#IWill #WeWill #YouWill Not Panic

The message as the Spurs models burst through the wall was dramatic, even if a little cheesy. What exactly Under Armour wants us to do though remains opaque. #IWILL what?  Pull my greying hair out and scream? Or hope that Spurs know what they are doing and enjoy the rest of summer. Either way, #IWAS happy to finally see a new kit.

^{This articel first appeared on The Fighting Cock Website}

However, as quickly as Spurs giveth, they taketh away. With the euphoria still bubbling away, the news that World Cup winning David Villa wasn’t the next through the Styrofoam wall broke.

El Guaje (The Kid) had gone and signed for Atletico Madrid, prompting thousands on Twitter to report the first signs of the end of the world. If a 31 year old striker opting to remain in his home country for £150k a week, signifies forth coming destruction, then please someone strap Will Smith into fighter plane and point him at a the nearest invading UFO.

What exactly is the significance of Villa opting not to sign? Thousands of other players have and will continue to choose another team other than Spurs. Was his decision based on not having Champions League? Perhaps, but most probably it was down to not being bothered to uproot a young family, removing the hassle of learning a new language, and of course money.

I shall refrain from referring to the Villa issue as a failure. Failure isn’t the inability to sign a player who was never really available. We didn’t fail to sign Juan Mata or Eden Hazard, they merely opted for the Russian Ruble and Champions League football. We failed to sign Luis Suarez (apparently too similar to VDV according to the word of Harry), Demba Ba (countless occasions) and Gary Cahill (August 2011,) we didn’t fail to sign Villa.

The Villa issue is closed. It got us excited, gave newspapers something to write about and allowed certain individuals to tap their nose and say: “It’s a done deal” but its time for a new victim. We now have to move on and start the damned circle of nonsense once again.

One person on Twitter now in line for a medal from SKY for sheer dedication to their blinkered betting based sports coverage stated: “Who is there to sign? There are no more strikers.” Does this individual have a point? Is there really no one else out there for us?

Are Spurs in such a state that a 31 year old recovering from a broken leg is the best its going to get?

Of course not. Spurs lest you forget have just signed one of the stars of the well received Confederations Cup 2013. A man who scored the goal that took Brazil to the final, before obliterating a famed midfield trio in  a crushing 3-0 victory over Spain. Added to this achievement is that fact that in December he led Corinthians to the World Club Cup beating the “we know what we are lot” from Fulham 1-0.

Paulinho is a player on the cusp of becoming a leading central midfielder on the global stage, yet he chose Spurs just like Hugo Lloris, Jan Vertonghen and Lewis Holtby all have done in the past year. The signings Spurs are making are a clear indication of where the club is heading, a move for Villa no matter how impressive or nostalgic it may have been, wouldn’t have felt right.

The options being spoken about regarding a new striker now seem to feature Roberto Soldado and Christian Benteke, two players I like and wouldn’t mind seeing in our new kit.  Despite the fact that Soldado is an established striker who has scored goals for many seasons in La Liga, I would still opt for the younger more physically imposing Benteke.

The Aston Villa striker has pace, strength, PL experience and the arrogance, if not quite the geography skills to go with the price tag. When he plays he is like a genetic splicing of Emmanuel Adebayor and Jermain Defoe, he has the strengths of both, and less of the faults. Basically he can head, run, chest the ball and uses his left for more than standing on.

If we are ever going to sign him, it needs to be this season. Another successful year at Villa Park will see him go beyond our wage structure and transfer kitty.

There are some reservations regarding Benteke and rightly so. He has only played one full season, he is still learning the game and is very expensive. I have even heard some people say: “Michael Ricketts had one good season” the difference between the two though, apart from talent are the clubs looking to sign him.

Ricketts and his one cap went to Middlesborough, hardly famed for their in-depth scouting: Alfonso Alves, Massimo Maccarone, Carlos “the next Maradona” Marinelli and Emerson (not the Roma, Juve, WC runner-up one.) Where as Benteke has been linked with clubs of deeper pedigree, Spurs, Borussia Dortmund et al.

Also seeing as the Rickett’s name has come up, was he really as impressive as Benteke has been during his few months (15 goals by Feb, 15 goals by May) of success? So he played for England, so has Booby Zamora, Kevin Davies and Francis Jeffers. Playing 45 minutes for England in a friendly is meaningless.

