Wave on…
With the signing of Rafael van der Vaart for £8m, I felt it was time to give Spurs their due.
They are on the ups, aren’t they? You commenters. ‘Arry’s boasts. Peter Crouch’s insipid celebrations. The lack of tears. It’s all getting a bit much, and so, I decided to clear my head and take a look at The State of Spurs.
First, take a look at the state of the club. Daniel Levy is a f**king smart owner. Buys reasonably and sells high. Van der Vaart is a typical Levy signing. The Dutchman may be past his prime, but at 27 he’s still a quality player and has much to prove. Certainly worth more than the £8m paid, no? Good business.
It seems that Levy almost always does good business. The Spurs balance sheet is strong and White Hart Lane is full. At a time when Liverpool and United are listing over with debt, can’t you appreciate a well-run club living within their means?
They made the Champions League proper. This is huge. It gives Spurs more income, gets the faithful frothing, and allows them at least the possibility to attract a different level of player. And while the loss to Wigan this past weekend shows that they can’t assume consistent play, it wasn’t long ago that Spurs were in the bottom half of the table.
Now? Who’s on a better run over the last 12 months? Forget Chelsea and United and Arsenal. They have resources and panache that Spurs can’t touch yet. But look at the other clubs trying to make the leap. Everton? Villa? Hell, throw in City and Liverpool. Spurs rate in that group. They do!
And the squad is strong. Scan the list with an objective eye. Strong Keeper. Deep at the back. Plenty of creative midfield options. Gareth Bale re-invented! And some big stones sprinkled throughout. The only question is the strike force (Crouch is over-rated sh*te. End of.). But even there, think of a single injury to Torres or Rooney or van Persie or Drogba. Take what’s left. Compare it to Spurs. Further, Spurs are playing attractive football. Their matches are flat-out fun to watch.
Now, I think Harry Redknapp is going to be sorely tested this season. Playing in four competitions means squad rotation. Harry hasn’t seem to have grasped that. And they were beaten by Wigan this past weekend after recently losing to f**king Young Boys in Switzerland. Nevertheless, despite the abuse he receives, I do think that Redknapp is a quality manager. He’s gotten it done in a number of situations. But he’s the weak link here, isn’t he? And what does that say? Strong finances. Smart owner. Very nice squad. Full stadium. Champions League football. Managed by Harry Redknapp. When ‘Arry is your question mark, I think you’ve got to be happy with where you are.
OK….
I will be honest that I wrote this after one too many gripes on the UF Contributor Thread about Spurs. A certain contributor slagged off the van der Vaart signing. This contributor’s “Big Four” club had spent the day trying and failing to trade Rafa Trash for Carlton Cole. They filled a need with Paul Konchesky. That’s good business… for a mid-table club like Spurs used to be. Meanwhile, Spurs are buying van der Vaart for £8m. A Gooner contributer recognized the value here and compared this buy to Arsenal’s failure to sign a keeper.
And, of course, our humble site has attracted all sorts of Spurs commenters. Many of you are mouth-breathing troglodytes, to be sure. But it’s the sensible among you that truly are making the UF crew a bit mental. You are getting under our skins, it is true. Poor Likely Lad is just getting killed on the thread. Plus, it’s always good for traffic to play to the cheap seats.
So let me be Dr. Autoglass for a bit. The Gooners don’t like hearing their North London rival’s supporters being confident, especially when they have every f**king reason to be confident. The Pool supporters can’t help but compare the “State of Spurs” with the “State of Liverpool.” Liverpool are swimming in debt and don’t have owners. The Stretford End and I don’t like your general uppityness. Win something, eh? Then we’ll talk. We slap back at the Gooners for their barking without trophies, but we certainly aren’t going to take it from you.
But… we all now kinda dread a Spurs fixture, no? Used to be an automatic three points. Now? Not so much. Right now, I would rather go to Manchester City or Anfield than to White Hart Lane.
And that, I think, is the truest testament to the fact that, right now, it’s good to be Spurs.
Woooooooooooooooooooooo.
I’m linking to this all the time.
Yep, that 0-1 hammering of Wigan would sure have me afraid of going to White Hart Lane as well.
Put me firmly in the mouth-breathing troglodyte camp.
Something about this post strikes me as rhyming with “Free-Verse Sphinx” I may be wrong, though. . .
It will be fun watching you self-loathing Spurs supporters trying to waive this off. “Noooo! Don’t say that! We suffer!”
