The e-Spurs Daily Dose 08.11.13

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Tonight's Dose written by Matt Tumminia.

Coo-Coo for Coco, French Tank Reboot and Concussion-gate

For the modern fan of football, very rarely does a player come along that actually excites you. You can see an average player do something extraordinary, which makes fans and critics stand and applaud, but rarely do you see a player who can perform the incredible at a consistent level. We at Tottenham have had a few such players leave us over the past few years. Players such as Ledley King, Luka Modric and Gareth Bale were able to do so many magical things on the pitch, yet their time with our club has passed and with their passing, a new generation of skilled footballers is cutting their teeth on the hallowed ground of White Hart Lane.

One of the more hyped players with a prestigious pedigree came to us this past summer in the final days of the transfer window with a big price tag and an even bigger set of expectations. Erik Lamela was brought in to make our fans forget about a certain recently departed Welshman and up until yesterday’s match against Sheriff of Moldova; he was not having the best of starts to his Tottenham career. Fast forward 90 minutes and we were finally able to see why we were so willing to pay money for his services. His touch and class was a sight to behold for anyone watching our match, a 2-1 victory which secured passage to the knockout stages of the Europa League, and later in the season we may look back on this day as the moment we were introduced to Erik “Coco” Lamela.

Coo-Coo for Coco

From the start of the match, Erik seemed like he was determined to make sure that the fans and critics watching would have to take back all of their negative press and eat their words as he was head and shoulders above any player in both squads and scored his first goal for the club. His movement off the ball was seamless as it didn’t even look like he was running as much as floating around the pitch, moving through defenders as opposed to going around them as if he was a spectre, moving to and fro without any resistance. The goal had a bit of luck attached to it but Coco was smart enough to continue his run and clinical enough to lash it near post before the keeper could react.

Cue the celebrations as everyone in the stadium, as well as those lucky enough to wear the Tottenham shirt, let out a collective sigh of relief as no one needed and deserved that goal than young Mr. Lamela. The best part of the whole move was his euphoric look while wheeling off to celebrate in front of a good number of fans who had already written him off, but as mentioned earlier, are now more than happy to eat their own harsh criticism. But the best was still to come as his slalom into the box, floating past 3 defenders before being harshly floored and winning a penalty, which was then put away by our record European goal scorer Jermain Defoe, even the diminutive striker must have told Erik how wonderful his run was which led to the penalty. I think that a match like this will do wonders for our young Argentine and should these performances continue, his confidence will soar and he will become a monster for us, blowing the minds of fans and critics with his technical abilities and lethal left foot.

French Tank Reboot

Not to be overlooked yesterday as young Coco had a blinder, another of our summer signings made a notable appearance. Etienne Capoue returned to the pitch 2 months after his injury in the Arsenal match at the end of September and looked like he never was out. Bringing a great deal of power, pace and ruthlessness, the young Frenchman was back to his early season form with a complete strangling of the opposition’s frontline, muscling all off the ball and drawing a line in the sand as if to say, “None shall pass without getting stomped”; he was sight to behold. His work rate unmatched in today’s modern game, able to shield the backline while making the occasional run into opposition territory before spraying the ball to teammates, then quickly retreating into a holding position, patiently waiting for someone to try their luck and make their past our resident French Panzer. Substituted after 60 minutes, it was clear that he just needs to get his fitness levels back to 100% before him and Sandro and fighting it out for a starting berth in the league. God, could you imagine that battle? An unstoppable force vs. an immovable object. Zangief from Street Fighter vs. King from Tekken. Cloud Strife vs. Sephiroth. Thank heaven they are both on our side because that is one hell of a battle waiting to happen.

Concussion-gate

Our medical staff said he was okay to continue. The player said he was okay to continue. AVB said he was okay to continue after speaking with the team doctors. So if everyone says that he is okay, why are Tottenham and Andre getting so much flack over this? Where were these same critics when Romelu Lukaku scored a goal against West Ham and then post match said that he could not remember scoring the goal? When asked what he remembered (post match at West Ham), this is what Lukaku had to say.

“Nothing. I didn’t even know that I’d scored. That was the first thing that I asked. I don’t remember anything, I had the knock and then I didn’t remember what happened.”

Let’s get this straight. Hugo Lloris gets run into by Lukaku and is out for a minute or so but soldiers on and refuses to leave the pitch. After a thorough examination by our team doctors, he is deemed fit to continue and does so. He then makes a big save in the dying moments to preserve a hard earned point in a notoriously difficult stadium. After the match, the knives come back out for AVB and every lazy journalist writes how Andre put Hugo’s career in jeopardy by allowing him to continue playing when he was clearly fine to remain on the pitch.

The story gets way too much publicity and examples from the NFL and other sports are cited and used against the same medical staff that saved Fabrice Muamba’s life with quick thinking and proper procedural treatment. The entire club is looked at like a bunch of Neanderthals who have no interest in the wellbeing of its players and employees and will gladly risk lives to get the proper results in a game. Yet, where was this entire media backlash when Lukaku was knocked out and then was allowed to continue and score the winning goal against West Ham? Oh right, it is because the lazy English journalists hate AVB and have some kind of vendetta against him as they cannot stand his arrogance as someone so young should be more humble.

It is as clear as daylight that the media look for anything Spurs related to throw back at Andre in an attempt to wind him up and make him lose his cool while other managers get a pass as they have already been here and are loved, regardless of their level of success, or lack thereof. For Christ’s sake, these lazy journalists think that the “Shoes Off If You Love Tottenham” song is a shot at our boss. That is understandable as 1 + 1 = 47. The question remains though. Why do the media choose to focus on one event while missing another similar event which could have been used as a precedent? The evidence against the lack of a bias towards Andre and Tottenham just keeps piling up. Roberto Martinez gets a pass. Harry Redknapp gets a pass. Everyone gets a pass unless you are Andre Villas-Boas. That is the sad truth of the matter. They do not like Andre. They do not like Tottenham. They do not like anything that we do. And this, makes me so very sad……NOT!

I’d rather everyone hate our club as we roll on all these fools, take down the so-called favourites and lay down a marker to show the league and those lazy journalists that we are here not to make friends, we are here to lay beat downs on those who stand in our way.

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