A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

Spurs are out of Europe, well... we all knew it was going that way didn't we? It wasn't that scoring 2 goals was unthinkable, more that not conceding one seemed unlikely, and in the end it was those crazy goals on their manor that saw us off and not a weak surrender from our reserve outfit as many had predicted. I don't think we would have conceded if we weren't pushing so hard at the end and I was actually rather impressed with much of our play. It was like watching a completely different team from the one that served us the dross I endured on Monday. Oh, hang on, it was a completely different team!

If these lot were the second string then several of them should be knocking on Harry's door today and asking him what else they have to do to get a promotion. I felt that half a dozen players did themselves no end of good out there and put up a super effort as underdogs against ex-Champions League fodder. There has been talk of devaluing the competition, but the consolation is we get to have a good look at a few unfamiliar faces.

For the delicate petals amongst you, I realise it seems crazy that I can moan about Monday's win and celebrate last night's loss, but it's a funny old game and important as results are at the moment, that's not what this post is about. I'm talking about the mid to long term outlook, the 5 day forecast, the bigger picture. It's a picture that has shown the first team lumber disjointedly to a mixed bag of performances, mostly poor, since Harry's honeymoon period ended abruptly on December 13th. Yet last night the reserves put on a show that actually got the blood pumping in places it hasn't pumped for weeks.

Quick passing, urgency, creativity and self belief were in attendance and I felt we could drag them into extra time all the way up to the point that they killed us off. The crowd were rocking and the players had their tails up. We didn't look content to knock it around the centre circle, we didn't result to long ball after long ball out of defence, we even had something vaguely resembling a final ball. This lot look comfortably good enough to get us promoted from the Championship next season. (Alright, calm down - that was a joke!).

My verdict:

Gomes - 6
Better but not great, will need to improve if we are to survive - and soon. Thought he'd turned a corner before his injury, hopefully he can turn it again.

Gunter - 6
Caught out of position a few times but recovered well (except possibly for their goal!). Likes going forward, decent defender, has all the ingredients of a solid pro.

Shimbomba - 7
To be honest I find him a bit of a flapper and an uneccesary risk taker at centre half, but no cock ups this time so mustn't grumble.

Thudd - 8
Captain Cool looked composed and seemed to relish the armband. So refreshing to have a CB who can spray measured, accurate passes rather than hoof it to the other defence. Would like to see him play here more often as he starts so many good moves.

Gilberto - 4
One decent run and a couple of tidy passes I suppose, but up there as a contender for the worst player ever to wear the shirt. Loses the ball up field and refuses to break into a sweat to recover his position. Looks nervous and disinterested. Reckon that's his lot.

Bale - 7
Good passing, intelligent running and even looked strong when covering for Gilberto. If only he'd break his balls a bit more when not in possession he'd be automatic first choice ahead of my personal hate figure BAE.

O'Hara - 5
Not bad, not great. Decent enough considering he hasn't played in a while

Wilson - 7
He really is looking like the real deal. The DM we've been waiting for he injects drive and passion into our midfield. Hopefully no one else has noticed.

Gio - 8
Splendid goal with the left peg, tidy passing, kept the ball, found space, mostly avoided dead ends. Bentley and Lennon should be worried. Selling him would be a massive mistake. Could have earned a cameo on Sunday?

Obika - 7
Looks like a good prospect, strong, eager, full of running, not afraid to have a crack. Deserved a goal. Hope he isn't one of those players who need 5 chances to tuck away 1, but wondering if he's already better than Bent...

Campbell - 5
Couldn't find a key to unlock the defence, fell over quite a bit. Not a long term answer, Fergie can have him back.

The only one who stands to start on Sunday is Gomes, but it will be interesting to see who Harry goes for on Wednesday against Boro'. For me Bale is possibly the only one who has a shout (I'm not superstitious) - hard to remember he's not even 20 yet!

Ups and downs come with the territory as a Spurs fan, and while the team has been looking decidedly shaky, it seems to me as though the squad looks quite promising.

SAME SH*T, DIFFERENT DAY

Hoorah, we got another 3 points last night, by Harry's calculations that means we need another 4 wins to hit the magic 40. As if talk of reaching 40 points wasn't depressing enough, we actually have to go on and win one third of our remaining games to do so - including ties against each of the current top 4. Based on the evidence provided by last night's mediocre performance then it looks like it's going to be squeaky bum time for another couple of months.