Benteke has represented Belgium from youth to full international level and last season broke the Aston Villa record of most goals in a Premier League season.  The Belgian along with Brad Guzan basically kept the Villans in the PL, no mean feet when you think back to where they were as Gareth Bale tore them a new one on Boxing Day.

This young man shouldered responsibility way beyond his years last season. Not only did Benteke score crucial goals and inspire his team mates, he did all this with the shadow of Darren Bent hanging over him and Gabby Abonglahor as a strike partner. It may have just been one season, but you can only judge on a man on what he has done, not what he hasn’t had the chance to do yet.

Perhaps £25 Million is too much, but I am sure that Daniel Levy, with a part exchange or clever loan here or there can get it down. If Franco Baldini and AVB have seen something in the young Belgian then I hope we sign him, but should we not #IWILL not be panicking.

The summer is long; winter may be coming, but not quite yet.

Spurs v FC Basel: No Swiss Rollover

Time slows down and you feel your subconscious picking up on the more subtle aspects of White Hart Lane. The blue seat flexing under you as you strain forward, the faint whiff of coffee off the chap next to you and then bang, you come speeding back to a painful reality from which there is no escape.

Casting your eyes across the stadium you realise this isn’t a dream or a head rush, it’s Gareth Bale slapping the turf in agony, that possible trip to Amsterdam evaporating and the prospect of Champions League football slipping away again. Looking up at the scoreboard you remember that Its 2-2 against FC Basel a Swiss team who were supposed to just roll over, you take a deep breath and sigh. This is real life and it never goes to plan, especially when you are a Spurs fan.

FC Basel as we saw on Thursday night, are no Euro Lightweights, domestically they are on course for a back-to-back double and on the continent they have been troubling Europe’s big spenders for a few years. This season they dispatched multi-billionaires Zenit St Petersburg and last year qualified from a Champions League group at the expense of Man United.

At White Hart Lane they demonstrated all this and more.

Comfortable in possession, organised in defence and lighting quick in attack, it was painful viewing for Spurs fans at the Lane and at home. It was watching a team play your style, but with more confidence, skill, ability and most importantly the right players for the right positions.

Murat Yakin the former Basel and Swiss international, who was appointed in October 2012, deserves a lot of credit for this Basel side, especially when you consider that like Spurs, the Swiss team lost key players last summer.

FC Basel lost two up-and-coming stars of the European game Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri to the Bundesliga and stalwarts Scott Chipperfield and Benjamin Huggel to old age. This set back rather than start a downward spiral has only reinforced the clubs desire to rebuild, and in their number 22, Egyptian international Mohamed Salah, they have found the perfect player to replace the explosive left-foot of Shaqiri.

The Swiss Super League leaders were assisted in their dominance by Spurs offering up acres of space behind the back line, but their chances at goal were not all laid on by Spurs and the Titus Bramble Doppelganger William Gallas.

The selection of the former French international in a competition which AVB continues to say is a priority is mystifying. Away in Milan his attempts at defending almost resulted in a 3-0 first leg advantage being overturned and last night never before has a player an injured player walked off a pitch to such silence. Hopefully this will be the last time he is seen at White Hart Lane.

Despite the faults in Gallas’ game, it would be unfair to lay the blame solely at his veteran feet. Spurs were sloppy in possession and as the game wore on certain players started to hide and move away from the man in possession.

Lewis Holtby a player in whom I have a great deal of hope battled hard and was a willing recipient of the ball, even in an unnatural wide right position, but his replacement on 63 minutes, Clint Dempsey was totally anonymous. Spurs were on top pushing for a third, but AVB’s change unbalanced the team and played perfectly into Swiss hands.The American continues to baffle, what exactly is he? A central midfielder, a winger or a striker?

The defining moment of the game however shall be that roll on that ankle.

Time was ticking away; a large portion of the crowd had left or were in the process of leaving, but when Bale picks up the ball and runs, White Hart Lane stops. As he ran round the outside of his opponent I hoped this would be the starting move of a glorious goal, I was wrong and I could do little but hope my eyes had deceived me and it wasn’t Bale…

The optimist in me believes this is a turning point. Its time for the rest of the team to stand up and prove they are more than just chorus parts in the Bale Extravaganza. Perhaps though now we will finally see Holtby or Glyfi Sigurðsson in their natural central positions, behind a striker who finally remembered how to score and on occasion head the ball.