There are expectations now. Deal with it. Sack up.
Looking out my window for 4 men riding on horses. Is the ground a little cold to anyone else, like it’s frozen?
@Autoglass
I already have one of my teams in freefall right now.
<——————-(that one)
Don't put that voodoo on me.
*
^^——————-that one
Autoglass likes to gulp.
Suck it, UF contributors on the UF daily e-mail thread, and keep sucking it.
Obligatory – Sp*rs are s**t.
Not obligatory – they’re actually kinda fun to watch. And I do like their midfield. Unfortunately their fans do like to lick their own buttholes. And good lord it seems like there are a lot more of them lately.
@ Anon: That sounds vaguely familiar, like a campaign slogan or something.
@OM: It is. I’m running for President. A dog couldn’t do worse than the clowns we have.
@ berg: They are entertaining to watch, whether it’s Thudd launching a rocket over the goal, Gomes dramatically saving a goal and pulling a hammy, Bale terrorizing RB but forgetting to shoot with his best foot, or the Little Croat General weaving through the Big Trees in the EPL (suck it Barclays) and getting cut down for it. Glory, even in defeat.
@ Anon: It would look neat on a yard sign or on a bumper sticker. Suck It & Keep on Sucking It/Pupsters for Prez
Man, we have our very own Spurs thread. Now I can randomly post things like, “To dare is to do!” and not get slagged off for it!
@Otto: did you lose a bet with the Likely Lad? I don’t know, this seems more like “it sucks to be some other teams” (I’m looking at you, Liverpool) more than “it’s good to be Spurs.”
@berg: I lol’d. Butthole is always a funny word.
Also, the first paragraph of this explains Levy’s bargaining position quite accurately, to my mind.
@ Anon: I know, phil doesn’t even have to tj/end tj!
Nah, I’ve watched Spurs for years. And I have several friends who have suffered for years and are now training their children to suffer. Spurs just seem different now, somehow. And it is funny how you and they are getting under folks’ skins around here. This morning, it occurred to me that I would pull my thoughts together.
Anon, Is it “To Dare is to Crush Your Supporters’ Spirits” or “To Dare is to Get Food Poisoning.”?
As to Liverpool, yeah, the contrast in vibe is striking. Don’t tell JT I said so….
OH WHEN THE SPURS
GO MARCHING IN
OH WHEN THE SPURS GO MARCHING IN
I WANT TO BE IN THAT NUMBER
WHEN THE SPURS GO MARCHING IN
Wait, wait, wait. Spurs. Who just lost to a team that had shipped 16 goals without scoring any before beating Spurs on the road.
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I like giving these a**holes s**t as much as the next guy, but come the f**k on. Classic Arry moment: win a game you have to; fail to show up the next day. They dropped three points at home to Wigan. Run that through your head a few times.
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Either this whole bit was tongue-in-cheek or you’re as f**king delusional as the Cocks on here, Autoglass.
Oh, but they signed a player who’s exactly like two players they already have. Except more one-footed. And two yards slower. But they got a really good deal on him!
Love you, Anonsters!
–
And you, Auto!
@Shane: Yes, we lost a game we shouldn’t have lost. We did the same thing last year to Stoke and Wolves at home. It’s a problem. But guess what? Other teams drop points they shouldn’t to s**tty teams too *GASP*. Spurs don’t have a monopoly on losing to beatable teams (see Man City & Sunderland). But just because it was a disgrace to lose to Wigan doesn’t mean we are now a s**tty team who’s going to self-destruct.
‘Real’s sports director, Miguel Pardeza, told the club’s website: “It is absolutely false that Real Madrid received a €21m offer from Bayern Munich for Van der Vaart. In fact, the German team never showed an interest to sign the player, so the allegations made in England have greatly surprised us.” Spurs have no further comment to make.’
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Complete f**king joke. Arry’s takin the piss out of every last one of you. Oh, Daniel the Great won’t let him wantonly spend our resources! He’s smarter than that! F**kin’a.
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‘The Holland playmaker Van der Vaart, who featured in the World Cup final, told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf: “Four years at Spurs, for €11m, I can hardly believe it myself. The interest from Tottenham came very quickly and I did not have much time to think. But I want to play football again and, if possible, every week, with a beautiful club. I’m totally happy.”‘
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So basically four-o-clock yesterday Arry went, “Oi! Shit! I ‘aven’t spent a s**t ton of cash yet! ‘oo the f**k is still available?!?” And up popped someone who’s sat through three transfer windows without moving, despite the price tag sitting in the €8-10m mark the whole time. Yeah, what an incredible piece of f**king business.