Tottenham were, yet again, rubbish, well ok maybe not anger-inducingly rubbish, but definitely distinctly average. How I yearn for a really good performance. I crave flowing moves, intelligent running, clever interplay. I'd currently settle for more than half a dozen passes in a row, a few more decent attempts on goal and the immediate cessation of long balls out of defence. Watching Tottenham is getting more and more like watching Championship football, we just don't knock it around like we used to.

Why our players struggle to find the kind of time and space on the ball that the opposition so frequently have against us is a conundrum. Unfortunately Harry hasn't got a clue either. I can only hope that he gets as frustrated as me by all the terrible decision making and hopeless passing. The players have been conditioned to believe they are in a fight, but fighting and playing intelligent football don't have to be mutually exclusive do they?

Whilst I am obviously delighted that we managed 3 points against a newly promoted team, I refuse to paper over the cracks of yet another disjointed performance. I personally am failing to see any significant progress from any of the other dross we have been served up over the last couple of months. Ask yourself this, on 80 minutes who did you think was going to win? The only difference this time is we managed to grab a late winner rather than the more traditional late loser.

My verdict...

Cudicini - 5
Failed to inspire confidence and seems to have been taking cross handling advice from Gomes.

Corluka - 5
Mistake for their goal, but I still like him

Woody - 8
Blood, guts and the winner

Ledders - 6
Was he playing?

Assou-Akkoto - 4
He finally put a cross on someones head, well done it only took 20 odd games. Gives the ball away far too often and always tries to go long when a short pass inside is the better ball. Drives me crazy.

Lennon - 7
One of his better days, but still loves a dead end. Passing is poor/unimaginative/not quick enough. Taarabt has more skill in his little finger, unfortunately his passing and decision making is even worse. Nice goal.

Jenas - 6
Also one of his better days, which isn't really a massive compliment. Tiring of his exasperated arms out gesturing when he gets the ball in the centre circle. Gained one bonus point for not making me shout.

Modders - 5
Should have been pulling the strings, but wasn't.

Palacios - 7
Not quite the all action display we saw against the goons, but still ticked the right boxes. Rapidly becoming a personal favourite.

Bent - 5
I have been a long time supporter of Benty. Running out of patience.

Keane - 4
Was he playing? Missing Berba (aren't we all).

Are this team capable of playing better football than this? I think they are, but how much longer do we have to wait before they gel? 45 minutes against Stoke is all we've had to be proud of for way too long. Next Wednesday we host Boro' in what is another 'must win' game. Tricky away ties follow against Sunderland and Villa before a home tie with resurgent Chelsea - I don't fancy too many points from that lot.

There's the welcome distraction of a cup final this weekend (welcome for me anyway, Harry doesn't seem so keen). If on Sunday we give the ball away as cheaply and as frequently as we did last night then we're going to get battered. However, perhaps a good result and/or performance against unstoppable United will be the catalyst that brings these lot together and gives them a bit of belief.

It might not be very realistic, but I need some small ray of sunshine to believe in...

European Football: What is all the fuss about?

I really don't know why we've been so obsessed with qualifying for Europe for all these years. The format of this competition just seems to drain the excitement right out of it. I mean, what are we now, the last 32, last 16? I don't even know but it seems like we've played about 20 games so far. It appears as though I'm not the only person who couldn't give a toss anymore as Harry Redknapp thoughtfully decided for us that 3 points against Hull on Monday are more important than continuing in a competition we have been busting our balls to get into for the last 10 years. If we don't get those points I'm going to be more than a little upset.

Much was made of his decision to field his second string, but it didn't look much like a reserve team to me. I was under the impression that Gomes, Huddlestone, Dawson, Chimbonda, Jenas, Zokora and Bentley were all first teamers - at least they have been in the not-so-distant past. No, I don't think the team sheet was too shabby, but the tactics were definitely unambitious. Maybe playing for a draw looked like the sensible option at the time, after all it was away from home, on a crappy pitch and with a glut of 'more important' games on the horizon perhaps he thought we could take a draw and then nick it at The Lane. The plan has backfired.

