Author Archives: mabbs - Page 2

Pose Your Questions to Clive Allen – Exclusive Interview

Posted by on November 22, 2011 54 comments

Clive AllenThis Sunday sees Tottenham coach Clive Allen join the England Legends taking part in Nivea for Men’s Great Football Experiment this weekend. Clive and a team of fellow ex pros take on the might of Ivory FC, from the Brentwood Sunday Football League. I’ll be interviewing Clive and you can submit your questions for the Spurs legend by replying to this post.

Nivea’s England Legends team boasts nearly 200 caps between them, and is made up of the following ex pros:

• Ian Walker
• Luther Blissett
• Nigel Winterburn
• Mark Wright
• Viv Anderson
• Ray Parlour
• Clive Allen
• Paul Walsh
• Alvin Martin
• Tony Woodcock
• Rob Jones

The game takes place this Sunday at Dagenham & Redbridge’s Victoria Ground (2pm kick off), where Ivory FC get to test how far they’ve really come against an England Legends XI. It’s fair to say the Legends will be wanting to put the Ivory boys back in their place! Although there are no betting sites that are covering this game, there is sure to be keen interest from fans at the Victoria Ground.

The Great Football Experiment has seen Nivea For Men provide a struggling Sunday league team with the kind of training, equipment and expert advice usually only afforded to top pros. With mentoring and training provided by the likes of Terry Venables, Ray Wilkins and Ray Clemence, previously struggling Ivory FC are now flying high at the top of the Brentwood Sunday Football League.

You can see more details about the Great Football Experiment here: www.niveaformen.co.uk/football
We are backing Clive for Man of the Match and if he’s selected, one lucky White Hart Pain reader will get a great bundle of Nivea For Men products. I’ll choose a winner from anyone who submits a question for Clive in the comments here.

Follow me on Twitter @therealmabbs

Can we make it eight?

Posted by on November 3, 2011 No comments

Tottenham look to stretch their unbeaten run to eight games with a trip to Russian side Rubin Kazan in the Europa League tonight. The team can secure their passage into the last 32 with victory tonight giving them two games to spare. This would be a welcome tonic for manager Harry Redknapp who is currently in hospital recovering from minor heart surgery. Kevin Bond takes charge in Redknapp’s absence and will relish the opportunity.

While the Europa League is a significant step down from last season’s exciting run in the Champions League, it is a good source of revenue for the club and becomes a lot more interesting the further you progress. It has also given us the chance to blood the younger members of our squad and give some of the fringe players a run out. The fact Spurs have a squad with great strength in depth means competitions such as this are very useful. The Champions League does not allow you that luxury because it is far more competitive and you need your best players competing in every game. Should things go to plan this season in the Premier League, our squad players will benefit from the Europa League experience and be better equipped for a Champions League campaign in 2012-13.

If you are looking for a bet on sports in this particular match you could do worse than back Spurs to get a 1-0 victory. Tottenham have been very impressive in recent matches and although a few of our star players haven’t travelled to Russia, the returning big names such as Gallas and Pienaar will ensure we put in a good performance. The lads are likely to want to win for the game for Harry and it would be superb to reach the latter stages of this competition without really having to come out of first gear.

If players were valued in inches

Posted by on July 12, 2011 8 comments

£27m would be a decent offer for Luka Modric. The fact is they are not, and that sort of price still isn’t enough for our top commodity. It might seem foolish to call any player priceless, but that’s what Modric is to most Tottenham Hotspur fans. Harry Redknapp described the earlier £22m offer as a joke. I didn’t find it all that amusing and the improved one is still not making me laugh very much.

I understand why he’s tempted by the move to West London. Chelsea are very likely to be challenging in both the Premier League and the Champions League next season. Spurs definitely won’t be doing one of those and are unlikely to be doing the other either. The problem biggest problem I have with this situation is selling your best player to a team you are trying to close the gap on is a massive mistake. The fact the Premier League is now arguably the biggest league in the world means these sorts of transfers will happen more and more often. We have already seen how Arsenal are struggling to hold onto their stars even though they did qualify for the Champions League.