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Maybe he can release and resign Younes Kaboul for fun this week!
Hey, Sunderland away is a tough fixture! And Darren Bent was offside anyways.
Darren Bent: Sold at a loss by… anyone? Anyone?
@Otto: I hope that wasn’t directed at me as it seems to imply I’m a Spurs fan. Or maybe I’m just getting under folks’ skins for entirely different reasons.
You remind me of a self-loathing closet homosexual. Not that you’re gay or anything, but somewhere deep in there, you’re secretly a Spurs supporter who’s too terrified to admit to friends and family who you truly are. It’s ok, Shane. They won’t judge you as harshly as you expect.
Bill Nicholson quote: “…intelligence doesn’t make you a good footballer. Oxford and Cambridge would have the best sides if that were true. It’s a football brain that matters and that doesn’t usually go with an academic brain. In fact I prefer it when it doesn’t. I prefer players not to be too good or clever at other things. It means they concentrate on football.”
‘Arry Rednkapp quote: “My missus fancies him. Even I don’t know whether to play him or f*ck him.”
Side step and keep the propaganda flow running smoothly.
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Me and Bill share a surname. Shame he got saddled with a club willing to live on his legacy instead of trying to build on it.
I find it remarkably easy to let snide comments from a Rangers supporter slide off my back like water off a duck. Quack.
Three. Transfer. Windows. And an average World Cup. And he fills the same role as two better players already on your books. And your manager tried to sell you a line that a club that played in the Champions League Final LAST YEAR wanted to pay more than double the price you did and somehow along the way that deal fell apart. And you believe it.
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“How do you think Spurs are going to do this year?”
“You Arsenal supporters are all the same…”
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Talking to a goddamn wall.
Also, this little guy is a Spurs supporter, so you should be too.
He didn’t deserve that, Anon.
Spurs: Highest CPQ* in the EPL (suck it, Barclay’s!)!
*CPQ = Cute Puppy Quotient, natch.
Well at least you’re on top of one table.
I will give Spurs some credit: It’s a better place to be for an obsolete Irishman than Besiktas.
What’s that? I cannae understan’ ye.
See what I did there? Didja, huh, didja?
I did! You might know: was Spurs the club Robbie supported at childhood both times he signed, or just the first?
Both times, of course. Robbie had a very cosmopolitan childhood.
The MLS team he signs for in the next 5 years will also be a childhood favorite of his, too.
@Shane: harder to be on the top of a table when the rest of the league isn’t s**t like the SPL. Oh, how’s that effort to join the premiership going?
Also, I’m sick, so I shall proceed to argue by giving everyone the flu. I win.
It’ll be so much fun around here if Spurs and Rangers ever meet in the Champions League.
Now that they have even more midweek complications to look forward to–no better than 8th this season.
TJ (yes, I know):
Why is it that I only discovered today that Aquilani was loaned to Juve? I didn’t even get the chance to make a snide remark.
/TJ
Shane just outed himself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_Nicholson_%28singer%29
Brisbane’s a helluva long way from Tennessee.
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Aquilani’s been dead on this blog since Georger first used the RIP pic as his avatar.
Geographically, maybe. Culturally they’re practically neighbors.
@Ryan: They’d have to qualify more than once every-other-generation in order to increase the odds of that happening.
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@the rest: F**k off. In the most jokingly way possible. (But seriously)
Oh did I say Champions League? I mean Europa League.
Whoopsie.
Keep it calm, fellas. Though I’d be lying if I didn’t say that this is entertaining as f**k.
@Ryan: I’ll take it!
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@JT: If I avoided adverbs like Arry and said “most joking way” would that make it better?
I think I just found the image Mountain Wag has of Satan after listening to the podcast.
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00022/harry_01_280x420_22252a.jpg
I’m glad we went for Shane Nicholson the singer instead of Shane Nicholson the footballer on a football blog. I’m not sure what this says about our friend Goat but I’m sure it means he’s a registered sex offender.
Also, I have supported this blog from childhood and couldn’t be happier to be a part of it.
@Shane
Don’t mind me! I just stepped away to grab popcorn.
