The e-Spurs Daily Dose 15.10.13

Internationals, The King Speaks, Little Pea and Townsend’s Praises Continue

We have approached the end of this break with only today’s matches to be played and then, back to real football and the return of sanity for many other Tottenham supporters such as I. There a few important matches on the schedule today with England taking on Poland at Wembley with the home side looking to wrap up an automatic qualification berth while the visiting Polish, backed by an expected 18,000 supporters, would like nothing more than to play the spoiler and force England to go through the playoff round. Speaking of playoff rounds, Iceland, the ultimate underdog, is sitting in second place in their group and Glyfi Sigurðsson and company can book their place in these playoffs with a win against rival Scandinavian nation, Norway.

If they were to get to the playoffs, they would be unseeded as their nation’s coefficient is among the lowest of those who are expected to be in the playoffs and would likely face a tough opponent such as Portugal, Greece, the Ukraine or France but as their matchup is a two legged tie, anything could happen at that point. Denmark and our new playmaker, Christian Eriksen, are still in contention for a spot in the playoffs but they need to win, as well as needing their two group opponents, Bulgaria and Armenia, to lose or draw in their respective matches to sneak into the playoffs. If they were to get into the playoff round, they might actually be one of the higher ranked squads and be seeded with a favourable draw. Finally, Vlad Chiricheş and his Romanian squad also need to win, as well as some help from other results, to find themselves in the draw for the playoff round, which may also result in a high seeding for his squad due to Romania’s FIFA ranking. All Tottenham supporters will be wishing the players the best of luck in their respective matches today while hoping for no injuries.

Also, on schedule for today is Belgium hosting Wales but with the home nation already qualified and the visitors already eliminated from contention, we may not see any of our three players getting significant minutes, which would be wonderful news as we need them fully fit for a crucial stretch of matches in late October and early November. France and their captain, Hugo Lloris, are theoretically still able to get top seeding in their group if they were to beat Finland and group leaders Spain lose to Georgia, but seeing how this is highly unlikely, France may rest some players as they have already secured at least second place. Erik Lamela and Argentina, who sit on top of their qualification group with no chance that they can be caught, are set to take on Uruguay and we may see our young winger get significant minutes with the majority of regulars on the squad set for a break and this may help the tricky youngster get into the groove so that when he returns to Enfield, he is ready to rock and roll. Last but not least, Paulinho and his Brazilian squad are in Zambia for a friendly as his nation does not need to go through the qualification rounds as they are set to host the finals.

We also have a few youngsters who are set to play today with Harry Kane, Tom Carroll and Aaron McEneff all due to start for the England U21’s and Northern Ireland U19’s, respectively.

Words From The King

Fresh off his recent biography, club legend and ambassador Ledley King did a few interviews for the newspapers and in them, he spoke of the new deal that our current club captain, Michael Dawson, received and how he recalls the first time he met Michael. At first, King saw the young man as competition for places in the squad but before long, he was a stalwart in our backline, usually picked to compliment the silky skills of Ledley with brute force and determination. King spoke of how delighted he was to hear that Michael earned a new contract after fighting to reclaim his place in our squad and how he leads by example and is a very passionate leader, everything that Ledley was during his short, but illustrious career. While many, including myself, do not rate Dawson as highly as some others, no one can question his attitude and commitment to the club, which is something that has been lacking in today’s modern footballers, but the question has been posed numerous times about whether or not he is real part of our future.

While we love one of our own, it would be ignorant to see that when King and Daws were paired together, they complimented each other perfectly but Ledley still had to bail Michael out at least once a match due to Dawson’s poor positioning or rash challenges. Their partnership was really great to watch at times, yet I cannot see how Dawson can expect to hold onto his starting job in the next few months with the likes of Vlad playing well and Kaboul getting close to full fitness. But still a great servant to the club and anyone who is cool for Ledley, is okay in my book. God, I miss Ledley. He made so many things look so simple, the way he was able to snuff out attacks by an almost telepathic reading of the opposition play, stepping up to intercept a crucial pass and then gliding up the pitch and getting to one of our forward thinking players. Such a joy to see him play and yet a shame his knee kept him from becoming an even larger part of our history.

Mexican Arrival?

I know there are plenty of uneducated people out there, as well as a staggering number of poor journalists, but the link between our club and Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez is completely ridiculous. Yes, Tottenham has always been known to be linked with almost every player in the world at one point or another but let’s just see how this rumour began. Hernandez has stated in the past that he wishes to play on a regular basis and not simply as an impact sub. Tottenham have long had problems with their forwards as Roberto Soldado has yet to find his feet in the league, Jermain Defoe only being effective in cup matches or as a substitute and Emmanuel Adebayor blowing hot and cold. Therefore it makes perfect sense for the link to appear as 1 + 1 =3. Chicharito is no better than Defoe and he most definitely would not get many starting assignments for Tottenham as besides goal scoring, he does little for the entire team. Not to mention the fact that United would ask for close to £15 million as they would prefer not to sell to another Premier League club especially one that may be a rival for a top four spot. Is he a bad player? Absolutely not, but he is not the type of player that we should be looking at to help us cement a place near the top of the Premier League table. So to this rumour I say “Nuts!”.

There’s Something About Andros

The media outlets continue to sing the praises of the newest star of the international stage, Andros Townsend. Over the past 72 hours, I have read no less than 10 articles about Andros and his struggle to get to where he is now and while it is inspiring to all young players who may have had to face a good deal of adversity, I feel that all this positive press is just a ploy to eventually rip the kid apart when he has an average or poor match. Articles ranging from how he was close to a £500,000 move to Birmingham to how is not set to be offered a new contract worth almost 3 times his current salary. While I do agree that we should be tying up our young players to long term contracts, wouldn’t it be better to wait until he actually starts contributing for more than 2 months at the top level at his CLUB and then actually earns a contract based on his club form, not his national team form, before we put out reports of an imminent deal?

Again, bad journalism is rampant when it comes to the beautiful game and so this is just another byproduct of having nothing good to write about. It’s just the newest “flavor of the week” and only a matter of time before he is vilified for not replicating his performance this past Friday. In my opinion, Andros has a bright future but it all depends on how willing he is to really push himself and try to elevate his game to new levels. If he keeps his head down and continues his progress, than I have no problem with the positive PR concerning the young winger, but again, it all comes down to what the kid is made up of, is he going to fight or is complacency and the hype going to get to him. Let’s all hope for the former.

© e-Spurs 2013 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Spurs

Share on Google Plus