Martin Lol

If he'd been a couple of years younger Wenger would have been interested.

Happy New Year folks, hope 2008 is good for NUFC. ........... but not as good as it will be for Spurs!

His agent is s*** stirring knowing full well we hold most of the power as his contract still has 3 years to run. No doubt in my mind he'll be off in the summer but after Levy's comments yesterday, i doubt we'll sell him in january (unless its a ridiculous transfer fee). As for the Villa rumours, his agent has come out publicly and said that Villa will be willing to join us if the clubs agree a fee BUT i doubt thats going to happen (i rate him Highly mind). Berbatov has 2 years plus a 2 year option, so assuming we took up our option, it's 4 years still to run. Don't think Berbatov will be going anywhere this window, Dantchev has been told by Levy that he can go in this window for £40m and not a penny less! I think he's a nailed on certainty to go to Utd in the summer though Rednose has has bid £5m for Defoe. Why he would want another midget I have no idea, it's been turned down anyway.

Taraabt will look a lot better when he realises it's a team game and he is allowed to pass to his team mates. It's his inability to play to a team ethic which has seen Jamie O'Hara go ahead of him in the pecking order. I wouldn't be surprised if Taraabt starts being regarded as a loose cannon and is shipped out sooner rather than later. Spurs did have an agreement with Corinthians last year to sign Lulinha as a 16 year old for £7.8m. He flew over for a medical etc but by the time he had arrived Corinthians had increased the fee to £18.5m. Levy had a heart attack said no and Lulinha flew back to Brazil.

He's not going to leave a club pushing for Europe for a lower half of table one, is he? *cheeky wink* :lol: Is not scoring at home part of Pompey's masterplan for European success?? :parky:

Scored 12, conceded 5 in the last 6 matches. Not too bad, definite improvement on what had gone on before. Can't think of any other player being linked to return to his former club whose effigies were hanging from lampposts when he left the club the first time around. Ever heard of Ronaldo? Or Luis Figo? But they didn't go back either... Nor will Scumball. Levy has told Ramos that he would never be accepted by the fans (true enough). On other Spurs matters, Bale is out for the season and it seems like Assou-Ekotto's career is over, his knee has been/is being rebuilt and won't be strong enough to play again. Tough luck on him.

Nor can I tbh.

Never a truer post. Including the bit at the start, sadly.

I'm obviously not questioning the man-management abilities of those mentioned, not at all. In that respect, I doubt there's few in the modern game who come even close. But the game itself has evolved, and more so the last 10 years than before, is what I think anyway. You can get quite far by playing it simple, but tactics play such a huge part in it, and the tactics being used by the managers previously mentioned would've been torn apart by the likes of Wenger and Mourinho. There's always a counter to any given tactical factor, and the very best managers of today all have something in common; they exploit the weaknesses and counter the other teams tactics. Which is why they are so successful. Anyway, it's a sidetrack really. I'm obviously at the deep end here, seeing as I've never actually had an opportunity to see the teams of Clough, Shankly et al. And I'm not saying they were no good. There's just alot more to it now than motivation and brow-beating players. And I still maintain it's too hard to compare, even for managers. Not to mention fruitless, seeing as we'll never have an answer to it anyway. I see the point you are trying to make, but I still disagree - Clough, Shankly and Revie etc were NOT just about standing up in the Dressing Room and screaming at players in an attempt to motivate them - in fact, they hardly EVER resorted to those sort of tactics, and I think you'll find that it was Man U players of fairly recent vintage who termed a rocket from Alex Ferguson 'The Hairdryer Treatment', and I'm sure you don;t consider Ferguson to be inferior to Mourinho & Wenger..... I DID have the good fortune(although as a NUFC fan it wasn't always pretty!)to see these guys' teams in action, and I can assure you that they DID use different approaches to different games - Leeds-Liverpool games were always tight affairs, even though L/Pool used to try to steamroller teams at Anfield ; they realised that Leeds were too clever for that, and had to use a more measured approach , esp at Elland Road - Clough's teams were always built from the back(think Colin Todd & Roy McFarland at Derby), but always had wingers who could be withdrawn into midfield to shore it up when necessary. Motivation was important, but it wasn't the only tool in their box - as you say, though, we'll never be able to prove the theory - sadly... I wasn't suggesting that they were just extremely talented motivators, Shankly, Busby, Clough and Revie were all very astute tacticians also. I recall going up to Elland Road when Leeds were in their prime under Revie. Leeds lined up as they normally did but at the kick off Mick Jones went deep leaving Clarke up front on his own, Terry Cooper played LW and Eddie Gray played LB. The movement of the Leeds players was superb, the Spurs defenders didn't know who they were meant to be marking (nothing new there!) and we were 3-0 down inside 15 minutes. As John Pratt came over to take a throw in my mate shouted "Get yourselves sorted out Prattie". He looked over and shouted back "None of 'em are where they're meant to be and its like there's about 20 of the f*ckers on the pitch". Spurs got themselves sorted out at halftime but by then it was too late. Tactically, they had been done in the first 15 minutes.

I can easily believe it. Whinger's in league with the devil.

I'm afraid so. I'm firmly of the belief that managers like him, Shankly or Busby would never be a success in our time. I'll even stretch it so far as to say that players of that era wouldn't be a success in our time either. Sadly, this is something we'll never find an answer to. Which brings me to my point; comparing it is pointless. It may be harder to compare players of yesteryear with those of today, but comparing managers is far easier. 95% of the manager's job is to convince the players at his disposal that they are better than they really are, to get them to gel as a team and to get them to play accordingly. IMHO Clough, Shankly and Busby would easily have cut the mustard in the modern game. SBR was a success throughout his managerial career starting at Ipswich and ending at Newcastle, The point with successful managers of a bygone era is that success brought longevity which took them into following sporting eras. Their success in those areas can be measured. As for players, with modern day fitness levels I would rather have John Charles to Didier Drogba, Bobby Moore to John Terry, Duncan Edwards to Rio Ferdinand, Dave Mackay to Frank Lampard and George Best to Christiano Ronaldo in my team. Technical levels were high but not so obvious as they were hidden due to old heavy leather ball.