In what was for most part a rather tedious affair, Tottenham's trademark collapse in the last 10 minutes cost us yet again. A 2 goal deficit looks too much to claw back against a Ukrainian side who are no mugs. Michael Dawson, ever the optimist, believes otherwise. "We knew coming to a place like this they would have a lot of the ball but we're disappointed. It's going to be an uphill task - but we still believe we can do it."

Well Michael, I beg to differ. Is there anybody out there who really believes we can keep a clean sheet next week? No, not much chance of that I'd of thought. Even letting in 1 goal means we'd have to stick 4 past them and I suspect our strongest team would struggle to do that, let alone the rag-tag mish-mash of reserve players and kids that will no doubt constitute the starting XI next Thursday.

"I gave one 17-year-old (Dean Parrett) his debut and might have four 17-year-olds next week," said Redknapp. "When we play the second leg it will only be half as strong as this side." Oh, ok, so that's that then. Ever struggled to get a ticket? Well next Thursday's game is for you.

"The magic of the UEFA Cup" isn't something you hear people saying very often, and for good reason. The ridiculous qualifying procedures, the excessive group stages and the unnecessary home and away legs for each of the knockout stages means that this competition just rumbles on and on and on. Unfortunately the powers that be have missed the opportunity to make significant changes and turn it into something genuinely exciting.

The Europa League, as it will be known from next season, will mean teams playing even more games to get to the knockout stages than they have to now. What UEFA should have done is expand it to include 64 teams and then just had a one legged knockout competition all the way to the semi-finals. That would add a bit of magic as we might be treated to some pulsating winner takes all cup ties and plucky underdogs having a right good crack at it. So what actually have they changed?

"The new name heralds major changes to the competition, which will have a new 48-team group stage with centralised marketing of broadcast rights, a presenting sponsor and an official matchball in addition to centralised sponsorship from the knockout stage and a new logo and visual identity."

What a load of old bollocks.

Robbie Keane: Tottenham Saviour?

Little over a week ago I absolutely convinced myself that Robbie Keane would not be a Spurs player again. I just couldn't see Liverpool squandering a few million quid, in the process admitting they had made a very expensive mistake, and I couldn't see Keano himself swallowing his pride, coming to terms with his Anfield nightmare and scampering back to White Hart Lane with his tail between his legs. With the current insanity at Spurs at the moment I should have known better!

I'm happy to have been wide of the mark on that one, but let's face it, admitting you are wrong is a very difficult thing to do, even more so when it has to be done so publicly. Yet such admissions are implicit throughout this bizarre deal. Liverpool are admitting they were wrong to spend £20m on him just 6 months ago (and it's too easy to be dismissive of that figure, but what an almighty balls up that turned out to be), Spurs are admitting they were wrong to sell him (I know they say they didn't want to but they did) and Keano himself is admitting he was wrong to go there. A quite astonishing u-turn on three fronts in an incredibly short time frame.

Anyway, the Red side of things may smack of internal wrangling and the percentage of jump versus push may be debatable but one thing is for sure, we have got ourselves a top quality striker on the cheap. If there's one thing this club need right now it's more pointing and shouting. Keano has proved he is a 20 goals a season man, but he's also a fighter, a motivator, hugely respected and by all accounts a popular figure in the dressing room.

What he brings us is what we have been missing for a while, trickery and intelligence in the final third. Huddlestone's quarterback trick is tidy without being spectacular, Lennon's running into dead ends or poor delivery is frustrating, Jenas is a sideways and backwards merchant, Zokora couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo, Defoe is more predator than provider and although Modders and Pav have shown flashes, neither look like they have Berba-esque ability to turn a game on their own.

OK, so Keane is no Berbatov, but he is a very clever player. He makes the right runs, he finds space, he can turn people inside out and he has feet quick enough to put other players through on goal without telegraphing it the way we do at the moment. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if him and Pav make a better partnership than Defoe and Pav. With Defoe's unfortunate accident it looks like he has the best part of 3 months to prove it.

I know there will be a few people out there that can't forgive and forget, but Keano has class, fight and league experience by the bucket load. With Defoe out for 10 weeks we would have been left with just Bent or Campbell to play alongside Pav for what could be Spurs' most important few months in the last 30 years.

My thoughts: Robbie Keane could be the signing that keeps us in the Premiership.