With the reports of Michael Essien being unavailable for up to six months due to a knee injury, Chelsea are even more likely to keep coming back until they get their man. Modric is probably going to official request a transfer soon enough and that will make the club’s position pretty impossible. I like that we are showing resolve and not just rolling over but when a player decides they want to move, it’s pretty pointless trying to force them to stay.

At what is likely to be the peak of his career, a player like Luka Modric should be competing at the highest level possible and winning major honours. It’s just unfortunate for us Spurs fans that he probably won’t be able to do that while playing at the Lane.

The Bojan Krkic Puzzle

Posted by on July 4, 2011 6 comments

Bojan KrkicWhile he looks arguably a better prospect than Giovani dos Santos was, is Bojan Krkic going to be another over priced disappointment from the fringes of the Barcelona squad? A £14m price tag would suggest this 20 year old is a bit special but as he’s yet to do it on a consistent basis at the highest level, this transfer would be a very risky one.

Maybe Dos Santos is an unfair comparison. For one thing, he only cost £5m and for another, he probably wasn’t in the same league as this kid ability wise. Although Bojan has failed to break into the first team on a full time basis, he has still managed to net 41 goals in 163 games for the Catalan giants since 2007. After winning the European U21 Championships with Spain recently, the young Spaniard will no doubt be looking to play first team football. Four years of being a fringe player, even at his relatively young age, is no good for any footballer’s career.

From Barcelona’s point of view, it looks to be a no lose situation. Bojan is highly unlikely to be able to break into their team due to the current abundance of talent at Pep Guardiola’s disposal and a big money transfer fee for a player that is basically surplus to requirements makes sense. Should Krkic turn out to be a superstar, Barca will no doubt be back to sign the player at some point and he would quite likely want to return to his boyhood club, as is the case with Cesc Febregas.

This is another example of a signing that Spurs can make without the lure of Champions League football. He’s undoubtedly a player of limitless potential who has superlative technique and would be a good addition to Tottenham’s front line options. On the negative side, he’s short, likely over priced, hasn’t played enough regular first team football at the highest level and might struggle in a very physically demanding Premier League.

North London Divide

If you’re a Spurs or Arsenal fan, be sure to pop over to the North London Divide and say hello. It’s basically a site where both Spurs and Arsenal fans can get together for some friendly banter. I write the Arsenal articles and Wrighty7 does the Spurs stuff.

Emmanuel Adebayor could be Tottenham Bound

Posted by on June 30, 2011 27 comments

Emmanuel Adebayor TottenhamHe is talented but hugely unlikeable and not just because of his stint at Arsenal. I couldn’t understand a word that came out his mouth during the World Cup when he was helping diversify the BBC’s panel of pundits. He puts in 110% for a few games a season but is largely lazy. I think that pretty much sums up Emmanuel Adebayor. While I might sound a bit negative about the current Manchester City misfit, I would also say that on his day, Adebayor is still capable of being one of the best strikers in the Premier League.

Early in Adebayor’s Manchester City career, he faced former club Arsenal at the City of Manchester Stadium. It was a game in which he was later to receive a ban for violent conduct and he also chose to run the length of the pitch to provoke the travelling Arsenal fans. That wasn’t what stuck in my mind about that match however. What did stay with me was the way Adebayor played. He was quite simply breathtaking at times and while the majority of Arsenal fans were happy to see the back of the Togolese attacker because of his questionable attitude, they were probably also left wondering who in their squad could produce such a meaningful performance.

It doesn’t look like Real Madrid want to retain Adebayor’s services and he has rejected talk of moves to Blackburn and PSG in recent days. Could he be the man to solve our striker issues or would he just create more of them? City are unlikely to want to sell to Tottenham but it could be a possibility if the price is right. Also, Harry isn’t scared to take ex Arsenal players to the Lane if he thinks they are good enough as was the case with William Gallas.

Personally, Emmanuel Adebayor wouldn’t be a player I’d consider for anything like the £25m valuation that is being banded about but if we could bring him in at a cut price, I think he is possibly worth taking a punt on. Without the lure of Champions League football, the world class players that we can attract are all likely to come with some baggage.

