It's Time to be an Optimist

Marc Ashed looks at all that is right at White Hart Lane despite injuries to Gareth Bale, Aaron Lennon & Jermain Defoe and issues his call for fans to stay calm, keep the faith and rally behind our lads. Also, he offers a small update on some transfer news.

@marcaron22
 

It is as if Murphy's Law has reared its ugly head as we head down the stretch to the end of the season. Injuries, drop in form and lack of depth all exposed in the most important moments. It would be easy and expected to start making a list of the excuses, points to blame and plans on how things can be changed for next year. That's not what Tottenham is about this year, that's not what AVB is about and that's certainly not what this gritty group of players is about and as fans, that's not what we should be about.

 

I watched the Twitter explosion happen when Bale went down and stayed down, the people saying "there goes our season" and "we're done for" and I started to get angry. By the way, cue the "Bale out for season tweets" and "Bale and Lennon to feature against Everton" tweets as well.

Are we supporting the criticism that we are a 1 man team? Are we overlooking the unbelievable talent of players like Mousa Dembele, Jan Vertonghen, Hugo Lloris? Are we overlooking the tactical acumen of AVB and our coaching staff? Yes, we unfairly are.

 

 

Just this year, without Gareth Bale, we defeated Swansea and lost that ugly away game to a full strength Everton 2-1 that we should have at least gotten a result in. Lennon has a unique skill set that will be difficult to replace but we have immensely talented, hungry players. I have zero doubts that we will make big adjustments if we are without Bale & Lennon and AVB will put us in the best position to achieve a result.

Lewis Holtby will do anything for this team and against the club he has followed his childhood, should have an even extra level on Sunday. Gylfi Sigurdsson has been in form and his confidence back after a solid month and half of performances. Dembele and Parker seem to finally have an understanding of each other. Adebayor looked useful for much of that game at FC Basle. When our defence is Walker-Dawson-Vertonghen-Benny/Naughton, we are extremely stable at the back and make it very difficult for opposing teams especially ones like Everton who have problems scoring anyway and will be without Marouane Fellaini and Steven Pienaar. It's not Louis Saha and David Bentley coming off the benches these days but German U-21 captains (Holtby) and Tottenham youth products who bleed Lillywhite through and through. Let's not forget our youth system that is competing with European giants and winning. Christian Ceballos, Shaq Coulthirst are just 2 examples of bright young prospects that could fill a role this season.

 

 

We control our own destiny, you cannot ask for more than that. Hell, the delay of the Chelsea game even works in our favour, for once. Chelsea will have more matches (tired legs, more time to hate Rafa and each other) and allow us to get healthy for the last 5 or 6 games.

 

We can be nervous and even a little scared but we cannot be pessimistic about this team and lose our belief in the club. Time and time again this year, we have proved that we are adaptable in both tactics and personnel. We have done everything that we could so far to achieve our objectives come hell or high water. Forget the past, and focus on the present and the future because it's extremely bright. Get behind the club now and carry them to victory on Sunday. Come On You Spurs!

 

 

Brief update on the summer window:

 

I have heard from a very trusted source that Leandro Damaio will be a top target again for Spurs this summer with a deal likely to go through since most of the details have been discussed in previous windows.

The same source has informed me that the media reports that claim Christian Eriksen prefers Spurs as long as we reach Champions League qualification are true. Nothing has been agreed upon but he is a top target and wants to come to Tottenham. Ajax have made plans to move on without him and have already moved for replacements.

Eliaquim Mangala and James Rodriguez, both of Porto are targets but we will most likely be priced out as Mangala's rumored price is £21m and Rodriguez has a buyout clause around £40m.

 

We are going to be linked to every striker under the sun, Pablo Osvaldo won't happen, Mauro Zarate won't happen and Loic Remy won't happen. None of them are rated by Levy or AVB.

--
Marc A. Ashed

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