Gert & TheBoy's Official VNA Soccer... err Football Thread

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TheBoy
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October 24th, 2013, 3:32 pm

Zlatan's form must be fading after last night - scoring just the four goals, including only one screamer. I mean, is that the best he can do? Lol, seriously he must be just about the best striker in World football right now? For a player who has played in a number of different leagues for many more different teams, it's a shame that we will probably never got to see him play in the Premier League. The way he is playing, you have to think he would tear the division apart.

As for Cavani, are they really playing him as a right winger! I guess that's the problem when you pay massive amounts of money for players who play in the same position - you end up having to shoe-horn someone in or risk having a big fall out. Although the cynic in me might suggest that PSG thought Zlatan would sort himself a move away during the summer once he saw they had signed Cavani and this wasn't a problem they were expecting to have...

Obviously you are in a much better position to judge Ajax than me, but I wouldn't be too hard on the loss to Celtic. Of course it's a game that Ajax should really be winning, but Hampden Park is a tough place to go when you've got 50,000 highly passionate Scots and a team pumped up to finally play in a game that means something. If you guys lose the return in Amsterdam, then I think you need to start worrying.

Just watched Spurs play the mighty FC Sheriff in Moldova. We certainly didn't play at our best which was a credit to Sheriff in the first half as they pressed us like crazy and with better finishing could well have had a different result. But with our retention of possession, it showed in the second half as we ground them down and eventually got the second goal (plus I won my bet on Defoe to score anytime - I was mighty worried about that when he pretty much had zero other chances to score!). Still, it's got to be good sign when you play at maybe only 70% away from home in Europe and come away with a clean sheet plus the all important three points :)

I will mention this just because I'm bound to forget it by the time the International friendlies roll around again ;) But do you recall me mentioning the Belgian newspaper article from 2002 that predicted with unnerving accuracy their future stars? Well someone has found an England team prediction from the Daily Mail made in 2007. Now you would think that just 6 years ago, the predictions would be fairly good, right? Wrong:
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Hilariously, only two of those have gained an England cap and only Walcott can have any hope of playing in Brazil. It's quite startling really just how bad that prediction is lol!

One last thought, there has been a glut of outstanding goals over the past few weeks, so I am pondering the idea of having ourselves a little 'goal of the month' selection. I've got the two Zlatan goals, Wilshere v Norwich and the Fulham goals from Kasami and Sidwell so far. If you have any others I should include, let me know know and I'll seek out gifs of them :) Btw, I bet the Kasami goal brought back memories of the famous Van Basten strike! Although I don't need to ask you which one you think is the better goal ;)
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October 26th, 2013, 8:45 pm

Threlfall? Henry? Baxter? ... LOL! ... Sam Huntchinson is playing on loan at Vitesse, but he certainly didn't turn out to be as good as they thought in '07.

Well, I watched El Clasico at 6pm my time (5pm GMT). This match always used to be played around 11pm or something, but as of now it's also being broadcasted live in New Delhi, Peking & Tokio, which is why the Spanish FA decided to make it an early evening match. All about the money, lol.

Ancelotti was being his stupid self again. Real's starting line up consisted of two central defenders (Varane & Pepe) as well as two defensive midfielders, namely Khedira and Sergio Ramos. Maybe someone should inform Ancelotti about the fact Ramos doesn't know how to play Football. In other words, Madrid's midfield was lacking creativity big time! First half they were defending like Inter used to do in the mid 50s. Let's see, what else.... Benzema on the bench and Gareth Bale in a forward role!? He looks unhappy. He doesn't have his family around. Carlo doesn't let him do what he's good at, while the players seem to be having a problem accepting that €100m made him the big star, which makes sense as he is clearly struggling to live up to the mile-high expectations. Seems to me things are going from bad to worse.

During the second half Illarramendi came on as substitution for Ramos, who got booked early, and because he simply doesn't know how to play defensive midfielder, lmao. Bale was being substituted on the hour. As for the goals; great equalizer by Ronaldo, masterly assist by Di Maria. And I'd like to "nominate" Alexis Sanchez' 2-1 for goal of the month. Also, Pedro Leon's first goal (Getafe vs Real Betis) earlier this month.

Tomorrow: Chelsea vs Manchester City
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October 28th, 2013, 1:45 pm

Yep, they were really looking into the crystal ball with that predicted England team lol! Quite frankly, they could have drawn 11 names out of a hat and picked a better team! Although in a more serious note, you can kind of see why the full national side is in a relative mess right now. If these players from just 6 years ago were genuinely the ones being thought of as the next generation, then it highlights our disastrous level of spotting talent and nurturing it.

Yeah I too watched (most) of El Clasico. The first 15 minutes had to be missed as apparently we have a broadcasting law in England that says no game can be televised on a Saturday between the hours of 14:45 and 17:15 to supposedly help preserve the attendances at 15:00 kick-offs. For obvious reasons, my main focus was on watching Bale and his stats do not make pleasant reading: 54% pass completion rate, 0% take-on success, 0% cross success, 2 fouls & 1 yellow card. Not exactly the way to get the fans onside! I've said it before, but he was a fool during the summer and pre-season for refusing to train or play matches. He's paying for it now big time as essentially he still needs a pre-season inside him. That would be difficult enough at a club he had been with for 5 years, but to do it in another country for pretty much the biggest club on the planet is something else entirely.

There were stories in the Sunday newspapers reporting that Manchester United are ready to 'rescue' him and are monitoring the situation. For that reason alone, I hope very much he starts to find his feet quickly at Madrid!

With regards to Real Madrid as a whole, what I find curious is that pretty much since Mourinho was head coach, they for some unfathomable reason abandon their successful formation and feel the need to drastically change just for the Barcelona game. To me it almost seems like they are pinning their hopes on Ronaldo scoring and the rest of the team trying to destroy the Barca attacks.

No real major talking points in the Premier League this weekend. There was almost a shock on the cards at Man United after twice going behind to Stoke, before squeezing out a 3-2 victory. I can't help feeling that United are getting these results despite David Moyes, rather than because of him. Arsenal continue to lead the way with a victory over managerless Crystal Palace (yep, Ian Holloway walked away last week). Arsenal lost Flamini to injury after 10 minutes and had Arteta red carded in the second half. Time will tell if these injuries and suspensions will start to derail their season :innocent: ;)

The big game yesterday was between Chelsea and Manchester City. Chelsea won 2-1 thanks to a late Torres winner due to yet another gift from the increasingly fragile looking Joe Hart. I don't know what it is about our best goalkeepers, but we somehow manage to systematically destroy each and every one of them. Paul Robinson, Ben Foster, Rob Green, Scott Carson, Chris Kirkland and now Joe Hart. All have had such bright futures but now have the reputation of clowns. Maybe Fraser Forster is next on the list after all...

Spurs beat Hull 1-0 thanks to a Soldado penalty. The game itself was very poor and it brought about the unfortunate situation of AVB saying the White Hart Lane crowd are not helping the team as they should be and in fact are making the players nervous. It's true that the crowds have been very quiet over the past few years and it infuriates me when I hear people constantly criticise rather than encourage. I just hope this doesn't become an issue for AVB and it doesn't detract from the brilliant job he is doing. We have already equalled our number of clean sheets from last season and have equalled our best ever start to a season. This is despite essentially having half a new team and losing Gareth Bale. Sure the performances haven't been great on the whole, but we keep getting results. So whilst we continue to do that, I'm happy for us to take the time to gel and think how good we can be in the second half of the season.

