Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

Harry Kane should be staying, just saw that he signed a new five year contract earlier today. I thought he did pretty well in his little run at the end of last season so I'm quite happy for him to be a member of the first team squad as a backup player.

I wouldn't be as disappointed as you if Townsend was sold but I don't think he should go this summer. With Poch in charge, a manager known for improving and getting the best out of youngsters, this season will be his best chance to step up a level as a player. He'll be 24 at the end of the season though, so if he can't find consistency and end product this season then I think he'll struggle to make the breakthrough.

[fallenangle]

I'm sure we were saying that about Gareth Bale a few years ago, he took a very long time to click at Spurs. I'm not saying Townsend is in that class and of course he's much older than Bale was at the same stage. I just think if he's given the opportunity to play first team football regularly we'd get a lot more out of him in the long run.

[VR46]

You mean more for him in the transfer market next August

Time he really stepped up though, is annoying seeing people not reach their full potential through one reason or another, he'll be gutted when he looks back in ten years time otherwise. My piece of wisdom for the day right there.

[EJG1980]

Yes!!! Love a last minute win away against West Ham

Didn't sound like the best performance from the updates on Soccer Saturday, but showing a nice bit of grit to win away from home, keep a clean sheet, and do it with a man disadvantage for about 35 minutes. Sounded like Townsend made a difference when he came on, forced at least a couple of good saves from their keeper. Great for Dier to score on his debut too (set up by Kane, nice sub from Poch there).

[VR46]

Thought it was a typo, is so often we see your guys conceding late goals, my brother will be pleased.
Shame Palace couldn't hold Arsenal to a point.

[fallenangle]

I thought Ruud Gullit on MotD got it right in his criticism of Lamela. On the evidence from yesterday's match he clearly thinks he's a sort of Ronaldo but he fluff his lines far too often, gives the ball away and can't or won't do the simple thing. However RG having a go at Eriksen in the same vein I just can't accept. He didn't have an outstanding match but any Spurs fan knows how important his contributions and distribution was last season. If the consistently unimpressive Dembele had been playing, particularly after his WC performances characterised by giving the ball away, such criticism would have been justified but Eriksen....no.

Still a good result and that is all that matters in the long run. I just wish there was some clear indication that it is going to be different from last year as I still can't see where more goals are going to come from and our defensive pool of players is really no stronger or deeper either.

[EJG1980]

I'm hopeful Lamela will come good this season, he proved at Roma that the talent is there. He was probably our best player overall in pre-season, but that match was still only about his fourth start in the league since joining the club, so he still needs more matches under his belt to adapt to the PL and show his best.

With a bit of luck we can get the much mooted signing of Mateo Musacchio done to give a nice boost to the defence. According to most of the stories I've read personal terms with the player have long been agreed and it's the third party ownership that's making it tough to get Villarreal to agree to a fee. It's a shame FIFA doesn't outlaw third party ownership worldwide, it seems to be a murky business.

There are lots of reports that Southampton bid for Andros Townsend over the weekend, which we rejected. All the reports say that Poch wants to keep him and he wants to stay to fight for his place, so with a bit of luck he shouldn't be going anywhere.

[fallenangle]

That's good news but there are plenty of rumours about Spurs still trying to get their hands on Sneiderlin (?21m) before the window closes so maybe AT might even now be sacrificed to get that off the ground.

Despite what you've said about Lamela, and his record at Roma is undeniable, I think him and Soldado are Spurs' Torres-alikes, they're just not going to deliver for us, and I'd dangle one or the other as sweeteners for a Sneiderlin deal, not AT.

[EJG1980]

I'm the opposite, if I was forced to lose one of them I'd definitely keep Lamela ahead of Townsend.

Hopefully you're wrong on Lamela and I'm wrong on Townsend and they both end up having very successful seasons for us

[fallenangle]

Pray to the Spurs gods that this isn't true: Poch is allegedly considering Marouane Fellaini as a possible purchase target as well as that other Man.Utd under performer Javier Hernandez. Luckily for us MF has been injured recently so hopefully that will put an end to Spurs' interest.