Where do we go from here?

Posted by on June 29, 2011 11 comments

Does anyone else feel like Tottenham are stuck in limbo? Probably too good for the Europa League, not quite good enough for the Champions League. A situation that it appears impossible to free ourselves from. I’m not interested in the riches of Manchester City or Chelsea. I feel like any achievements they make mean very little as there are no real obstacles in either side’s way other than the impatience of their respective owners. It must be boring supporting sides with an unlimited budget. Or is it more boring being stuck in the Europa League for the foreseeable future?! I’m not sure.

Bring back the UEFA and Cup Winners Cups please. Straight up knockout competitions where teams play at their best rather than continual life sapping trips to Eastern Europe on a Thursday night. I realise there is a fair bit of revenue involved but I’m willing to do a fun run or a few boot sales to make up the shortfall. The majority of football fans whose teams aren’t involved in the Europa League have zero interest in it. For those whose teams are, it’s minimal at best until the latter stages.

I’m assuming Harry is going to treat the Premier League as our priority and the Europa League as a run out for players not seeing regular first team action. At least that’s what I’m hoping. Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool and Tottenham. They are the top six clubs in the country fighting for just four elite places. My problem is I now think that Liverpool are more likely than Tottenham to oust one of those first four mentioned. Is that the pessimist in me or the realist? I was surprised when we went to Anfield and turned them over at the end of the season, especially when the Pool had been in such good form. It could likely be my pessimistic outlook that garners these types of results for us so I should probably try and maintain it.

I suppose the forthcoming season was always going to be a little anti climactic following the euphoria of a Champions League campaign. I’m just not looking forward to it. More about hanging on to our stars than buying new ones coupled with the prospect of losing Harry Redknapp to England at the end of it. Am I missing some light at the end of this dark rather boring tunnel?!

Is our season over?

Posted by on April 4, 2011 13 comments

Five points behind Chelsea, six off Man City. We haven’t scored in our last three games, haven’t won in five. Since the 16th January, our strikers have only scored six goals between them. Worst of all, Tottenham are highly unlikely to be playing Champions League football next season. A heavy defeat in the Bernabeu on Tuesday night would really finish us off. Even the biggest optimist would struggle to see us winning the Champions League and I’m worried whether the players will have the motivation as well as the threat in front of goal to go to Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool and get results.

Admittedly, we have three home games coming up in the League against Stoke, Arsenal and West Brom. Maybe things will look very different after that, but the fact we couldn’t manage to beat any of the bottom three sides in our last three games doesn’t exactly inspire me with confidence.

Tottenham’s destiny is most certainly still in their own hands. On top of the games at the Lane, Spurs also have to go to Chelsea and Man City. Having dropped so many points in recent weeks, the likely scenario now is that we go into those games desperate for a result. Had we managed to beat a couple of the relegation candidates, the pressure would have been on Chelsea and City to win their home games.

There have been a number of stages this season where we have dropped off the pace a little and I’ve been worried we would struggle to get back in the hunt for a top four spot, but every time the lads have managed to get back involved. I certainly wouldn’t be having a bet on Spurs at the moment and I just don’t like the look of the little gap that’s developing or the fact Man City scored the same number of goals in one game as Spurs have managed in their last six…

Help the Spurs Five get to the Emirates

Posted by on March 29, 2011 1 comment

I recently received an impassioned plea from eight young lads to ask if I could help them fulfill their dream of getting to the Emirates Stadium. AFC Fink Brau are a group of Spurs fans who are involved in the O2 Fives. As you might have guessed, it’s a five-a-side competition where the 16 teams with the most ‘likes’ on their page get to play in the event at Arsenal’s home.

Captained by Matt ‘Micky Hazard’ Hamm, the team is made up of James Adams, Mikey ‘Chicharito’ Langdon, Johnny Kirby, Dan ‘Calderwood’ Clark, Paul Erwood, Roberto Rosenthal Di Straldio and Aaron ‘Pikey Bastard’ Adams.