The other notable result from yesterday was Sunderland 2 - 1 Newcastle to hand Gus Poyet his first win. Of course, we also know of another recent Sunderland manager who managed a win against their rivals and that did not have a happy ending...

I've found Youtube links to all the notable goal of the month contenders so far (hopefully they don't get removed in the next few days lol). I was going to attach gifs but quickly realised I might bring the board to a grinding halt if I posted them :-p I will give it until Wednesday/Thursday to see if any of the midweek games thrown up some late contenders and then post them :)
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October 28th, 2013, 9:47 pm

He shoots.......
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Gert-Jan
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October 29th, 2013, 8:48 pm

How come I didn't know Bendtner was still playing for Arsenal? On the other hand, I guess the fact he was starting in tonight's match against Chelsea says everything about the League Cup. There have to be 48 hours between two matches. Chelsea vs City (El Cashico) ended at 6pm gmt last Sunday, while Arsenal vs Chelsea started at 7.45pm gmt tonight, so that's close to 50 hours in between? Just 50 hours to recover from an intense match; insane! Consequently, clubs will come up with their "B-squad", although a midfield consisting of Ramsey, Wilshere, Ozil & Cazorla ain't such a bad midfield, lol.

I also read the stories about Man United & Bale, but nobody would ever take Real Madrid serious anymore if they're actually gonna sell him so soon already. Not that anybody does now, though, but how much would they be getting back for Bale? €50m? Another story I read was about the World Cup in 2018; the possible expansion from 32 to 40 countries. More African/Asian countries, and for one reason only. Sepp Blatter has announced he'd like to remain chairman of the FIFA. The new elections will be held in 2015 and by promising that more countries from Africa as well as Asia can qualify for the WC, our Swiss dictator seems to be securing votes from those two continents. Wouldn't even surprise me if he got away with it.... again.

So, Arsenal vs Chelsea ended in 0-2. Loved Mata's goal. You could really see how frustrated he is by the fact Mourinho doesn't let him play weekly. Leicester City advance to the next round after winning 4-3 to Fulham. Bye bye Jol? Inter drew 1-1 away at Atalanta Bergamo. Celta vs Barcelona ended in a comfortable win for Martino and his boys.
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October 31st, 2013, 4:09 pm

The League Cup is a bit deceiving really. For a long spell in the early 2000's it was seen universally as a complete joke of a tournament. Prize money is non-existent and there is virtually no prestige to the competition. However, over the past 8-9 years (basically around the time Mourinho started with Chelsea), the bigger clubs have started to come to the realisation that this is the easiest and quickest way of slapping a trophy onto the table. For the bigger teams who enter in the 3rd round, it takes just 6 victories to win the cup and best of all the final takes place in February so the fixtures are out of the way nice and early. Thus the competition can be used early on to rest a few players and blood some youngsters and if they get through to the quarter and semi finals, start to take it seriously.

That said, the fixture planners didn't do anyone any favours for the round just played! As you say Arsenal and Chelsea were treated harshest but despite making plenty of changes still produced very capable teams. Spurs scraped though against Hull, but it was a very frustrating game to watch. The first 30 minutes or so were close to being the best I have seen us play all season. We should have made that period count, but as often happens we didn't. As good as we were in the first half, we were twice as bad in the second for reasons totally unknown. Defoe wasn't helping - people described him as Hull's best defender, which was actually a pretty accurate observation. Anyway, for the first time in my memory (apparently 1994 was the last time) I saw us win a penalty shootout and so the winning ugly continues!

Yep, my mum was delighted to see her Leicester City side defeat Fulham. Sounded like a cracker of a match, but you have to worry for Jol. I get the feeling he is probably just a defeat away from clearing his desk. What is Big Martin Jol's reputation like in Holland? All did not seem to go well during his time in charge of Ajax if memory serves. Was there problems with him, or something else?

So Gareth Bale is now a superstar again after last night! Two goals and two assists in a game that finished Real Madrid 7 - 3 Sevilla! I did find it a little amusing though that Bale scored two, so Ronaldo had to score a hat-trick lol. Lets see if this kick starts Bale's career or if it was just a night for penalties and schoolboy defending... I hope he does do well now though, honestly!

As much as we know Blatter is always up to no good, I'm always suspicious of when Platini backs an idea! And I read that he also supports the idea of expanding the World Cup, just like we will have to endure with the European Championships. Well at least we know what we can expect after Haiti lit up the Confederations Cup!

Ok, it's time for the eagerly awaited October Goal of the Month :) I'm glad I waited until the last day of the month to showcase them as it allowed me to add in the Gylfi Sigurdsson goal from last night ;)

I'm not sure of the best way to present this, so I'll try embedding the Youtube videos. This is the first time I've tired something like this, so if I'm risking breaking things or causing problems with so many videos, feel free to clean them up with just links or let me know to change them!

- Pedro Leon v Real Betis
- Alexis Sanchez v Real Madrid
- Sidwell v Palace
- Kasami v Palace
- Wilshere v Norwich
- Zlatan v Anderlecht
- Zlatan v Bastia
- Sturridge v WBA
- Sigurdsson v Hull

My personal top three would be 1. Kasami, 2. Wilshere, 3. Zlatan v Bastia. For me, the Kasami volley was something very special indeed and one that I could happily watch over and over. The Wilshere goal should perhaps be referred to as 'the Arsenal goal' instead as it was a brilliant team build up. And the Zlatan cheeky backheel just sums up the type of player he is. Not many would even think to try it, let alone try it and then actually go in! But I bet we could ask 10 other football fans to list their top 3 and each of them would come up with a different combo such was the number of amazinv goals this month. Let's hope for another one next month :) Oh also an honourable mention to the Rakitic goal for Sevilla last night that would normally have easily been in contention, but I think we already have more than enough to choose from...
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Gert-Jan
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November 2nd, 2013, 11:19 pm

Martin Jol has a big brother; Cock Jol. (Yes, that's his real name, lol.) Wherever Martin goes, his brother will go with him. Martin Jol has his own agent; Mino Raiola. Wherever Martin goes, the agent and his players go with him. People in Amsterdam are still having nightmares. Every morning over and over again, Jol entered the technical director's office demanding he'd get a new defender, or winger, or midfielder. Jol's most rememberable signings are Mido & Atouba. Both were way too heavy.... I mean, they looked more like professional wrestlers instead of healthy Football professionals, and both got a 3-year contract including wages of at least €1m p/year. It's a completely different club nowadays, led by a group of former Ajax players, who refuse to spend money like water. They've decided to give youth a chance.

He did the same thing at Fulham. Remember last season's winter break? Urby Emanuelson as well as right back defender Manolev joined Fulham on loan, both belong to agent Mino Raiola. I swear, everybody in Holland is fed up with Big Martin. Ugh! Happy he's in England right now, lol. By the way.... how's Maarten Stekelenburg doing? I don't see Fulham play very often and Van Gaal hasn't selected him for the upcoming friendlies.

