leffe186

Anyone been to RAWK yet?

I love him too, but frankly, they've been disqualified from my admiration by (a) Ken Bates, then (b) Abramovich. Much like Man City, I ceased to think of Chelsea as the same entity when Roman bought them. Not a conscious decision, mind, just a gut feeling.

Hope not. Hope this drags on for months. Preferably years.

Bloody hell, Ronaldo, when on earth was that?

I'm not sure. I presume that he's trying to ease him back in after his injury, which was pretty awkward. The thing is, it's not just that he's a better footballer than Naughton (after all, Vertonghen actually played LB on Monday) - BAE is our only left back. Vertonghen and Naughton have been doing a job, but it's obvious they're both out of position. It's possible that BAE is not doing what AVB is asking of him in training, but I think it's more likely that AVB really is just being cautious. I think that Vertonghen was started at least in part because we expected a barrage of long balls. I'd expect to see BAE play on Sunday.

I have a question. In the bogs in one of the pubs in Kharkiv there was a sign saying you weren't allowed to w***, bum someone, rollerblade or skateboard. This really affected my enjoyment of the Ukraine, is it allowed in Moscow? If it's the same I might not bother. http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/5765/nowanking.png For some reason it's the man pissing away from the toilet that got me. It's his stance more than anything. Was about to post the same thing. Might have already been mentioned, but what's the one three down on the right hand side? No putting soap in toilets?

Cheers. Didn't mean to jump down your throat, but I've read some extraordinary drivel on RAWK/Arsenalmania etc about us, and this is a far better forum to talk about it . Yeah, there is definitely a split among Spurs supporters on our style of play. We'd like to be more expansive, but it's difficult to argue when we're getting the results. In the first three games we didn't, and that's when we were really worried. Some still are, though I'm pretty sure they're a small minority. We let in three late goals in those games (one after a joke red card for Huddlestone that was later rescinded) and got only two points when we would have hoped for seven. Yet it was his first three games, and ones in which our squad was in a state of flux. I just can't argue against what he's achieved, so far. Redknapp wasn't a tactical fool, but I think much of his success was about giving the onus to the players, giving them more freedom to do what they want and knowing how to motivate each of them. This really suited VDV and Adebayor, in particular, but put a lot of pressure on the water-carriers. There were a handful of games, particularly after Xmas, where it seemed painfully obvious what adjustments/substitutions needed to be made, yet they weren't happening, and we were losing and drawing games because of it. AVB has clearly been more focused on getting the players to press, which was what we were saying all last season. The Ade stuff is difficult, because his whole season has been a mindfuck. First we have the incredibly drawn-out transfer, during which he hadn't apparently kept himself fit, then Defoe starts playing better, then the ANC and that mess. I much prefer Adebayor for his impact on our general play, but he's always been hit-and-miss on finishing and touch. Hopefully Sunday will be the catalyst for his season (and he doesn't get sent off again, FFS). I'd like Laudrup, but you can't have everyone, and I just hope that AVB is the real thing. Levy would clearly love to find another Wenger, and have a coach who can get the whole club playing a certain way. He'd like to have an entirely home-grown team (for the cash, naturally), and we're getting there - more than half the team that finished the West Ham match have been with us since they were teenagers. The thinking is that AVB as coach is a good fit for bringing those players through. I'm not sure if Pardew is, but until you get your academy upgraded I guess the chances are slimmer.