@ Ryan: As a Spurs fan, wanting to have the season end with a top 4 finish but realistically, I could handle Europa League. As Nicholson said: “It’s magnificent to be in Europe, and this club – a club like Tottenham Hotspur – if we’re not in Europe…. we’re nothing. we’re nothing.”
@JT: Did you bring enough for everyone?
@ Shane: Got Avatar’d up I see, good on ya.
@ JT: I hope you also brought some chicken noodle soup as it looks like Anon has the flu.
@Shane
Yup! Shame about the Revs losing the Superliga to Morelia.
@OM: Well London is in Europe, so I suppose they’ve fulfilled Bill’s wishes.
@Outside Mid
Yup, soup too.
Fox soccer is showing highlights of the Wigan match. Quality football, that.
@OM: John Greig has arrived to bring some sense of credibility to this place.
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@JT: Is that directed at me? It can’t possibly be, unless you’re implying that because I’m American I should give two s**ts about this Mickey Mouse Cup.
I actually thought there might be a slight chance you were the football Shane Nicholson and that you might be a bit touchy about having you speed addiction revealed.
@Goat: What’s going on with your Crew tonight?
I have publicly acknowledged and accepted my speed addiction. Plus I play as a stopper, not left full back.
Oh, while I was typing that, the Crew scored.
@Shane
Not directed at you at all, mate. Just saying out loud that the Revs failed to win the Superliga.
@JT: I can live with that. I just looked at the ESPN3 lineup; I think they’re showing every other football match in the world on Friday besides the Scotland qualifier. Still a pretty impressive lineup, but I’m going to yell “Conspiracy!” loud (see what I did there?) to drive my point home to my unsuspecting and sound-asleep wife.
@Ryan: hadn’t really been following the game–just checking the score from time to time. I actually wish the Open Cup was taken more seriously, though (although the Crew line up indicates that they’re not blowing it off).
@Shane
My team had a position called “stopper”, then I turned 12.
@Tno: Well I play with a sweeper, so what the f**k else do you want me to call it? “Central defender with more closing down duties than the other guy”. Is that better? I know these tactical concepts can be hard for Spurs fans to understand sometimes.
@Ryan (because I know you’re dying to know): Crew up 2-1 in extra time.
Yeah, I’ve been giving it the same treatment. Checking twitter periodically. Though I was watching early on when DC got their penalty.
There should be a circus-music theme played every time a Spurs-related thread gets posted.
@JT: Aren’t you proud of me??? Did you see what I did?! I TJ’d a Spurs thread with something about ‘Pool!
Where were you watching it?
@Goat: DC United is showing it live on their website. Direct link: dctv.neulion.com
(Needs Silverlight I think)
A 15 year old kid is playing for Philly tonight against Chivas.
@Anon: I’m kind of curious on this now, because I grew up calling my position “center-half” because of my family/etc. And later in life I was told that no one says that anymore, and the implication of center-half is that of a defender almost playing the role of a modern defensive midfielder, but still part of a back four, which is what I would consider a stopper. Either way, I didn’t like it when my coaches told me that my position was something that didn’t exist. There’s no way my grandfather would make something like that up, you thick f**ks!
/reverts to saying he plays as a center-half after this exchange
@Shane: I’m not Tno.
@Ryan: you a DCU fan? I’m thinking of going to the Crew game in DC on Saturday.
@Anon: Well you all look alike to me. Ever think I just wanted your opinion on a subject you hadn’t been discussing in the first place? Jesus, you Spurs supporters are all the same.
/my bad
@Goat: Nope, just an interested observer. Still looking for an MLS team to get behind.
@Ryan: Don’t pick D.C.
Pick the Crew. They’re America’s hardest working team.
@Shane
I can’t name a major team that plays a defensive diamond.
@ Ryan: If you get that MLS club to follow, let me know so I can bandwagon.
Really close to hopping on the Portland bandwagon, although that’s a decent ways away if I want to catch a game, which to me is the big attraction for picking a local side.
@OM
I made the mistake of going to a DC game and now I’m a DC fan. But their games are really fun.
Just flipped to FSC and they were showing highlights of Sandro playing for Brazil’s U-21s, Yay Sandro!
They are fun to go to. A wee expensive. And the team is s**t. And the metro ride home is one giant pain in the ass. But fun.
@ OM: I’ve flirted with DC fandom, but their current pants-osity has been slightly discouraging.