The "Goal of the Month"- thing is a cool initiative, but some of the YouTube vids have already been removed as the rights are strictly owned by the leagues and television companies. Maybe we should come up with a maximum of 5 per month and only post the links? Just an idea. My October top 3 looks like this: 1) Ibracadabra against Bastia. 2) Jack Wilshere/Arsenal goal. 3) Pedro Leon against Betis.

Watched Arsenal vs Liverpool tonite, the Gunners have impressed me massively. They make Football look so easy, but the way they play the game is in fact extremely difficult. When they lose the ball, they put full pressure on the opponent to get it back in their possession. A real team effort, kinda like Barcelona did in their Guardiola years. Arsenal's defense has been poor for the last couple of seasons. Per Mertesacker must be one of the worst central defenders in Europe, but they have only conceded 9 goals so far. Also, Giroud was having a tough first season. You could see he needed time to adapt to the higher level, but (partly) thanks to Ozil he now actually looks like a decent no 9, though things fall apart if Bendtner takes his place. We've discussed the striker issue though, Wenger will solve that problem this winter....

So, for now it's Arsenal at #1, Liverpool #3, Southampton #5!? Spurs are 6th and you guys have only scored 9 times? I probably won't be able to see the match against Everton tomorrow, so you better give a full report after the weekend, lol. And what happend on Halloween?
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November 4th, 2013, 1:52 pm

It (childishly) amuses me that Martin Jol has two brothers named Cock and Dick, lol. I wonder how Martin avoided being named something similar to what I presume are traditional Dutch names given to his brothers? I'll always have a soft spot for him due to his time at Spurs where it could be argued he started the turn around in fortunes from mid-table underachievers. I'll give you that he is prone to making some rotten signings though! Both players you mention - Mido and Atouba played for Spurs and whilst I am prepared to accept Mido (he wasn't too bad for a season or so), but Atouba makes a great case to be in our top 10 worst ever signings.

Mino Riaola... That's Zlatan's agent isn't it? I had no idea Martin Jol also had him as his agent. I can understand now why things turn sour for him with chairman... As for Stekelenburg, I have to say I haven't heard too much on his Fulham performances. But that's probably a good sign, as if he was playing poor, you can bet there would be more news about him ;)

I will certainly keep that in mind for the November edition of goal of the month! Interesting that my number one didn't make your top three. It just goes to show how many wonderful goals there were last month. Let's hope November treats us too :)

Yep, Arsenal are now 5 points clear at the top after Chelsea's surprise 2-0 defeat to Newcastle on Saturday. After the game, Jose was in his typical humble, gracious mood and stated that he had made 11 mistakes picking the players he selected. The truth is, Newcastle were actually very good and nullified Chelsea perfectly. Now also is a good time to inject a rather humorous story regarding Newcastle and in particular director of football Joe Kinnear, whom you should remember from the calamitous radio interview during the summer where he habitually mispronounced numerous player names and his outgoing boss... Well, apparently back in September Kinnear watched a Birmingham City match and was impressed by Shane Ferguson, so much so that he promptly made an enquiry as to what price Birmingham would sell him for. Birmingham responded by informing Kinnear that Ferguson is currently only on loan to them... from Newcastle! :lmao:

I too saw most of the Arsenal v Liverpool game and have to say how disappointed I was in Liverpool. They defended terribly and completely out of character to their previous 9 games. All credit to Arsenal for taking advantage though. I still stand firm in my belief that they cannot maintain this level for long enough to win the title. It will be interesting to see if the midweek Champions League tie against Dortmund has any effect to the following weekend's match against Manchester United.

Spurs match report: Well, plenty to talk about here considering the match against Everton finished 0-0! First up, as with the previous match against Hull, we totally dominated the first 45 minutes. Only this time we couldn't get ourselves an opening goal and you got the feeling we would live to regret that. That almost came true as Everton came much stronger after the hour which coincided with us having to substitute Sandro. 'The Beast' had been outstanding all match, completely controlling Lukaku and giving us a much needed solid centre due to playing with two wingers in Lennon and Townsend (more on them soon). After his (enforced) substitution, it allowed Everton to become the dominant side and only for Hugo Lloris and some fine defending from Vlad Chiriches did we hold in there.

Then came a big talking point: The collision of Lukaku's knee and Lloris' forehead which instantly knocked him out cold. There is no question that when he finally came too, he should not have even been given the option to stay on the pitch, but he quite literally ran back on and ignored all medical advice. We've come under a lot of criticism from various charities to even FIFA and that's sort of understandable albeit very short sighted. However, to suggest our medical team were irresponsible is disappointing in the least - lest we forget these are the team who helped to save Fabrice Muamba's life on the White Hart Lane pitch.

As it turned out, we finished much the stronger team but in the end, a draw couldn't really be argued with by either side. The point took us to join 2nd in the league (4th on goal difference) and it seems crazy that we can have any complaints... but I do ;)

There is a lot of talk about the lack of goals for Roberto Soldado - just 4 league goals including 3 penalties, which isn't great. However it is driving me crazy how we are not picking the players around him to play to his strengths. You know I like my stats, so here is one that perfectly illustrates my point: Last season Soldado scored 24 goals in 35 league games for Valencia. Not one of his goals came from outside of the box. So it's obvious this is a striker that thrives on receiving the ball inside the area. Yesterday, guess how many times Soldado touched the ball inside Everton's penalty area? Answer: Once. Now, I think that is fairly obvious he is not getting the correct service from the midfielder behind him. Yesterday we played with Lennon Holtby Townsend with Sandro and Paulinho behind them. I like Holtby, but he is to defensive minded for a supposed number 10. And playing with two genuine wingers - especially ones who can't/won't cross, nor have the vision to play decisive passes is tantamount to footballing suicide when playing with a striker like Soldado.

It's driving me potty to see Eriksen, Lamela and Sigurdsson left on the bench instead of those three. To compound this, if AVB stays true to form for the Thursday Europa League game, he will pick those three players, which almost certainly rules them out of starting the game on Sunday. Unless of course any of them has a brilliant game and forces their way into selection, but then they will be too exhausted for a Premier League match and fail to perform! It's really frustrating me and I worry that we can't keep these narrow wins up for much longer. Having said that, apparently we have now only lost 4 of our last 32 league games, which is quite startling really!

Speaking of winning records, I saw that Roma were held to a draw against Torino which meant they failed to match the current record of 11 straight wins to a top flight European league season. Which made me happy, considering the current holders of that record are, yep, Tottenham Hotspur :trophy

One final bit of news to leave you with and one that I'm sure we will hear a lot of over the next year or two if it comes to fruition as expected: Martin O'Neill is all but signed to become the new Republic of Ireland manager - with Roy Keane as his assistant! A match made in heaven or a match made in hell... only time will tell! But it will surely give plenty of talking points :) On Friday/Saturday This was all but confirmed but since yesterday and the almost certain departure of Jol at Fulham, it seems they are preparing to make a last ditch bid for O'Neill. Watch this space.