Oh, stop it. Yes, we'd have lost if we'd scored one and they'd scored two. Can't argue with that. Look, we made a s***-load of clear chances, and their keeper played a blinder. We didn't play particularly well, yet against a team that have done really well at home, and on a night where - and fair enough - they pulled every possible emotive string to gee up the crowd and players, we had over 60% possession and over three times as many shots - 16 on target. This has happened in most games over the last few weeks. We don't look particularly great, we seem a bit dull, then you look at the stats and we had lots of possession and far more shots/chances than the oppo. I think that's a conscious decision by AVB (keep it tight all over, rather than go gung-ho) and the law of averages suggests that it should work. And yeah, we're third. Anyway, I'm just a bit bored with people saying "take Bale out and we'd fall apart". Well, we'd obviously be struggling to stay where we are, because he's really bloody good. It's a pointless thing to say. AVB has put together the team in such a way as to give Bale as much freedom as possible, and he's responded. Redknapp tried the same last year, off and on, and it didn't work as well. We lost two of our three best players last year (some include King, but he was fading rapidly). We brought in a few, but then lost our best centre-back. Then AVB lost Sandro for the season - disrupting our excellent CM. Then we lost our striker, our top scorer. So, take out Kaboul, Sandro, and Defoe, and we're still third. And you want us to take out Bale too? And you're willing to go out on a limb and say we'd not be as good? Not meaning to pick on you here, Parky, but I must have read dozens and dozens of posts from people over the last month along the same lines (Edit: Across several forums - Liverpool, Arsenal etc), and this is the only time I've thought "f*** it, I'm responding." I don't think we can judge AVB too harshly or too generously - he's had two-thirds of a season. He's done better than I expected. Whoever it was that said he made players like Defoe not just look better, but be better (Tiresias?) is right. Defoe is not alone. As for Pards and Rodgers, well I spent a fair bit of time on the West Ham board this last seven days, and more than one person referred to Pardew as a fraud. I don't watch you guys closely enough to say so for sure, but you really were the fifth best side last year. He must have played some part in that. In the same vein, I see the real improvement in Rodgers' team. Maybe they'll both turn out to be mistakes, but they've both been given markedly improved squads to play with now.

It's not as if they're doing either Bale or Spurs any favours, either. Arseholes.

Losing Modric and VDV is massive, regardless of who you bring in to try to replace them. There were times last season when we were called a one-man team, only that one man was Van der Vaart. We're definitely not as fluid, but I think our first XI (with everyone fit) is really, really good. Lloris alone makes a huge difference. Meh, you never know, we have a run of four incredibly tough games coming up after which we could quite easily be out of Europe, and fifth. And we might have even more injuries. Win the next four games and I'd say, unequivocally, that we've improved .

We definitely need to add better players, but everyone will do that. Still, you're now talking about the glass ceiling being under the top two, which is an improvement. Up until last year the glass ceiling was under the top four, at best. The good sign is that we're performing similarly to last year with a weaker first team, bigger injury problems, and a new manager who has been under enormous pressure from day one. You'd hope we would improve next year even without strengthening the squad.

We were told by several people that he would be off last year if we didn't get CL. He signed a new contract. All the evidence points to him being a bit of a home body (http://www.standard.co.uk/news/tottenham-star-gareth-bale-walks-to-training-and-prefers-holidays-in-cardiff-to-dubai-6531911.html - it's an old article, but it checks out). That would suggest that Man U or Man City would be the most likely destinations. The question is, who would want him that could afford him? That really restricts it to only a handful of teams. I don't think his head would necessarily be turned by bigger teams per se, but I do think that he wants to develop as a player. Hopefully he thinks AVB can do this for now - and the way we play fosters that. He will no doubt see regular CL games as the next way to improve. He has been with us for pretty much his entire professional career, which I think will help. None of the other four big players we've sold have had that connection.

You'll be performing fine on the pitch next year. This January has been immense for you, as long as you stay up (and you're clearly going to). As long as you keep Cabaye and Ben Arfa, who are the real difference-makers, you now have a squad that's plenty strong enough, particularly as you will probably not have European football to worry about. The problem over the last couple of years has been that a couple of injuries completely screw you up. That shouldn't be a problem any more. I suppose Pardew is the unknown quantity. Next season will be a real punch-up. I always thought you'd struggle this year unless you strengthened, but next year I'd expect the top eight to be fairly close.

Levy is good at getting a good price for his players when they leave but his buying record is not that amazing. It's pretty good. Lots of hits, a couple of really big misses. Thing is, it's not really his buying record - he doesn't usually pick the players. We supposedly have a committee, of sorts, which is intended to avoid making big, one-off mistakes based on one guy's opinion. There's a worry that it might land the manager with someone he doesn't want, but AVB really is actually a new-school coach, as opposed to Redknapp, an old-school manager. Not old-school in terms of methods necessarily, but old-school in terms of his expectations as a manager (full control over transfers etc), as Portsmouth found out to their cost.