I've never understand the point of Fellaini even when he was playing for Everton and nobody, even his ex-Everton manager could think of a way of using him successfully at Man.Utd. An over-priced, mediocre, luxury player and to think we got rid of the hard working and under used Gylfi Sigur?sson (BTW who had a very good game for Swansea last weekend) to consider such a replacement. No, no, no!

Hernadez maybe but do we really need him?

The Man.Utd guy I wouldn't have minded seeing at Spurs was Nani but apparently he's being loaned out to Sporting Lisbon and still having some of his wages paid by them. They obviously aren't sure they want to get rid of him and that's a better endorsement of his quality than most.

[EJG1980]

My brother sent me a text with the Fellaini / Hernandez rumour. Like you, I did not greet it with too much enthusiasm! Hopefully it's just one of the many rumours from this time of year that has zero substance and is just designed to people clicking on pages stuffed with adverts. It seems to have originally been "reported" by caughtoffside so there's a high chance of it being bs.

In many ways I preferred the way things where when I was a kid, when you generally knew zero about a transfer until it happened. I don't think any modern transfer will beat being 14 years old, looking at the back page of the paper, and having my jaw drop to the floor in sheer amazement at being greeted by a photo of Jurgen Klinsmann in a Spurs shirt

Gylfi was great against Man Utd, man of the match. It must make a big difference to a player to know that you're going to be playing each week and in your preferred position. Always lovely to watch at Spurs when he was having a good game. I'd definitely take Gylfi back over Fellaini!

[EJG1980]

No UK channel / web site was showing Limassol vs Spurs so I ended up paying ?8 to watch a stream on the web site of a Swedish TV channel, who for some reason had the exclusive rights to the match. The bizarre world of modern football!

Great cameo performance from Lamela when he came on with 20 minutes to go and turned around a poor display from the team. He played a beautiful pass to set up Soldado to volley the equaliser and then played in Harry Kane for the winner. He should really have scored himself too, but shot just wide and at the keeper when he had chances. Now he needs to start puttin in that kind of performance in the Premier League.

Apparently we're on the verge of signing Fazio (central defender) from Sevilla. I'm guessing the oft mooted deal for Musacchio is less likely now as he played for Villarreal tonight so would be cup tied in Europe. There were also lots of reports that Vlad Chiriches was on the verge of joining Roma but I've just seen his agent has said he's going nowhere as we're refusing to sell.

[fallenangle]

Sounded like a good win today. Scoring four goals against anybody in the Premiership is a job well done.

[EJG1980]

Early days and it was only QPR, but the quality of football in the first half was excellent today. If we can play like that on a regular basis we're going to be very attractive to watch this season. Slight drop off in the second half as you'd expect when 3-0 up, played more within ourselves, but still managed to add another goal.

Good performances all over the pitch today everyone was really up for it. Chadli and Lamela will get the acclaim for the eye catching goals and assists, but I thought Capoue was superb in the midfield. Breaking up play, winning the ball back, and playing excellent passes forward and out to the wings. The third goal was my favourite: 48 passes in the build up, brilliant run and cross by Lamela, great header to finish from Chadli.

Danny rose seems to have stepped up his game with the arrival of Ben Davies, good in preseason and he was great today going forward and at the back. And what a start to Eric Dier's Spurs career! Like Rose he was great going forward and defending, he put in an awesome crunching tackle in the first half. I know it's a knee jerk reaction but he looks like a steal at ?4 million.

A much much harder test to come next Sunday, but today was highly enjoyable Looking forward to seeing it again tonight on MOTD.

[fallenangle]

Yes having watched MotD2 the third goal was really good but the others were all pretty decent too.

After what Ruud Gullit said last week about Lamela which I agreed with it seems like he's stepping up to the challenge. He's had two good performances now. Maybe he's another one of those players who needs regular games to keep him sharp.

But as they say: one swallow does not make a summer, and, so far, Spurs have had a fairly gentle start to the season. During that second half it did sound from the radio commentary and looked from the MotdD highlights as if they took their foot off the gas, playing too deep giving QPR some good chances that, thankfully, they squandered.

If we do that against the top teams I doubt we'd be so lucky.