Oh almost missed you mention Halloween. I presume you are talking about the Spurs prank video? If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you do :D The reactions of Sandro, Townsend and Vertonghen are brilliant :)
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November 6th, 2013, 9:51 pm

Kinnear should be fired, lol.... oh, and from now on I will just skip the summaries on the BBC website and wait for yours! :goodpost:

Great Juventus vs Real Madrid game yesterday. Juve desperately needed a good result and my guess is last night's draw ain't good enough. They are currently ranked 4th, while Galatasaray and Copenhagen are tied at #2 with 4 points. On the other hand, Juventus still play both of them, so nothing is lost yet. Ronaldo managed to score his 8th goal in 4 matches. Seeing as Messi is struggling to get his old form back, the Portuguese superstar is the best player in the world right now. Just my opinion.

Ajax! Ajax! Ajax! Wohoooo. Drew, did you put money on it, cause you kinda predicted "we" would win this match, lol. It was close (1-0), but who cares, right? Milan are 2nd with 5 points, Ajax have 4, Celtic have 3. Barcelona advance to the next round, which means Ajax will probably face Barca B. Gosh, I'm so excited, cause after seeing them draw 0-0 to RKC Waalwijk, and losing 0-1 to Vitesse, I never expected they would actually be able to win an official Champions League match this season. Yay!

Adrenaline rush right now, so let's see, what else.... Arsenal's 1-0 away victory in Germany!? Wow. Hildebrand/Eto'o, lmao. And Atletico Madrid! I'm so curious to see how long they are able to maintain this high level of play in both the Spanish competition and Europe. Tomorrow it's Europa League day, that tournament which usually takes till March to get interesting...
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November 8th, 2013, 10:56 am

Haha, well the quality of journalism on BBC sport has dropped considerably over the past few years ;)

I didn't put money on Ajax, but I'm glad to see my prediction came off for you :) I think we also have an early contender for entry into November's goal of the month.

It's only since you mention about Ronaldo possibly being the best player in the world right now, that I realise we haven't been hearing much on Messi this season. It will be interesting to see if come the end of the season he can put Real Madrid on top (with a little help from Bale) or if Barcelona will still prevail without Messi scoring 50 goals.

I'm sure you can imagine my choice use of words when Arsenal scored and promptly beat Dortmund... I'll give you a clue: It wasn't along the lines of "Oh boy, well done Arsenal, you thoroughly deserve this win, I'm so pleased to see you claim the win". Lol! But in seriousness, this result showed that maybe Arsenal really do have the stars aligned this season and if they continue to get results like this... Oh good grief, noooooooo! :no:

My powers or prediction also came true last night with the Spurs Europa League game as we started with a trio of Sigurdsson, Eriksen and Lamela. Lamela was by a mile the stand out performer and he finally showed why we paid £30 for him. It was almost like he had decided to just go for it and to hell with the consequences if things did not go his way. And boy, did it work for him! It was like having a slightly slower Bale back on the White Hart Lane pitch, seeing him run at people, dribbling past them and drawing countless fouls in dangerous areas, not least the penalty given and another one earlier that should have. He really should play on Sunday against Newcastle, but I worry about his fitness levels after being used so sparingly so far this season.

On the flip side, I was bitterly disappointed in Eriksen. The first half he was filthy bad and only for the fact Defoe was on the pitch was he not our worst player. Thankfully he picked up in the second half and started to find some forward thinking passes, but it's clear he needs more time to gel into the team. It was also good to have Capoue back last night, albeit only for 55 minutes. Having him back to take the load off Sandro, Paulinho and Dembele will be a big positive for us, especially coming into the December fixtures where we have 9 games in 28 days, including 3 games on 22, 26 and 28 December! In comparison, Liverpool and Arsenal have just 7 games over the same period including an extra days rest over the Christmas fixtures.

Martin Jol hasn't been sacked yet! Also Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane have been confirmed as Republic of Ireland coach and assistant. Let the fireworks begin!

Just whilst I think to mention it, I don't know if you have got around to reading the Secret Footballer book yet, or if you enjoyed it. But if/when you do, he has just released a follow up book 'Tales from the Secret Footballer'. Think I might add it the Christmas wish list :)

I might be able to watch more French, Italian and German football soon... I just found out today that my broadband supplier has agreed a deal to supply the BT Sport and ESPN channels for half the normal price (£7.50 per month for HD channels) and I'm thinking of signing up :)

Here's a to a great weekend of football and hopefully some pleasing results :) Enjoy your weekend, Gert-Jan!
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November 11th, 2013, 12:58 pm

Gee, where to begin? Let's start in Spain, cause the tragic news came in that Messi will be out for approximately 6-8 weeks due to torn hamstring. This automatically means he will not be getting his 50 goals in, lol.... but on the other hand it's a good thing they still have Neymar. At first I wanted to start talking about how well the Brazilian is currently playing, not getting in the way of Messi, and being a great addition to the fantastic squad Barcelona already had, cause obviously we did question that last summer when they signed him, but it's all irrelevant now. Neymar will be the no 9 for the rest of 2013. Martino has more than enough wingers available. Barcelona win away at Real Betis (1-4). Real Madrid win 5-1 to Real Sociedad with Ronaldo scoring another hattrick! Do I need to say more? Right, I don't think so....

Next, Tottenham vs Newcastle. The Magpies went from hell to heaven in just two weeks. Ashley appointing Kinnear, a terrible start of the season, and a manager (Pardew) who could end up spending Christmas with his family instead of his Newcastle crew. A comfortable win over Chelsea last week, and now a victory against Tottenham!? I only saw some highlights, but, DAMN, Krul was absolutely superb! I kinda lost count, but they say he made 14 saves, which is a new record in the Premier League? Despite that magnificent play, he will not be part of the national team next week. Cillessen and Vorm are the goalkeepers chosen by Van Gaal. But if Krul is able to keep this up, he will be our #1 goalkeeper when we fly to Brazil in June....

Manchester City is next to discuss; another loss! And Joe Hart is being criticized week after week, meaning Roy Hodgson will have a gigantic problem as the World Cup starts only 213 days from now. (Yeah, that was just a wild guess, lol.) Hart used to be a really big talent, where did things go wrong? Like I said after Celtic vs Ajax, just use Fraser Forster. Last thing you guys want is ending up with another 41-year old veteran like David James four year ago, lmao.

Chelsea draw 2-2, Spurs lose, Man City lose, Arsenal lose.... just like in the Dutch competition all the title candidates continue to drop points. Man United were "okay" against the Gunners. The recent form of both teams suggests Arsenal had a chance, but United rarely lose when they play Arsenal in Manchester, so I picked the Red Devils to win, which they did, with Robin van Persie being the Man of the Match, again!

Italy had Juventus vs Napoli last night. I sure didn't expect to see Juve win so easily. Llorente, Pirlo, Pogba scoring the goals. By the way, does the name Pogba still pop up in the English papers? I mean, he's a former Man United player, who, for reasons unknown, didn't make it at Old Trafford. Roma drew 1-1 to Sassuolo, but still have only conceded 3 (!) goals in 12 matches. AC Milan coach Allegri seems to have run out of options. They drew 0-0 away at Chievo, which should give you a good laugh seeing as they're ranked 18th. Little inside information between you and I.... Clarence Seedorf could be Milan's new headcoach as of next summer. Don't tell anyone I said so, though. :icon_wink:

The Bundesliga is getting boring thanks to another exquisite match by Bayern Munich, and Dortmund losing 2-1 away at Wolfsburg. PSG phenomenon Zlatan Ibrahimovic.... wait, should I even mention it? Nah. He scores at least 3 goals per week, so it's not worth mentioning anymore unless he scores a mininum of 6 goals in one game, lmao. FANTASTIC!! Oh, and get this, Vitesse are #1 in Holland right now!