Absolutely. Out of our best players, we lost Carrick mainly because we didn't make Champions Lasagne League, and because Man U. We used the cash on Berbatov, Zokora, and some kids. The Berbatov money was used to keep us up in a desperate January, and the Modric and VDV money hasn't made us better, just deeper. You just can't guarantee that a wodge of cash will buy you class - just look at Dalglish's Liverpool. We only have to look at Bentley.

Dembele and Sandro worked really, really well together. Dembele and Parker, not so much. Dembele has a long-term hip problem, and we're pretty confident that that's part of the reason his performances have dropped off recently. He's still a good player, but looking at the West Ham game you saw Parker making the runs that you'd really rather Dembele was making. Hopefully he can get some rest next year, with Sandro coming back and kids like Carroll getting more game time.

That's rather like the perception of Martin Jol towards the end of his time at Spurs. Levy thought he needed someone else to make the step up. Ramos was a failure, Redknapp a great success, but probably not the long-term solution. Difference is, we generated more money along the way, which allowed us to improve despite wasting shit-loads on Bentley and a couple of others. Moyes has never had that room to manoeuvre.

I'd suggest a Martin Jol smiley to preface our posts. Not least because it would be unbelievably cool for every one of my Spurs posts to be prefaced with a Martin Jol face. It's strange, it almost seems like we've gone the other way. Under Redknapp, we really did play some sparkling attacking football at times, but we also struggled to break down the bus-parkers, and were far too open at times when we should have closed teams down. We've lost two of our best three players, and picked up some awkward injuries, but AVB has clearly adopted a style which is more resilient, and more amenable to changes in personnel. It's also noticeably duller. The clearest change is in making us more pressing, which is something that Everton have usually been so good at over the last couple of years. The difference between us seems to be better organization at the back (despite us almost never playing the same defence, which is arguably AVB's biggest achievement with us), a slightly better level of skill and passing in our midfield, and Bale (who AVB has built our team around, although Fellaini is almost as important for you). Additionally, AVB saw our tendency to let silly late goals in, and took steps to change it in training. We now make a habit of scoring late goals, rather than letting them in. I haven't seen enough of you recently to say what the problem is. What were the two nil-nils like? I saw the Villa game, where Fellaini pulled you back into it, but your defence tried their hardest to lose it beforehand.

Just seen the Fulham game for the first time. How on earth was N'Zonzi not sent off?

I think he'll stay if we're in the CL. If not, then maybe, although I wonder who we'd actually be able to get in, despite all that money. I'd rather he stayed, but if you could guarantee me two or three specific players to replace him (someone like Willian, a proper centre-forward (Leandro Damiao?), a classy midfielder (Moutinho)) then great. They'd cost more than 50M though.

We're not looking that great, but Kaboul is back in training and Defoe coming back will help (surprised as I am to say that). Chelsea are definitely the team to beat. I think everyone else is much of a muchness, although Anzhi, Zenit and Benfica look pretty good. If you beat Anzhi, then I reckon it's anybody's - and that includes you.

The Mail have been so consistently anti-Spurs/AVB that I don't even know what to think about that article. My take is that it's a grotesque example of "build-em-up." There are not enough s in the world.

Their fixture list is rather nasty. Certain they won't go down. Both Wigan and Villa need 7 more points than Wham over 11 games. Don't see them both doing it. You know, when you put it like that, I actually can. Their next five fixtures: West Ham: Stoke (A), Chelsea (A), West Brom (H), Liverpool (A), Southampton (A). Wigan: Liverpool (H), Newcastle (H), Norwich (H), QPR (A), Swansea (H). Villa: Man City (H), Reading (A), QPR (H), Liverpool (H), Stoke (A). I can see West Ham losing all five. Wigan could actually be above them, and I can see Villa beating Reading and QPR. The next game is West Ham vs Wigan. Still a lot to play for.

This is a bit Spurs-centric but RAWK was a great read last night. One post caught my eye: It's the little "And Stevie" that I particularly like. There's an element of truth there, but it's smothered in guff ("consistently outplayed"? Hmmm). This is a response from one guy: That about covers it for me.

FYP FYFYP