sunday morning we were comfortably third, we had just destroyed Inter Milan and were looking forward to a game against Liverpool which could cement us in the Champions League places. What happened?

Well, in my humble opinion AVB’s inexperience is responsible. I am not turning on the manager I have supported from the moment he walked through the door, and would swap him for no one, but nevertheless I believe he has made some serious errors in the last week or so which have cost us. Fatigue is certainly taking it’s toll on the squad also, but these decisions have not helped.

Substitutions

With the game won against Inter Milan and a big game against Liverpool on the horizon, AVB asked Lennon and Bale if they wanted to come off. Why? What manager does that? The commentators were all remarking how extraordinary it was. Surely he should have hooked one or both of them and saved them for the weekend if he thought it was the right thing to do. Players are like big kids, they want to play every minute especially if the team is winning so he should have known their viewpoint. As it was he left them both in play and Lennon picked up what has become a very costly injury.

Selections Against Liverpool

How AVB decided to deal with Lennon’s omission was rather bizarre. Instead of seamlessly replacing Lennon with Holtby, Sigurdsson or Walker, he decided to place our best creative central midfielder on the right wing. That is a massive no no surely; if an area of the team is weakened by injury you do not take from another part of it to do a patch up job, thus weakening two areas. This resulted in an unbalanced team with Dembele cutting inside all the time because he can’t cross for toffee. To make matters worse he didn’t opt for the passing influence of Tom Huddlestone or the creative spark of Tom Carroll in the centre, but the very Scott Parker like Livermore to play alongside…Scott Parker. In recent seasons all our attacking threat has come from pace down the wings and a creative influence from deep midfield, now completely nullified by this formation. Against Liverpool we dominated possession but had no cutting edge anywhere to play that killer ball. Two goals from set pieces said it all.

Selections In Europe

In the return leg against Inter Milan I fully expected a different midfield from the Liverpool game, but it was not. Dembele remained on the right but now, defending a lead away from home, we suddenly had two up front. It is bad enough that we have to play one of our lousy strikers let alone two. Instead of flooding the midfield, attempting to close the game down and playing for a draw or a bearable loss we went all out to score an away goal and ended up being completely overrun. As a result we ended up playing extra time and thoroughly knackering everyone again before the weekend’s game, even having to bring on Lennon for a game he should have sat out.

Selections Against Fulham

When I saw who was in the team to play Fulham I was confused; we seemed to have too many defenders. One of them wasn’t even Walker who could play wide right in Lennon’s absence, so all I could fathom was that as we had lost our right midfielder we were now playing Ekotto on the left wing. We have probably the best left winger in the world in the team and a full back was playing in that position, because our right winger was injured. Crazy. Vertonghen, who has been absolutely outstanding at centre back in recent games, was shuffled out to left fullback and Sigurdsson played right wing; showing that he could have been playing there the whole time.

It is true that Bale has been phenomenal in that number ten role but against Fulham, rather than moving Ekotto and Vertonghen (again weakening one part of the team to patch up another) we should have played him on the wing leaving our defence untouched. Bale didn’t play against Inter, meaning his energy and those long runs from deep could have killed Fulham. Dempsey could have played as second striker, fired up to score against his old club.

Holtby

What the hell is going on with Lewis Holtby? All that fuss about signing him in January rather than the summer and then AVB won’t play him, disfiguring the team rather than doing so. He is fit and can play anywhere across the midfield so what is the problem? He won’t hit any kind of form unless he plays. Sigurdsson was in terrible form until he got a few games and now he is doing well. I agree that the initial ‘new Van der Vaart’ comparisons were fanciful, but doesn’t AVB rate him at all? I don’t understand the Holtby situation.

It is true that AVB hasn’t exactly been given the tools to do the job, but I am keeping my powder dry for the end of the season to lay into Levy if we fail to get in the top four. Since my despair at the failure to sign a striker in January, even on loan, neither of our forwards has scored a goal in the league. I even heard a statistic during the Inter game that since either of our strikers had scored the rest of the team had scored twenty something goals between them. It has been a great achievement from our manager to get regular good results with strikers who don’t score goals.