As for some literature, I have put Fernando Ricksen's official biography on my Christmas wishlist; "Fighting Spirit". The exclusive story of a Dutch international who played for AZ Alkmaar, Glasgow Rangers & Zenith, got hooked on alcohol, drugs, hookers, and who was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Llateral Sclerosis (ALS), a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord, on the same day his book came out. Heartbreaking news.

To end on a positive note.... international matches coming up! Yay!?
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November 12th, 2013, 2:04 pm

Yeah quite a shock to hear Messi ruled out for up to 8 weeks. If this was the Messi of the last few years rather than this season, I'd still be backing him to get 50 goals lol. As you say, it's a good thing they have Neymar and that he has setted in very quickly. It would seem that Real Madrid are finally kicking into gear although even without Messi, you have to wonder if the lead Barcelona have is already too much for them to recover. I just hope that the next time El Clasico rolls around, Real don't suddenly abandon their winning formula once again and we can actually watch a proper contest!

I came here with one name I wanted to mention: Javier Zanetti. I hope that when he retires he goes down as one of the game's true legends. At 40 years old and just six months after an injury supposed to sideline him for at least 9, he returned as a substitute in Inter's 2-0 win over Livorno, expertly helping to create the second goal. He is one of the game's understated players and one I feel great admiration for since watching him as a kid at Inter almost 20 years ago.

I saw highlights of Juve v Napoli and what a surprising result that was! We also had a strike from Pogba who goes onto the list of nominations for goal of the month. Pogba doesn't really get mentioned much over here, mainly because I think people are currently quite ignorant to how well he is doing ;) At United, I believe that he thought he was ready for more first team action (plus a suitable contract to go with it), but Fergie being Fergie pretty much told him to earn it. As we know, when players fall foul of Sir Alex, they do not recover (unless your name is Rooney and for the one single time in the Fergie era did the club actually need to keep a player). Thus Pogba walked out on a free having run down his contract.

Personally speaking, I always snapped him up on Football Manager whenever I could, so I'd like to say I always rated him, lol.

Ooh, Seeforf as next AC Milan head coach... I heard the talk on Sunday of Berlusconi's daughter (Barbara?) is due to take over running the club and that she intends to clear out the 'old guard' including Galliani. Has Seedorf been coaching somewhere?

Was it this weekend's win or the one before that gave Bayern the Bundesliga record of most games undefeated? Can you see Dortmund stopping them in a couple of weeks time? I saw that Subotic injured himself badly and is out for the season at least which can't help them. Oh and another notable goal to add - Olic against Dortmund, which was a peach of a strike.

You're someone who has probably closely watched Zlatan play throughout his entire career - would you say he genuinely has got better with age and he is now playing his best football? Or do you think that the standard of the French league is making him appear that way?

Vitesse top of the league!? Be careful, Martin Jol may find his way back after all lol ;) Btw, he is still somehow in his job at Fulham. I think pretty much everyone expected to see him clearing his office on Sunday, but nope, he's still there. Maybe Mino got him an incredibly expensive compensation clause in the contract!

Plenty of surprise results in England as you already mentioned. Even the Manchester United win over Arsenal was considered a surprise as a lot of pundits picked Arsenal to pretty much tear them apart. City have problems, mainly playing away from home for some reason. I think the Joe Hart situation has caused more problems than simply 'the goalkeeper is going through a patchy spell'. He was one of the first names on the team sheet and the defence really didn't have to worry about anything. Now the mistakes crept in and it causes the defenders to react differently. Simply replacing him with Pantillimon doesn't fix these communication/reaction issues as the defence are still unsure how to deal with things.

There was much more to the Chelsea 2-2 draw at home to West Brom than the scoreline suggests. No doubt you already saw it, but with 93:30 on the clock and Mourinho's unbeaten home record (66 games over two spells) was all but over as West Brom deservedly led 2-1. However, referee Andre Marriner had other ideas (and possibly some nice Christmas gifts in mind for his family courtesy of Mr Abramovich) and promptly awarded Chelsea a penalty for one of the most pathetic penalty appeals ever seen. Everyone thought he had blown for WBA free kick for Ramires diving, but no, he had actually given a penalty.

I feel like there is something else I'm forgetting to mention... Hmm, there's usually a team I talk quite passionately about... No, can't think of their name at the moment ;)

Oh go on, I'll vent: The first problem was picking Dembele and Paulinho as a partnership in midfield. They are too similar players and we've seen it every time AVB has picked them together, one of them gets subbed off early because it isn't working! It frustrates the hell out of me: We supposedly have two players for each position and yet for some inexplicable reason we pick two of the same players instead! It's no coincidence that we controlled Everton for 60 minutes until Sandro went off injured and we controlled Newcastle in the second half because, yep Sandro came on at half time.

Secondly, Andros Townsend (England's Saviour) is seriously pissing me off. He seems to genuinely think he's the next Gareth Bale and plays accordingly. Unfortunately, he has become incredibly selfish hardly ever passing or crossing and instead running brainlessly into trouble or shooting from any position. He needs to drop out of the team to rethink his attitude because he is undoubtedly a talent, but it's going to sour very quickly if he cannot get into the team mindset.

Thirdly, after my prediction of Sigurdsson, Eriksen and Lamela all not featuring after being selected for the Europa League match on Thursday, I was proved wrong. Erik Lamela, Thursday's clear man of the match and surely overflowing with confidence was unfathomably left on the bench unused whilst Siggy and Eriksen started. Eriksen had a much better game and actually created a number of chances. He was also the victim of Krul's wondershow when he looked unable to miss only for Krul to block with the tip of his boot whilst heading in the opposite direction.

Finally, Soldado. The poor guy. After going 10 games with literally no service whatsoever, this game he finally got a number of chances to show his pedigree. However he looked like a man severely drained of confidence and boy did it show as the game went on. At one point towards the 75 minute mark, a cross deflected high into the air and found him unmarked inside the 6 yard area. His resulting header would have made any fullback proud as he gently nodded it safely back into Krul's arms. And that summed him up perfectly. I think he needs to play in the last couple of Europe League matches to hopefully get a few goals inside him and get his confidence up again. Otherwise, I genuinely fear we could have a £26m Rebrov or Postiga on our hands...

Quickly back to Krul. Yep, he made the most amount of saves in a Premier League match since 2006 - 14 in all. A couple of seasons back, he was considered one of the best 'keepers in the league, but he dropped off the radar a bit for the last season or so. On his day he is certainly up there with the best, but I'm not so sure on his consistency.
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November 15th, 2013, 9:18 pm

First, a rectification; Vorm hasn't been selected for our national team as he's out due to an injury. Our goalkeepers are Cillessen, Stekelenburg & Krul.