All is not lost for Spurs, three points on Sunday against Everton will go a long way to prove that we are what we say we are, more than a one man team.

After all it wasn’t that long ago when we couldn’t buy a win with him in the team.

The Reasons Why This is a Happy Birthday Spurs!!

Tottenham Hotspur celebrates 130 years as a club this week, but some may be forgiven for asking what is there to celebrate?

After all Spurs have failed for the second successive season to qualify for the Champions League. We sacked our most successful manager in recent times, Harry Redknapp, hero to the Red Top papers, we sold two of our best players and are currently without a win this season.

Surely the birthday bash should be cancelled? At Norwich on Saturday it sounded as if many were ready to read the Old Cockerel his last rites, but the majority of Spurs fans are cut from far different cloth.

We see positives were others see negatives, we hope, we pray and we remain faithful to the badge. Due to the World Cup qualifiers keeping us away from White Hart Lane this week, here a few reasons why the 130^th birthday of this great club shouldn’t be put on hold:

We have Hugo.

The French national captain and one of the worlds top keepers is a Tottenham player. This transfer is a serious statement of the clubs ambition, this is a marquee signing, any Spurs fan who doubts the magnitude of this move take a brief look through our recent goalkeeping history. Bar one season from Paul Robinson, the man between the sticks has been a weak point for nearly 3 decades.

Hugo may not be Joa, Leandro or Willian, but he is a player of pure international class and one who can lead us for the next 10 years.

Daniel Levy holds the wallet.

The Spurs chairman may haggle over every penny to the detriment of our early season form, but is their any other chairman so dedicated to keeping his club at the forefront of domestic football?

Everything Levy does is in the best interest of the club. He may make mistakes when it comes to the club set up or managerial appointments, but financially despite not having regular Champions League football, we are able to make a profit and compete within reason.

We don’t have an Arab or Russian billionaire bank rolling us and unfortunately our wait for the 60,000 seater stadium continues, but the club under his stewardship has progressed.

In 2010/2011 a couple of refereeing and goalkeeping howlers prevented us from a return to the Europe’s top table. Whilst last year, the fallout from a John Terry comment and some missed penalties by Leo Messi, Arjen Robben and Bastian Schweinsteiger kept us out of the Champions League again.

We compete against world financial heavyweights, yet still hold our own. This is down in no small part to Levy. The chairman may have failed to sign a striker, but he is successful in keeping us from imploding like many other clubs who have chased the glory.

Vertoghen & Dembele.

There is no doubting that Belgian is the flavour of the month. Their stars are littered across Europe and thankfully we have two of the best.

I witnessed Jan Vertoghen’s home debut live and his ability on the ball for a centre back was outstanding. He may lack the sheer physical presence of Younes Kaboul, but his composure and positional awareness is Ledley King-esque.

Moussa Dembele already with a fantastic goal to his name looks to be a great replacement for the departed Rafa Van Der Vaart.

Far more mobile and direct, Demebele will over the course of the season prove to be a greater presence than the Dutchman. We may have all worshipped VDV for his goals and passion, but he did regularly disappear in games and vanish altogether at the 70th minute mark.

Demebele will add much need thrust to the team and his ability to play in any midfield role will be crucial if Spurs are to challenge in the Premier League and Europa League.

We are Tottenham.

Despite being starved of serious silverware in recent times, we remain a fantastically well supported club.

We may boo, we may complain, but White Hart Lane will still be full come Saturday afternoon. Whilst Chelsea, Arsenal and West Ham’s crowd ebb and flow according to how their team plays, Tottenham’s season ticket waiting list continues to grow.

We were the first British team to win a European trophy, we claimed the first Double with wonder flowing football, we are the only Non League Club ever to win the FA Cup (1901) and have won a major trophy in each of the last six decades.

Glorious players have come and gone, pass and move was invented at White Hart Lane and we have become synonymous with beautiful football. We are the club that Bill Nic Made and in the end Keith Burkinshaw was right: “There used to be a football club here” because now it’s more than that, it’s a lifestyle choice.

Happy Birthday Spurs and here’s too many more!!!