Like I said though, I’ll hold fire on all that as the last three games have been disastrous as a direct result of AVB’s decisions, and I bow to nobody who is going to get hysterical and call me a fickle fan. I have praised AVB to the heavens when he has got it right and I reserve the right to criticise him when he gets it wrong. There are plenty of tub thumping ‘we’re gonna win win win if we all pull together’ blogs out there and very good some of them are too, but whether I’m proven right or wrong I like to call it how I see it.

I am still convinced that we have a manager who exhibits limitless potential, but he is making mistakes at the worst possible time. Fortunately, one of AVB’s greatest strengths is his ability to learn quickly from his mistakes and improve as a manager. So is it time yet to hit the panic button? I think not. We are fourth, and with Chelsea to play could still take third. We haven’t suddenly become a bad team; this is a stumble, not a collapse.

COYS!

You can follow me on Twitter @RobertReedUK

It is hard to lose after a long unbeaten run, you start to kid yourself that it will last forever. When that run does come to an end it makes it more painful if you are the architects of your own downfall, as we were today. An error and a penalty is a horrible way to lose a match, but that is not to take away from Liverpool who played well, and Suarez who was a handful from start to finish.

The worrying aspect for me was before the match had even kicked off. Lennon gets an injury, and the whole midfield goes to pot.

Dembele, who has been terrific in the central midfield role is suddenly a right winger. Livermore and Parker are the new creation free midfield pairing and all because one player had an injury. We did control much of the game, but scoring from two set pieces wasn’t enough and we didn’t turn the lion’s share of possession into enough scoring chances.

It seems obvious that, although we have a very good squad, it is threadbare in some areas and if we are to compete in Europe and be serious about the league that needs to be addressed.

We already knew we had a striker shortage (personally I’d like to see, after Adebayor I hope is inevitably shipped out, Defoe as third choice behind two new strikers), but clearly we need quality cover for the right wing and central midfield as well.

I would also suggest that if AVB in his undoubted wisdom thinks it prudent to substitute a player during a Europa League game which is already won, he should just do it rather than ask what the player thinks. With Lennon wide right and Dembele in the middle I fancy us to have won today, even with the errors.

Still, nil desperandum. Onwards and upwards, etc.

COYS!

You can follow me on Twitter @RobertReedUK

Has anyone else noticed how very catty some people are becoming about a certain Spurs player?

Whether Suarez or Van Persie or whomever is the better player, at the moment the footballer’s name on everyone’s lips all over Europe is Gareth Bale, and rightly so. Eleven goals in ten league games is the second best recent scoring form in Europe. Only Messi can better that, so as Spurs fans are loving it, obviously.

Others are clearly finding it hard to take. There is a very snide an malicious tone from certain media sources and certainly some opposition fans which is uniquely aimed at Bale and Spurs. Liverpool are not receiving it about Suarez, United are not receiving it about Van Persie, Arsenal are not receiving it about….well, I digress.

There are three main prongs of attack.

The One Man Team

We are all heartily sick of this one right? People actually sit down and work out how many points difference there would be if Bale’s contributions were not counted and then deduce where Spurs would be in the league. Like we would have ten men and just pass the ball out of play if he wasn’t there. No Bale this season? We’d have had someone like Gylfi or Holtby as our number ten and they would be in much better form having had those extra games; Gylfi is already starting to bloom in the team now he is getting a run out. In attack we’d have no problems but we also have possibly the best goalkeeper in the league and one of the best centre backs in Vertonghen, who sits in the middle of a very un-Spurs like and impressive defensive unit.

We have a top class first team who are smart enough to know that if the most in form player in the world is running at goal, you bloody well pass to him. Would we be doing as well without Bale? I doubt it, but what team wouldn’t be weakened by the loss of it’s best player?

The Statistics

I am getting so bored of people throwing out these highly questionable statistics to suggest that Bale is overrated. As a wise man once said there are lies, there are damned lies, and then there are statistics. Do you know how often two political parties will use the exact same statistics, interpreted how they wish, to prove opposing arguments? It is commonplace. Statistics can say what you want and they are usually gathered by someone who wishes to disprove what everyone can see with their own eyes. Before the Arsenal game we had the statisticians telling us Walcott was the better player. Need I say more?

So here we have articles spouting shots per game, tackles per game, shots to goals etc etc. I saw an article the other day which arrogantly proclaimed that it would ‘dispel the myths’ about Bale being a great player. It then went on to compare his shots to goals ratio to someone like Falcao, an out and out forward. It said that people say Bale is the complete player but look…he’s hardly tackled at all this season! Look at the stats!

