What Next for Spurs?

Harry Redknapp has brought success to spurs that will be hard for any manage to follow up on. Image via Wikipedia

Tottenham Hotspur are certainly the surprise team of this season, followed closely by Newcastle. This leads to the obvious questions that must be somwhere in the minds of their fans; what next? What will happen next season?

Let us presume that they manage to finish in the top four and qualify for the Champions League, although in reality this is still far from guaranteed.  In theory, this would be fantastic for their progression.

However, it is a well known fact that Redknapp is out of contract at the end of the season, and one cannot blame him for having one eye on the England job. It is questionable that spurs would bring in someone of his managerial quality, and then the future looks rather bleak.

High profile players, that have been the architects of the recent successes, will most likely leave leaving the side pretty much where it usually has been over the past 20 years.

I honestly believe that the reason players such as Bale, Modic and VDV have remained at White Hart Lane is largely due to Redknapp. They can sense the club is going somewhere, they are getting regular football that suits their style and they have a manager they like. These will all change when someone else comes in and it only takes one high profile exit to spark a chain reaction.

The reason behind my presumption that a less good manager will take the job is becuse firstly, Levy is notoriously tight with his purse strings and, secondly, will any high profile manager actually want the job?

Spurs are traditionally a decent side and have a solid history, but any success the new manager would bring would be seen as Redknapp’s. Finishing in the Champions League would be a brilliant way for Redknapp to end his time at the club. Emulating this success and progressing beoynd that point would be a near-impossible job for any mnager, and I’m not sure many would want the risk. It would be like managing Man Utd when Fergie calls it a day.

Bale him out

Gareth Bale has been surrounded by hype since his displays against Inter Milan in the Champions League.

Good afternoon all. It’s been a break from blogging longer than i first anticipated, but no worries, I’m back again!

Turning towards Bolton Wanderer’s fixture this weekend there is a current talking point, just as there was last week. This is a blog on English football in general, and not just Bolton Wanderers, so I promise not to do this every week, but Tottenham Hotspur, and in particular Gareth Bale seem to be rather large topics for debate at present.

For a match preview, click this link.

I did see the demolition of Inter Milan during the week, and if Spurs play anywhere near as well as that, then we will have huge problems.

Now, I don’t intend for this to be a.n.other “Gareth Bale is wonderful” post, so I’ll change topic slightly. This will be about how some players are over-hyped at a young age.

True enough, on that particular performance all praise was justified, especially considering that Maicon is one of the best right-backs in the world. But, I think it is far too early in his career to start talking about him being world-class. Remember, class is permanent, form temporary. After a string of bad results and performances, will he still be considered world class, and still be touted around for £50.000.000? I think not.

Also, one must remember that he was successfully taken out of the game by Phil Neville when they recently played Everton, and in football terms, it wasn’t too long ago he was considered to be going to Nottingham Forrest on loan. So, if one cannot lose world class overnight, then surely one cannot become it either? Just food for thought there.

Going back to the issue of hype. Remember all the hype that surrounded Wayne Rooney prior to the World Cup? Look what has happened to him since nothing became of that.

Additionally, how often is it we hear a club being linked to an unknown player dubed “the new XXXX”? If the player really is that good, they will show it over time (Giggs, Scholes etc.) and they will be able to pull it off when things are not great (Gerrard).

So, for these reasons, I would not consider Gareth Bale world class quite yet. Assess him again in a few seasons and see where he is then. Having said all of that, when it comes to form, he is dangerous.

For further reading, click this link to read another blog on this topic.

My prediction for the game? I’m quietly confident that all Spurs’ hype might get to them a bit, and they may be suffering from the Champions League hangover. For these reason, I’ll go for 2-1 to the Wanderers.

That Nani Goal

Heurelho Gomes

Good afternoon all.

So, yesterday Manchester United beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 at Old Trafford following a goal by Vidic, and a controversial goal by Nani.

Should Mark Clattenburg have awarded the goal?

Now, was that Nani goal a goal or not? I can’t find a suitable video of it, but here’s basically what happened. Nani was running into the spurs penalty area and dived. Neither the referee, Mark Clattenburg, nor the linesman did anything. Nani then handles the ball, but Gomes has the ball in his hands quickly, so Clattenburg plays advantage. Gomes then puts the ball on the ground as if to play a free-kick, and Nani gets up and scores.

The blame-game has already begun. From his completely neutral perspective, Spurs boss Harry Redknapp has said that Calttenburg is to blame for not making things clear. But he then also says that it’s no excuse for his teams defeat.

Nani scored for Manchester United under controversial circumstances.

To counter this, Sir Alex Ferguson has said that Gomes is to blame for not playing to the whistle.

Others claim this type of thing only ever happens to the home teams advantage, and only ever happens at Old Trafford.

So, where does the blame really lie? It can be seen that Nani should be responsible for claiming the goal, because he did handball it before going on to score, so theoretically he cheated. Is football really coming to this, where top players like Nani are being unpunished for diving, and then rewarded with a goal for unsportsmanlike conduct?

Having said that, surely all players should learn as children that if the referee hasn’t blown his whistle, it’s not a foul, not a free-kick and thus the ball is still in open-play. So Gomes should have carried on play as the whistle had not been blown.

Having said all of that, I would most likely feel slightly different about the situation if it happened again Bolton Wanderers.

What are your thoughts on this?