Defoe Wants A Hatrick, Lennon Is Back, Injury News – Offside At The Lodge

By: Robert Reed | September 27th, 2011

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It’s a hard life, this blog writing lark. I was at Spurs Lodge today on behalf of The Offside, courtesy of the club’s betting partner Sportingbet, to watch the lads put through their paces on the training ground and also have a quick word with them about the upcoming North London derby this Sunday.

It won’t surprise many to hear that their assumption that training is 80% hard work and 20% pissing around like 10 year olds is pretty accurate. It looked like good fun I’ve gotta say, which it undoubtedly should be. What was surprising though was that the most buoyant and excitable character of the lot seemed to be Emmanuel Adebayor. While fellow newbie Scott Parker was more reserved and serious (he’s kinda like that though I think) Ade looked like he’d been here for years. Everyone seemed to love him and he was clearly a very popular member of the squad. Good to see.

harry 3 Another thing I noticed was that Sandro has reverted back to his natural hair colour. Harry informed me that originally he turned up with red hair, but was stunned to have everyone berate him for it. Due to his inexperience of North London rules he was unaware that red was a massive no-no for obvious reasons. This prompted a quick change to blue, but he has apparently given it all up as a bad idea. Probably for the best.

Things started with a general kick around. Just a bit of keepy uppy and picking each other out, but somehow Modric still ended up on his arse. He took exception to this and got the hump for a couple of minutes until the abuse and general piss taking from his team mates raised a smile from little Luka.

Fitness training was next, followed by a game with shirts versus bibs where the aim was for each team to get eleven consecutive passes with their team mates without getting tackled. Harry doesn’t get involved with training, but looks on from a distance. Clive Allen stood by the goal for a while until Younes Kaboul belted the ball at him. Accidentally I’m sure.

The stand out player in training for me was Rafa. He really is an exceptional talent and whether he unbalances the team or not he is a top player.

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Anyway..to the injury news. I got a chance to speak to Harry and it’s good news and bad news. Lennon is fit, and should play on Thursday. Dawson is recovering ahead of schedule and should be back in two to three weeks. Gallas, however, has had a setback. He had a problem with his calf which was on the mend but.. yesterday he did the other one. It may be a while before we see the Frenchman.

I was concerned to see Kyle Walker limping. He didn’t take part in training and I asked him if he’d be fit for Sunday and he said he hoped so. He has an ankle injury but, while I’m no expert, I reckon they’ll patch him up in time for the big game.

Tom Huddlestone could be seen inside doing some physio; a long time before he will be back it would appear. Some of the other players joined him in there and Harry suggested it was because the young lady doing the physio was very attractive, but I’m sure he was joking. About their reason for going in there that is..the physio was fit.

Jermain Defoe was upbeat about Sunday. ‘Are you gonna score a hatrick on Sunday Jermain?’ He was asked, ‘I hope so,’ he replied, ‘I hate Arsenal.’ Fair comment.

Ledley King Spurs (s) And so to my starry eyed fan phase, where I went round everyone in sight getting my Spurs shirt signed. Everyone I wanted except Lennon, Hud and Ledley. Even Harry, Joe Jordan and Tony Parks (although Clive Allen had disappeared. Natch.) I had to wait for Gareth Bale as he was training on his own after everyone else, which was nice to see. When I got Scott Parker to sign I was apparently holding the shirt wrong which prompted him to order me to ‘pull it, pull it hard!’ which gave the whole exercise a slightly more homo erotic feel than I was anticipating but the shirt was duly signed.

Ledley was the name I really wanted, but Harry told me what I already knew which was that he doesn’t come to training as his knee will swell up and he won’t be fit for the weekend. I’ll admit I was gutted until, as I left, who should be in the car park but Tottenham legend himself Ledley King. Photo, shirt signed, yes I’m fit for Sunday, job done.

One shirt ready to frame and put on my wall. I’ve had worse Tuesday mornings.

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