The fact is Bale has everything in his locker. He is a superb athlete, he is tall, strong, extremely fast (and as fast with the ball at his feet), he can tackle due to his days as a full back, he is good in the air and can score with his head, he can long pass beautifully, he is agile and can run rings around defenders, he can pick out a perfect cross, he can fire a wicked volley, he scores consistently from free kicks and he has a football brain. Have I missed anything out? Oh yes; he can play up front, in central midfield, left wing, right wing, left back, right back, and if the video doing the rounds the other week is anything to go by he’s also pretty good in goal. If we find he can play centre back then that’s the full set! How many other players can you say that about?

On the downside I doubt you’ll see him doing many overhead kicks and his right foot needs to improve. I can certainly live with that.

The Sellers

These have been hard at work for some time of course. The ones who come out with the statements along the lines of it being inevitable that Bale will leave, or that we are desperate to hold onto him for one more year.

Bale is going nowhere this summer, and the sooner some people get that into their heads the better. All this garbage about enjoying Bale’s performances while we can etc is wishful thinking on a lot of people’s parts.

Bale clearly loves it at Spurs. He loves AVB, he loves the adulation, he loves the fact that he can play where he wants and he knows from Modric what a huge risk a leap into the unknown would be at this stage of his career. All these things are transparently clear; that photo of him embracing AVB after the West Ham goal is my favourite photo of the season. If a picture paints a thousand words, etc.

He needs to be offered more money, that is for certain, but that will happen. Levy is no fool. The idea that the whole squad will revolt and want more money if one player gets a big pay rise is a myth. There is always that sort of player, but they are rare. Was there anarchy at Man United when Rooney got a massive pay rise to £250K? No. That’s why we can make Bale a special case and offer him a new contract which I’m convinced he will welcome. I expect him to be at our club for another three years if our success continues in this vein.

This spite and back biting about Bale should of course be taken as a compliment. It is a sign that other team’s fans are worried and frustrated at our progress and at the form our star man is in. They are not hurting us, but they could be hurting themselves. There is some evidence of Bale Envy having devastating effects on the psyche and mental well-being of those afflicted.

‘Gareth Barry..blah..Bale..you’re a sheep shagger!’

Tragic.

COYS!

Follow me on Twitter @RobertReedUK

This was a tale of two defences. Ours was superb, Arsenal’s was shambolic.

While my thinking all season has been that we need Kaboul back, I am now wondering if he will get back in the team. Dawson is playing better than ever at Spurs (even if his unwise flashpoint with the referee nearly blew it for us) and Vertonghen is looking like our best signing in a long time.

Jan was a rock for us today and a worthy man of the match, but I think Lloris and Parker played well also. Lloris is so good at coming off his line it is almost like having another defender, while Parker had his best game this season.

I read an Arsenal blog yesterday stating that the best way to win was to smother Dembele and leave Parker to try and play the ball forward, thus losing possession. That didn’t go too well, did it? A beautifully weighted ball from Scotty sent Lennon away for our second goal and he also lay one on for Defoe late on which nearly made it 3-1.

Ah, Defoe. He got in more dangerous positions in the short time he was on the pitch than Adebayor has since he came back from Africa. Obviously it is a blow to have one forward injured as our only other one returns, but it is a relief to see Defoe looking, if not sharp, at least fit. Now let’s hope Dembele’s injury isn’t serious as I don’t fancy Livermore for the rest of the season.

Bale scored yet again, but AVB is the man we have to thank for our position. If we are a one man team then that man is he. The team has been transformed under his short reign into one which is professional and serious, yet has a smile on it’s face. Much like the Portuguese himself.

Andre is proving to be an exceptional manager and I cannot believe how we lucked out in acquiring him. So good of Uncle Roman to pay his £13m get out clause at Porto for us! We must all chip in and get him something nice as a thank you.

I love to see our manager’s reaction when we score, his enthusiasm is infectious. OK he may chose to wear a coat every game which makes him look like Blakey from on the buses, but I care not. At least he wasn’t wearing a sleeping bag like Wenger.

Let’s push on from here now. Second or bust!

COYS!