Seedorf doesn't have any coaching experience yet. In fact, he's still an active Football player. Cruzeiro took the title in Brazil last week, but Seedorf's team Botafogo could still finish second and my fellow Dutchman is the big man there. He played 87 international matches for Holland, won the Champions League 4 (!) times, and thanks to those achievements he'll be able to get the required documents faster than the speed of light. Yes, both Silvio and Barbra Berlusconi want to "restyle" AC Milan. We'll have to wait and see how it plays out.

Bayern Munich can not be stopped. Dortmund are fantastic, but whatever Guardiola touches seems to turn into gold. It obviously helps that Bayern Munich are the wealthiest club in the world, can buy whoever they want, pay the enormous wages players/agents ask, but at least there's an idea behind everything that the Germans do, unlike clubs such as Real Madrid. They just buy, buy, buy and when the season is 3 months old they start wondering if they actually needed the player(s) in the first place, lol.

Malmo, Ajax, Juventus, Inter, Barca, Milan, PSG. He has always been this talented, cause I've seen him score some extraordinary, fysically impossible, goals while playing for Ajax. He describes one of those surreal moments in his biography; the goal against Dutch club NAC Breda. Best Serie A striker during his stay in Italy and this Swedish superstar is now the best of France. Maybe the fact his goals are even more exceptional nowadays is what makes it seem like he has become even better? The combination Barca & Zlatan was a total failure cause of Pep's presence, but I'm sure you've read by now how much Ibrahimovic likes him, lol.

What's the current situation at Fulham? I read Meulensteen has been appointed? Jol/Meulensteen are gonna do the job together? Ain't gonna work.... pay the damn clause and get rid of Jol. Just my opinion. As for Townsend's behaviour, you have the media to blame for that. They're constantly writing about him being the next best thing, while he's still young and relatively unexperienced. Any young "kid" in that particular situation is gonna have a tough time keeping his feet on the ground. Living up to the high expectations of your teammates, manager, supporters, media and the rest of the world is one of the most difficult things of being a professional athlete, hence why it's so unbelievable what Zlatan keeps on doing every week all over again.

England 0-2 Chile
Denmark 2-1 Norway
Iceland 0-0 Croatia
Portugal 1-0 Sweden
Ukraine 2-0 France
Greece 3-1 Romania

Guess Ribery will have enough time to book a few of his favorite hookers next summer....
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November 18th, 2013, 1:50 pm

For the past couple of international tournaments, the BBC have had Seedorf as a guest pundit on tv. He definitely strikes me as a person who is tactically aware and has plenty of good ideas suited to being a successful coach. I know that whilst Harry Redknapp was still at Spurs, just from the time he spent on air with Seedorf it made Harry try to sign him as a player/coach because he was so impressed.

Your analysis of Bayern sounds spot on to me. I remember ooh, maybe 6 months or so ago listening to Gary Neville talk about which clubs he would have been prepared to play for should he have ever left Manchester United. He said the only two he would have considered were Bayern Munich and Juventus, purely because they are 'proper football clubs' in that they are run professionally from the finances to the way they look after the players. He highlighted that Bayern make sure they have their own team bus even for away games in Europe - the driver sets off 3 or 4 days before the game and meets them at the airport!

The situation at Fulham is that pretty much everyone has jumped to the same conclusion and that the appointment of Meulensteen is nothing more than a chance for him to get acquainted with the club for a month or so before casually stepping into Jol's job.

Yep, it's looking like France have monumentally screwed up! Of course it's still possible that they can reverse the scoreline at home, but having seen England play Ukraine I can say they are no pushovers.

I didn't bother to watch the England v Chile friendly and instead chose the much more appetising Portugal v Sweden game - or Ronaldo v Zlatan as it had been christened ;) I thought it was pretty decent game with plenty of chances for both sides although Portugal definitely deserved the 1-0 win. I know that Ronaldo is almost certainly the best player around at the moment, but I can't help hoping that Zlatan is the one who gets to the World Cup!

As for Tuesday, I haven't decided if I will watch the second leg or England v Germany 'B'... The England team announced earlier today doesn't exactly inspire me to watch: Joe Hart; Kyle Walker, Chris Smalling, Phil Jagielka, Ashley Cole; Adam Lallana, Steven Gerrard, Tom Cleverley, Andros Townsend; Wayne Rooney, Daniel Sturridge. So maybe it will be Zlatan v Ronaldo Round Two for me after all ;)
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November 19th, 2013, 9:38 am

I didn't bother to watch our friendly either. From what I've read it was a decent first-, but a terrible second half in which we gave our 2-0 lead away. Tonight we play Colombia, a team which I believe is capable of doing the same as Uruguay did in 2010. On the other hand, Brazil & Argentina shouldn't be underestimated, and then there's still Spain & Germany too. Sigh... one thing's for sure, England & Holland will most likely not make it to the Semi Finals next year, lol. Did you see the Brazilian goals in their friendly against Hondurus? Wow!

I also watched Portugal vs Sweden last Friday and I'll be doing the same tonight. Despite Portugal's 1-0 victory, I still hear A LOT of people saying Zlatan will make the impossible possible. Manager Erik Hamren has a point when he says Ibrahimovic is a guy who knows how to deal with this kind of pressure. Just writing and thinking about this match is giving me goose bumps already, lol. To hell with Holland vs Colombia, I'm SO looking forward to that play-off. Go Zlatan! Go Ronaldo! May the best man win.
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November 20th, 2013, 5:07 pm

So in the end it was Ronaldo 4 - 2 Zlatan. I suppose it was fitting that the tie was decided by both players and that in the end undoubtedly the best player in all of football right now is the one who will be in Brazil.

If Ronaldo doesn't win the ballon d'or this year then there is something wrong with the world. His goalscoring record this season is already unbelievable with 31 goals in 21 appearances for Madrid and five hat-tricks this season for club and country already! At this rate he will be on course to beat all those goalscoring records set by Messi!

Unfortunately, I had to watch England v Germany as I was outvoted on which game to watch ;) England were pretty pathetic quite frankly. The first 30 minutes or so they looked decent, but the under-strength Germans only had to play in second gear to beat us. Joe Hart was probably our best player which says it all really. He made 3-4 really great saves and had no chance of stopping the goal. But we look seriously lacking in depth, especially in central defence. Chris Smalling was caught out very amateurishly for the goal and if he is to be our future centre back then we are seriously in trouble.

The midfield also lacks any real creativity especially as the two who perhaps offer the most - Gerrard and Wilshere have both been converted into more defensive holding players. Wayne Rooney was our best attacking player and he seems to be rediscovering a genuine desire to play well again. However the stats do not often lie (and you know how I like my stats lol) but we failed to get even one single shot on target with just five shots on goal overall. Andros Townsend was very unlucky not to score when he crashed a trademark thunderbolt against the post, but yeah, we never even looked like scoring.

I know it was only a friendly, but England 100% wanted to win whilst the Germans probably wouldn't have lost too much sleep over losing - and yet they still beat us without so much as breaking a sweat.

Still, at least we qualified for the World Cup and we can continue to paper over the numerous cracks for another few years ;)

Yay, back to proper football at the weekend!

