Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

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Agree about the central defence needing some quality new blood.

I was thinking much the same thing about that Perisic shot too. If that had gone in I think the whole tone of the match might have changed and we could have hung on for a 2 - 3 win or at least a draw.

[EJG1980]

Well you can never say that supporting Spurs is dull, there's always something going on! It appears that our Director of Football, Fabio Paratici, is a bit of a chef and his special dish is cooking "the books"

After an investigation in Italy into some dodgy Juventus transfer shenanigans, Paratici has been banned from working in Italian football for 30 months, with UEFA and FIFA expected to agree to extending that ban to the rest of the world. Which, considering he's meant to be in charge of all our transfers dealings, is not ideal.

No suggestion that he's done anything dodgy while at Spurs* but surely he's got to be let go asap. Once the bans are enforced then he'll have to go anyway, but it's damaging to Spurs reputation to leave someone like that in his position until then. Not to mention that in March he and other Juve directors are going to face a criminal trial over the same events. He's gotta go, right away.

* There's a story in the Daily Mail this morning saying that Paratici deliberately "overpaid" for Cristian Romero, but I can't really see how. He was Serie A defender of the year, first choice centre-back for Argentina, 23 years old, and we paid a fee only a few million quid more than we'd paid for Davinson Sanchez four years earlier. If anything I was surprised at the time we didn't have to pay more!

Aaaaaannnnnyyyyway...... how about a nice, straightforward win against Fulham tonight, just for a change of pace?

Edit: not the most scintillating of matches but an important three points to get, especially as Fulham would have leapfrogged us if we'd lost, and it keeps us in touch with Man Utd and Newcastle.

First half we were poor for the first 30 minutes, then started waking up a bit, and the last 10 minutes was actually good and we were on top and putting pressure on them. Classic Harry Kane goal to put us into the lead and take him level with Jimmy Greaves' record, brilliant turn and strike.

Second half was pretty dull but we defended much better and almost fully shut off the Fulham threat; in the first half we never stopped them from crossing the ball into the box but in the second we were so much better at cutting them out. We had the best chance of the half with a Harry Kane header that drew a superb save from Leno. Not pretty but a good, professional performance to get the three points.

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It's been a privilege to be a fan during the years that someone who'll become our all time record goalscorer has been playing. It's the kind of thing you think you'll hear about from the past but not see for yourself. What a simply phenomenal player he is.

Now to break the Greaves' record against Preston and then join the Premier League 200 club against Man City. A hat-trick in both matches should do

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Yes very welcome win against Fulham, keeps us there and still just about in touch with the top four places.

HK getting that record is definitely a moment in Spurs' history to celebrate.

[EJG1980]

Ohh, a signing!

Arnaut Danjuma has joined on loan from Villarreal

A loan until the end of the season with an option to buy for €24 million. With Lucas still injured we could do with more attacking options from the bench, so it looks like a risk free deal that improves the depth of the squad for the rest of the season, and if he does well we can make the deal permanent for (what these days is) a low fee.

He was excellent for Villarreal last season, 6 goals in 11 games in the Champions League including away at Juventus and a winner against Bayern Munich in the knockout stages, so he's shown he can hurt top quality opposition in high pressure matches. He also got another 10 goals in the Spanish League.

His good form for Villarreal last season came while playing on the left side of the attack, so if Son's poor form continues and Danjuma can play as well as he did last season, he may end up being more than just an option from the bench. And if his presence sparks Son back into life to fight for his place in the team, that'd make signing Danjuma a great move too!

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Preston NE v Spurs is apparently going to shown live on BBC1 Saturday at 6pm.

Always bothers me when they decide to show live a lower league team against a Premiership side; its like there's an expectation or at least the hope of an upset.

So I'm going for a positive attitude: good Spurs will turn up and HK will increase his goal tally and then some.

[EJG1980]

Preston NE v Spurs is apparently going to shown live on BBC1 Saturday at 6pm.

Always bothers me when they decide to show live a lower league team against a Premiership side; its like there's an expectation or at least the hope of an upset.

So I'm going for a positive attitude: good Spurs will turn up and HK will increase his goal tally and then some.

I'm the opposite actually, it bothers me when they don't show lower league sides against top flight sides After all the cup is the only time sides from different divisions meet, so I think they should show as many of those matches as possible, rather than matches with two sides from the same division which we'll see a couple of times during the normal league season anyway.

Apparently Harry Kane might be a slight doubt for the Preston match. They said after the Fulham match that he'd had a stomach bug that had kept him up half the night before the game, and apparently he's still got it and only been training on and off this week, though they said he did train today. I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up starting, but a possibility he might start the match on the bench if they're being extra careful.

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After watching the deadly dull MC v. Arsenal game yesterday and switching between the two, far better, televised lunchtime games today which had Leicester and Leeds up against lower division sides I think you may be right.

If he is a bit dickey let's hope HK starts and quickly gets his historic club record goal then he can be subbed and rested for the upcoming important Premiership game against MC.

Sunday Edit:-

Didn't need HK, Son back on form and a decent win against P NE and, especially the second half, a very professional performance from a strong but not all first choice squad.

The new guy, Danjuma's, contributions, including getting the third goal, augurs well too.

Just hope the FA 5th round draw is kind to us.

[EJG1980]

Didn't need HK, Son back on form and a decent win against P NE and, especially the second half, a very professional performance from a strong but not all first choice squad.