The main reason we need to get behind these Bournemouth based boys is the fact they plan on wearing the Spurs colours when they get to the last 16, as well as putting a few goals away obviously. While it might not be quite the same as when Bale and co went there earlier in the season and scored three if memory serves me correctly, it would still be nice to see a team supporting Spurs getting to play and possibly lift at trophy at Arsenal’s home.

You can like AFC Fink Brau’s page and help their cause by visiting the link below and clicking ‘like’.

Click here to Like AFC Fink Brau

Things feel a bit stale

Posted by on March 22, 2011 8 comments

For a couple of months now, it seems thing have gone a bit, for want of a better word, stale. Blackpool and Fulham aside, results have still been good overall but we just seem to lack both killer instinct in front of goal as well as a bit of spark. I can’t quite put my finger on it because everyone is playing well still and we are creating chances but something is lacking.

Van Der Vaart has certainly gone off the boil in recent weeks and he was the one giving us that energy boost and that bit of world class magic. He still doesn’t look fully fit to me and that’s likely why he’s hauled off quite so often. I can’t knock Modric and his play in midfield has been exceptional but his goal return this season is poor. That’s not to say he’s doing anything wrong, if the strikers were hitting the back of the net it wouldn’t be a problem.

I’ve been saying this for a long while, even before the season got underway and I still think we need a world class out and out goal scorer. The problem is, there aren’t many of them around. I’m not sure whether it’s because the way the game is played has changed slightly in the last five or ten years or just the quality of strikers has dropped, but you don’t seem to get your twenty five, thirty goal a season men like you used to. I think Defoe isn’t far off world class on his day and is a top Premiership striker but his inconsistency is becoming an issue. Although Pavlyuchenko is a bit of an enigma, I’d be tempted to give him a little run in the side. Not that I think he’s on Defoe’s level, but just to offer us something different and freshen it up a bit.

It could be that I’m taking too much of a short term view and things will suddenly spark into life again in the next few weeks. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not criticising anyone and this season has already proved way beyond anything I could imagine, it’s just a little frustrating dropping points that we are more than capable of picking up. This is especially when a top four finish is so crucial to the continued progress and development of Tottenham, and it seems as though the 4th spot is very much there for the taking.

Maybe the Champions League furore has taken the edge off our league form slightly but if that is the case, what the players need to realise is that they won’t be playing in it next season unless they start picking up some points. Even Liverpool aren’t out of the Top 4 battle after their recent good form. I feel like Wigan is a must win game for us now, the problem is I’m not sure it’s a game we will win with a trip to Madrid on everyone’s mind just a few days later…

Could we fare better than Arsenal?

Posted by on March 11, 2011 6 comments

So, the dream has become a reality and Spurs have made it to the Quarter Finals of the Champions League. After being three nil down against those pesky Young Boys in the first qualifying round, Harry Redknapp and his European soldiers are now just four games away from the final of Europe’s biggest football competition.

While the away leg at the San Siro was an assured professional performance the likes I haven’t seen from a Tottenham side before, Wednesday’s home game was an uncomfortable ninety minutes where our players dug in, defended well and secured their passage into the last eight.

Jermain Defoe’s big talk at the start of the season about Tottenham progressing further than the Gunners in the Champions League no longer sounds so stupid. The question now is can they fare any better than Arsenal against the Catalan Giants? Should we draw them in the quarter finals, I won’t be too despondent. While I think it will be a near impossible task over two legs against Barca, anything is possible in football. We have the players to hit them on the break with better effect than Arsenal could manage. Lennon and Bale give us an outlet that Arsenal didn’t have.

While avoiding Barcelona in the next round would be preferable, no side left in the competition is going to be an easy touch. Admittedly Milan aren’t as good as they once were but they are no mugs. Spurs have proven they can mix it with the best sides in European football and appear to have the confidence to take on any team. Our league form may have suffered a little as the results against Blackpool and Wolves illustrate but I’m willing to swallow it if it means this European adventure can continue for a bit longer…

Absolute
I’ll be on Ian Wright’s show on Absolute Radio sometime between five and six tomorrow if anyone wants to hear me talk more nonsense about Spurs!