Scored 12, conceded 5 in the last 6 matches. Not too bad, definite improvement on what had gone on before. Can't think of any other player being linked to return to his former club whose effigies were hanging from lampposts when he left the club the first time around.

11th December to be exact http://www.spursodyssey.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=31416

To be alongside Scumball when Ledders isn't fit. There are serious rumours about Dawson being shipped out as not good enough, Ramos thinks Kaboul is up to the job.

I'm still hoping for him to say Spurs, but it would be a disaster if he opted for City. SGE has done a fabulous job in transforming the Doc's team, spent money admittedly, but still a fabulous job. If Modric did join them I reckon they would be a lot closer to Liverpool than most people would imagine. Is it definite the decision will be announced at 3pm?

As it's now in the public domain................. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=504914&in_page_id=1779 Campbell linked with sensational return to Spurs Last updated at 15:58pm on 28th December 2007 Sol Campbell has been linked with a sensational return to Tottenham. New boss Juande Ramos is keen to sign an experienced central defender in the January transfer window and believes Campbell would be tempted by a move back to the capital, reports The Times. It would be a stunning transfer coup as the England defender was branded 'Judas' after his controversial move from Spurs to bitter rivals Arsenal six years ago. The 33-year-old was so upset by the treatment he received in the 1-0 home defeat by Spurs this season that he called into BBC radio to publicly complain. There definitely is legs in the story, Ramos wants him, but I can't ever see this happening. I don't know any fan who would be happy to see him return. BTW there is also talk of Chimbonda of moving to either Man City or Newcastle for £9/10m. Don't know whether there is truth is the clubs mentioned but Chimbo has money problems and is need of a signing on fee. I think he'll definitely be gone in the summer if not in January.

The highlighted bits are all spot on, the quotes were made prior to the Spurs/Newcastle game earlier in the season. As I've said here before, Jol is good but he went as far as he could go with Spurs. Jol has the team playing differently to Allardyce but their achievable heights are probably about the same. The one overriding fact, as said in the article, is that Kemsley and Ashley are best mates, not just pals, and it was only a month or so again that they were partying in Vegas, before that Ashley flew to Marbella for Kemsley's 40th birthday bash, they really are as thick as thieves. Kemsley hates Jol, reckons he is hopelessly overrated, and I find it hard to believe that Ashley wouldn't take on board Kemsley's first hand dealings with Jol. The article is good, very good for the Sun, but Jol to the Toon won't happen imho.

fingers crossed. can't see it happening tho. He's got to move somewhere I suppose. http://www.vecernji.hr/newsroom/sports/football/2979795/index.do;jsessionid=EF7CDBC02CE66115FD1D55F136A8D54B.2 This Croatian site says it's City, Spurs or Chelsea and there's another site which says he's all but agreed to sign for Ajax!

Tottenham, Man City and Chelsea chase Modric By Patrick Nathanson Last Updated: 11:11am GMT 27/12/200 The race to sign Croatia international Luca Modric intensified last night after the Dinamo Zagreb president arrived in London for talks with several clubs. Zdravko Mamic will discuss Modric's future with Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Chelsea as the clubs prepare for the opening of the transfer window on Tuesday. Premier choice: Luca Modric is attracting great interest Modric, 22, who orchestrated Croatia's victory over England at Wembley in the final Euro 2008 qualifier last month, will command a fee of around £20 million. The midfielder, who can play down the left or in a more central role, has already spoken of his desire to play in the Premier League. Arsenal sent a scout to watch Modric during Dinamo's Uefa Cup defeat by Hamburg at the start of this month, while Chelsea manager Avram Grant was in attendance at Croatia's game against Macedonia in November. Chelsea have held recent talks with Dinamo and Tottenham have told the Croatian side that they are "very serious" about bidding for him, with Spurs coach Juande Ramos keen to start rebuilding his team. Ramos is also tracking the Russian striker Aleksandr Kerhakov as speculation linking Dimitar Berbatov and Darren Bent with a move away from White Hart Lane grows. It seems like it will become a Dutch auction, Man City are the favourites. Chelsea are his least favoured destination because of his desire to play regularly (from his agent on a Croatian website).

I think Scy did the editing on Wikipedia. FWIW LYP was saying that another Korean will be joining the premiership in January. He didn't say who it was nor where he was going to either.

Can't believe for a moment that Jol would be a candidate if there was a vacancy. Kemsley knows only too well what Jol did wrong and he'd never let his mate make the same mistake. Jol is a good coach who took Spurs up to a certain level and probably could do the same again for Newcastle. The point is that both Spurs and Newcastle would want to go higher than to the point where Jol could take them.

I think you mean 18 teams, I can think of one that happily donates points to NUFC most seasons! :lol:

I voted Arsenal. I may be a Spurs fan but I'm also a realist.

It's the belief in their system which always impresses me. Even when things go wrong the system always remains, the players exactly what their roles are and that in turn reflects in how they play as, more often than not, things go right and not wrong. What I detest about them (and always have) is the way they always try to rub the opposition and their fans' noses in it. Today it was epitomised by Flamini et al taunting the Holte as they celebrated their equaliser. Cnuts the lot of them!

I suppose I can hope. Personally I don't think there is a cat in hell's chance that he will wind up at WHL. ...................... unless he's playing for the opposition!