The new guy, Danjuma's, contributions, including getting the third goal, augurs well too.

Just hope the FA 5th round draw is kind to us.

Yup, it's always nice when a rotated side does the job and the big guns don't have to come off the bench to perform a rescue act.

First half was a bit dull but in matches like these it's often a case of staying patient and waiting for your superior players to find a way through, rather than trying to rush it and force it. Two beautiful strikes from Son, hopefully this finally is the point where his season bursts into life and isn't a false dawn like his hat-trick against Leicester a couple of months ago.

Nice debut from Danjuma, good movement and positioning on several occasions aside from the goal. With Danjuma coming in, and hopefully Richarlison finding some fitness and consistency in what has been a stop/start season for him, we'll have some decent attacking options on the bench to help change games / rest others.

Lucas was also back from injury the other day (he played and scored for the under-21 side) but there are stories doing the rounds that he and Bryan Gil could leave during the January transfer window. I think we'd want to get in another attacking option if either of those two left.

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There were rumours Spurs were trying to sell Lucas Moura to Everton a few weeks ago but why we'd want to offload either is a mystery. Our midfield creative/attacking options are thin enough as it is and I thought Gil has played well in the games I've seen him in.

[EJG1980]

Wrexham or Sheffield United away in the next round of the cup! No disrespect to Sheffield United but I REALLY hope it's Wrexham; Spurs rocking up to the Racecourse Ground would be a proper FA Cup tie

There were rumours Spurs were trying to sell Lucas Moura to Everton a few weeks ago but why we'd want to offload either is a mystery. Our midfield creative/attacking options are thin enough as it is and I thought Gil has played well in the games I've seen him in.

Looks like Gil is going out on loan to Seville for the rest of the season. From all the articles / tweets from journalists I've read about it, the main driver is the fact that Gil himself wants to play every week, which you can't blame him for.

IIRC he's only started for Spurs when Moura, Kulusevski and Richarlison were all injured at the same time, and now we've added Danjuma too, so Gil's chances of getting on the pitch were likely to be very limited for the rest of this season. Always a tough balancing act between needing players for squad depth, but getting those who are young enough minutes on the pitch to keep developing.

I think though we probably only let Gil go because of Danjuma coming in, so we're no worse off depth wise. So I don't see us letting Moura go unless the same thing happens and we bring in another attacker to replace him.

[EJG1980]

Blimey, glad this isn't something more serious, but get well soon Antonio:

"Antonio Conte recently became unwell with severe abdominal pain.

Following a diagnosis of cholecystitis, he will be undergoing surgery to remove his gallbladder today (Wednesday) and will return following a period of recuperation.

Everyone at the Club wishes him well."

https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2023/january/get-well-soon-antonio/

The NHS website says people are usually released from hospital the same day for that procedure, and feeling back to normal within a couple of weeks if they have a desk job, a bit longer if you have a manual job (and I suppose with all the work on the training pitch Conte's job is at least somewhat manual).

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That came out of the blue - yes, hope it is a quick recovery.

I had a relative with the same thing and the gall bladder removed in an emergency operation some time in the mid-1970s when they were in their late 60s or early 70s and they lived to be over 88 years old. So its a common operation and once done should not significantly affect the patient's diet or general health.

On other Spursy stuff - barely any notable January transfer market action except for Matt Doherty being released from his contract and joining Athletico Madrid. Sorry to see him go.

It's an uncannily Kieren Trippier-like move; I'm just hoping that it is not going to be another similar big Spurs mistake again.

I think KT has been a vital part of Newcastle's performance improvement this year and getting through to the Carabao Cup final.

[EJG1980]

Big difference though is that we let Tripper go to Atletico Madrid when he had played very well for us for several seasons and was clearly the best right back at the club.

Aside from a brief spell during last season's run in (which he was very unlucky to have cut short when he got injured in the match against Aston Villa, maybe things would be different if that injury hadn't happened), Doherty has never really been any better than 'okay' during his time with us. We rarely saw the Matt Doherty who had done so well with Wolves.

Hopefully though, we have finally got a player in that position who can do as well as Kyle Walker or Kieran Tripper did, with the signing of Pedro Porro. He's very good, I can't really think of a better right back/right wingback we could have realistically signed. Fingers crossed it'll end up being €40 million well spent.

If he doesn't work out then I think we might as well give up and invent a new formation that doesn't use right backs



A very nice range of accurate crosses and passes for his assists, and he looks to have a very decent long range shot on him too. He even scored a free kick among those goals, maybe we'll finally have someone who'll stop Kane from taking them all the time!

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Antonio update edit:

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It must have been a late deal completing the PP move; it wasn't on the BBC confirmed transfer news list I saw before posting.

Good news though and fingers crossed we've finally found the right player for that position.

Just watched the YT video and if he plays as well as that for us he'll will be a great attack support addition to the squad. Him and Kulusevski together should make any Premiership back line wet themselves in fear before the game has even started.

Would like to see more of PP defensive skills put to the test though.

[EJG1980]

Yup, the tweet & web site article confirming Porro's signing didn't get posted until late night, about five minutes before the transfer window closed.

In other news, we're back on the BBC again for the next round of the FA Cup, Wrexham or Sheffield United v Tottenham Hotspur will be shown on BBC One on 1st March at 19:55.