Foll me on Twitter @RobertReedUK

Amongst all the criticism that Daniel Levy hasn’t signed us the striker we have all been crying out for, there is some evidence that he has in fact done so on the sly; even if we do have to wait a while to reap the benefits. Souleymane Coulibaly may be only eighteen but he has the potential to be a major star of the future.

OK so his name doesn’t immediately lend itself to a catchy terrace chant, but I have a feeling that sooner or later we are going to have to come up with one anyway.

Check out the videos, he looks brilliant. Also ignore what he says at the start, he isn’t seventy years old; bless him.

Soli seems to have the lot; pace, strength, vision, dazzling long shots, acrobatic overhead kicks, headers, sliding tap ins. He is being labelled as the new Drogba, but that is more down to his being from the Ivory Coast than anything else. With his build, flair, agility and industrious style of play (not to mention eye for goal and penchant for the spectacular) he puts me more in mind of a young Tony Yeboah (younger readers may have to take to YouTube for that one).

His goalscoring exploits so far have been impressive. At the 2011 U17 World Cup in Mexico he was the tournament’s top scorer and equaled the record of nine goals. The difference being that the previous record holder took six games to achieve that while Soli scored nine goals in four games, including four against Denmark and a hat-trick against Brazil.

I think we can say he knows where the net is then.

Soli has been a Spurs player for a season and a half now, so this shouldn’t really be news to most. I can’t help thinking however that although the club is probably doing the right thing by sending him on loan to Serie B side U.S. Grosseto (who are very impressed with him), wouldn’t it be nice to have the lad at our disposal at the moment? Champions League is everything this season and as everyone knows we are absolutely threadbare in the striker department.

Michael Owen, Joe Cole and Wayne Rooney were playing in the Premier League at seventeen; our own Aaron Lennon made his Premiership debut at sixteen. Would it be crazy to think that Soli could be getting some valuable top flight experience right now at eighteen?

He’s not the tallest at around 5′ 8” but with a stocky build his low centre of gravity will make him hard to knock off the ball, enabling him to handle the league physically. He is intelligent, being fluent in French and Italian as well as speaking good English, and if his acrobatic (and slightly unnerving) goal celebrations are anything to go by he is not lacking in confidence on the pitch.

I’ll admit I don’t know the legal ramifications, squad lists etc and whether recalling him for first team action at any time recently would have been viable; likewise I won’t be trying to second guess AVB’s methods any time soon, but it’s just a thought.

One more point though, for any who believe in kismet; Soli scored twice for us in a 7-1 win at 2011’s NextGen Tournament…against Inter Milan.

COYS!

Follow me on Twitter (not compulsory) @RobertReedUK

Well, I never had a doubt; did you?

OK, I was all about the doubt by the 90th minute. I was already consoling myself that we could now concentrate solely on the league; that it was for the best as Arsenal are as good as out of Europe etc (I could have a point there), but who would have thunk it?

Dembele’s goal was a peach and all that we deserved. Lyon played very negatively and it was the ‘Rosbifs’ who deserved to go through. We were the better team, justice was served. Even the fourth minute of extra time was deserved as we took the royal piss with the throw in just before that, with Ekotto doing an old man in the park at 6am style speed walk half the length of the pitch.

This was a game in which Bale didn’t exactly shine, but luckily another midfielder took on the goalscoring responsibility. Holtby, the best player on the pitch in the first half, almost added one of his own also.

The problem though is that our centre forward at no time looked like he was in any danger of putting the ball in the net. Adebayor jumped around a lot, and admittedly put in a great cross for Bale to nearly score, but too often had that sloping shouldered look of someone not giving 100%. In the build up to the game I must admit that it didn’t even cross my mind that Ade would find the net.

If we are going to progress against Inter Milan (get ready for the Gareth Bale hype before that one) we are going to have to get at least one of our forwards performing. We have some great midfielders, but they cannot be expected to carry the goalscoring responsibility alone.

That said, this is no time to mope. This turned out to be a very good away performance, and I was as elated as AVB looked at the end. We have some flaws in our squad this season for sure, but we seem to have a manager who makes the difference.

So, next away trip is Milan. If you are going to that match then have fun but, if you want my advice, pick a pub with a big back door!

COYS!

Follow me on Twitter (not compulsory) @RobertReedUK