Oh a story I keep forgetting to update you on that is really quite staggering to believe: The managerial situation at Crystal Palace. As you know they sacked Ian Holloway a number of weeks ago now after a difficult start to the season. As of today they are still looking for a replacement, but it's the list of candidates that highlights the incredibly brainless bunch who are running the club. It began with Tony Pulis being the outstanding favourite for the job. This would indicate the owners wanted a safe name who will bring no-nonsense football with him. For reasons of money, he did not get appointed. Here's where it goes into madness: Instead of looking for another like-minded manager guess who they went for next - I bet you didn't say former Real Madrid assistant manager Aitor Karanka! Incidentally, he has since rocked up at Middlesbrough in the Championship, which seems a rather odd place for him to go. Anyway, so we have gone from Pulis to Karanka and next on the list, former Chelsea player Dan Petrescu. However it doesn't end there as Iain Dowie is now also being heavily linked!

It's a shambles and unless they get incredibly lucky, it's certain relegation for them.
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November 25th, 2013, 9:30 pm

Time for another post in this thread. The reason I haven't been in here last week is cause I've been catching up on some literature; "I Am The Secret Footballer". Halfway now, but truthfully speaking, I can't seem to get fully into it. Not sure why that is. Maybe cause I'm reading it in Dutch, or maybe I'm not getting why this is such a hype, or maybe it's because I find it doubtful this is truth as opposed to fiction. Drew, has there been any proof this is a real Football player? A player who is known by all the Football addicts throughout Europe.... I mean, what "evidence" do we have this ain't just a great marketing strategy set up by the Guardian to get their sales up, and additionally, selling books too. I gotta admit some stuff IS pretty juicy, but while reading I'm constantly reminding myself to take it with a grain of salt.

:ohthedrama:

Alex Ferguson's biography looks very interesting. Roy Keane, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Jaap Stam, Wayne Rooney. It's no secret Sir Alex is somewhat of a Scottish dictator, therefore it'll most likely be a book which gives us one side of each story? Pretty subjective, still, I am thinking about getting a copy. Although I first like to read Fernando Ricken's story (450 pages!), and a book about Theo Bos, former player/trainer of Vitesse. I will leave the "Tales from the Secret Footballer" up to you. Once you're done reading it, you can fill me in on the stuff that's worth mentioning. :lmao:

Alrighty, moving on. Watched Borussia Dortmund vs Bayern Munich last Saturday. The German El Clasico was being broadcasted in more than 200 countries. Not sure if it's bigger than Barca vs Real, but it sure is better. Yes, these two German top teams are #1 & #2 in Europe; fantastic game! Two totally different tactics. Bayern Munich are like a snake, slowly choking their opponent until they can't breathe anymore. Dortmund, however, are like a cheetah.... waiting, observing, hunting the opponent. I'd define it as a modern form of the oldskool catenaccio. Fantastic play by Robben & Gotze.

As for the English Premier League, I only saw some of the goals, but it was a GOOD weekend. Well, not for Spurs fans, but once you've recovered from that 6-0 loss I'll just let you blow off some steam. Everton 3-3 Liverpool is why I love derby matches so much. The passion both teams play with is indescribable. When you're finally convinced the match is gonna get a winner (3-2), the other team still manages to score the equalizer. Manchester United draw 2-2 away at Cardiff City, which means they're now 7 points behind Arsenal, as the Gunners are still ranked #1. Palace win! But still ranked 17th, lol.

Milan 1-1 Genoa
Napoli 0-1 Parma
Bologna 1-1 Inter
Roma 0-0 Cagliari

What's up with THAT? Quite funny how one high-profile team loses points, and all of a sudden they all do?!

Atletico Madrid 7-0 Getafe
Almeria 0-5 Real Madrid
Barcelona 4-0 Granada

:yeahbaby:
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November 27th, 2013, 3:32 pm

The general feeling about The Secret Footballer is that the stories are genuine, although there is every likelihood that he perhaps attributed a few stories to other people to try and throw people off the scent. With the release of his second book though, he seems to have become more confident about his identity being revealed (perhaps he is near to retirement and it isn't such an issue?). And with that, it now seems almost certain (and somewhat overwhelmingly) to be Dave Kitson. There are plenty of links about but this one sums things up pretty good, most notably about a story with Capello and England, along with him being a self confessed Spurs fan.

I haven't got around to reading Alex Ferguson's book myself yet - I also have Harry Redknapp and Ledley King's on the waiting list too...

Congratulations on the Ajax victory over Barcelona last night!! Although it was tainted by the unfortunate incident with the fan falling whilst celebrating... Last I heard it wasn't good news? :(

I caught the last 10 minutes of Dortmund v Bayern. Looks like they should just give Bayern the title now? What are your thoughts on Leverkusen - do you think they will last the pace in second place, or will Dortmund find their feet again and over take them? It will be interesting to see how they fare against Manchester United tonight. Although as I type this it isn't looking too good for them lol ;)

Yes, Everton v Liverpool was a cracking game, but my game of the weekend (well long weekend) was WBA v Aston Villa on Monday night. Two good, young teams who like to play proper football and they served up a great 2-2 draw. Shane Long is a massively underrated player and he took the first WBA goal wonderfully. He also works incredibly hard for the team. I'd be more than happy with him at Tottenham, although that doesn't currently say too much lol.

The past couple of days has seen numerous rumblings about AVB being on the cusp of losing his job, to the point where he is now second favourite with all the bookies to be the next manager sacked - only slightly behind dead man walking, Martin Jol. The worrying thing is that it's not just losing 6-0 to Manchester City that has caused this recent state of unrest. Obviously it doesn't help, but recent times have given us Manchester United 8 - 1 Arsenal, Manchester City 6 - 1 United, and many other high profile drubbings that teams have recovered very successfully from. No, the problem is due to a gradual increase of other incidents.

Starting with AVB criticising the fans for not getting behind the team, to losing home matches against West Ham and Newcastle along with continuing to pick bewildering teams. For instance, picking Dembele and Paulinho as a midfield two and every time hauling one of them off at half time; causing Soldado to become a shadow with zero confidence after starving him of service with dull midfields; sending Assou-Ekottu out on loan and then having to play our best central defender, Vertonghen, at left back due to injuries and, well many more but I'll save my fingers lol.

Personally, I would be upset if we did sack AVB, but this next week or so will be a true test of who is the real Andre Villas-Boas - is it the churlish, easily antagonised man we saw at Chelsea, or is it the the much more humble and friendly character we had previously seen at Spurs? One thing is for sure, he has his work cut out getting a large portion of the fans back onside and I fear another poor result against Manchester United on Sunday may prove a tipping point...

In other Spurs news, it's being reported that Jermain Defoe has agreed a £90,000 per week contract to leave in January... to Toronto! I can't say I have ever been his biggest fan but he's contributed in a big way to Spurs over the past 10 years or so and it will be strange not having him around. Aside from the obvious monetary reasons, I have to say I'm surprised at his choice, not least because his recent grumblings to the press all focussed on his dream of playing for England in the World Cup. One imagines that playing in Toronto won't exactly help his cause.

Oh yeah, nearly time for goal of the month again! It hasn't been the most prolific of months likes we had in October, but I think I've got a handful of very decent contenders so far:

Olic v Dortmund
Pogba v Napoli - haha, silly me I originally listed the wrong goal...
Ajax team goal v Celtic
Long v Villa
Gignac v Ajaccio

If you have any nominations, now is the time to say :)
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November 29th, 2013, 10:06 pm

I still don't know how we were able to beat Barcelona last Tuesday, lol. Barcelona!! That dominant team which hadn't lost a single match yet. In all honesty, Barca came with some sort of a B-squad (no Valdes, Busquests, Messi, Alexis), but Xavi, Iniesta and Neymar were all playing. Pique was walking on the pitch as if his team was leading by 5-0; incredibly arrogant. Puyol playing right back must be the biggest joke ever, cause at his age he's still capable of playing in central defense (even though he makes mistakes week after week), but our left back as well as left winger had an amazing evening thanks to captain Puyol. Barcelona without Dani Alves is like Brazil without Maicon in his good old days.

Right after the second half had started I was convinced we were gonna lose that game. Red card, penalty, 2-1. But surprisingly we were actually able to take the 3 points, although it felt like Barca didn't go all the way. Three substitutions and all of them were youngsters, players from Segunda Division club Barca B. As for that fan who fell, I didn't hear/see anything about that until late Tuesday night. Weird. But yeah, his condition hasn't changed; still lying in intensive care, severe head trauma, a matter of life and death. Sad story.

PSV are currently losing one match after another. Last night in the Europa League they managed to lose 2-0 away at Ludogorets in friggin' Bulgaria, lol. This Sunday they'll be traveling to Rotterdam, facing Feyenoord. Philip Cocu is a relatively young and inexperienced manager, but won't get sacked after a few losses as he's one of Holland's best midfielders of the last two centuries. In case this situation continues though and PSV end up losing their Sunday match too, you shouldn't be surprised if I'm gonna mention the word "crisis" .

Good point about Vertonghen. He does NOT like to be left back at all. Hate is a strong word, but he definitely dislikes it. Besides, he's an amazing central defender, what has gotten into AVB to change that? And why did Assou-Ekotto had to leave in the first place? Did Spurs wanted to get rid of him, or did Benoit needed a new challenge? I guess it's like you said, some dubious decisions have been made.

Bayer Leverkusen have the quality to compete with Dortmund, but I think Guardiola is gonna make sure Bayern Munich remain on the throne. Not gonna say anything else about Leverkusen at this moment though. Just doesn't feel right talking about how great they are, seeing as they lost 5-0 at home, lol. I seriously wonder how the hell THAT happened. Leverkusen are ranked #2 in the Bundesliga, while Manchester United have trouble finding their best starting line-up and on top of that they had to miss Van Persie.... maybe the match was fixed? Nah... I don't have any proof.... it's just weird, that's all.

Sunday's Premier League fixtures look really interesting: Spurs vs Man United, Chelsea vs Southampton, Man City vs Swansea. Zlatan on Sunday too; PSG vs Lyon. Lazio vs Napoli. By the way, did you hear the official news about Galliani? He will be leaving AC Milan, just like we talked about not too long ago. It's the first step to a new era. Don't recall lots of sensational goals, either. I'd go for Bale's free kick in the Champions League this week. Gotta admit that was the Bale as we know him. :icon_wink:
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Location: Derbyshire, England

November 30th, 2013, 6:30 am

I wouldn't take anything away from the Ajax victory - any Barca team with Xavi, Iniesta, Neymar still takes some beating! Although I too shared your fear that after the red card and penalty, it was only a matter of time before the scoreline reversed ;) So that leaves a straight shoot out between AC Milan and Ajax in the last group game... Feeling optimistic? :)

I remember your enthusiasm for PSV early in the season - I think it was the Champions League play-off first leg against AC Milan (was it Milan?) where they looked really impressive but then fell apart in the second leg. They have a really young team if I recall, perhaps similar to the way Aston Villa are approaching things over here? And in situations like this, yeah, you simply have to give the coach time otherwise what is the point in even trying! Using Villa as a good case point, look at them last season where they went through a spell of conceding something daft like 17 or 18 goals in 4 games, marginally avoided relegation yet stuck with the manager and philosophy. Now this season we are seeing definite progression in them, which looks set to continue. I also think that - certainly over here, maybe the Dutch media are not such sharks sensing blood! - the media try to create issues whilst internally at the clubs, things are relatively calm.

I also realise that I just said "...a spell of conceding something daft like 17 or 18 goals in 4 games" and just had the horrible thought that Spurs have so far got 9 on the board after two games with Manchester United on the horizon... Yikes!!

The problem with Assou-Ekotto was sort of 50/50 between himself and AVB. 'Disco' Benny is super laid back in life and that sometimes crept into his game on the pitch. I don't believe for a second he genuinely was ever not giving his all, but he does make it easy to come to the opposite conclusion. AVB obviously thought so and for large portions of last season chose to leave him on the bench. This season, we put a lot of faith into Danny Rose who to be fair was becoming a surprise hit until his mystery injury that has kept him out for so long. Along with this, we have AVB's preference for players who can play in more than one position so as to maximise his squad size limit (also one of the reasons why Caulker was sold) and so the theory went that Rose would be first choice and Vertonghen, Fryers or Naughton would be able to cover him. Which is sound in theory! But combined with Kaboul (who would be first choice centre back with Vertonghen) also struggling with injuries, Rose out for such a long time, Fryers inexperiecned and Naughton being a constant liability then it suddenly all starts to look pretty foolish.

Personally, I think we should be playing Chiriches at left back as he appears to have all the attributes required (apart from being right footed of course) and leave 'SuperJan' where he belongs at centre back.

As for the game tomorrow... I'm fearful, very fearful... United seem to be coming into form with Rooney looking back to his best and the obvious threat of RVP I genuinely fear a 5-0 on the cards. It will be vital that we don't concede early or first tomorrow otherwise I think the wheels will come off again like they did at City. We still have no idea what our best first 11 is and even the midweek trip to Tromso with a strong team didn't put any confidence into those who needed it. Soldado in particular would surely have expected to notch a goal or two, but he was totally starved of service yet again and the few times he did receive the ball, looked hideously out of touch. I've already gone on for far too long about Spurs, but assuming you're still reading lol, let me just finish with some quite frankly frightening stats:

Defoe: 1 goal and 1 assist in approx. the last 1000 league minutes played
Lennon: 1 goal and 1 assist in approx. the last 1000 league minutes played
Dembele: 0 goals and 0 assists in approx. the last 2340 league minutes played
Holtby: 0 goals and 2 assists in approx. the last 840 league minutes played
Townsend: 1 (inadvertent) goal and 0 assists in approx. the last 1400 league minutes played

Hmm, I wonder why we have only scored 6 league goals in open play this season...

Yeah the Leverkusen result was very curious. It's either match fixing, or I jinxed them by talking about them lol ;)

I hadn't heard the official news about Galliani - time to place a bet on Clarence yet? ;)

All those fools who cast doubts on Gareth Bale a few months ago look pretty silly now don't they haha :blushing: I'm glad for him now though, as it would have been a shame to see a player I idolised at Spurs flop spectacularly (ok it would have been pretty nice, but not if he then went to an English club rival on the cheap).

I suppose there is still time for that one special goal to happen today!
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