Ah, that’s quite good, but can anyone beat Eric Cantona? Was on trial, Francis wanted to see how he performed in some silly friendly, snapped up by Leeds… Leeds win league, Wednesday finish third.
Jaap Stam was on trial with us a long time ago as well, back when he was a teenager. I think we wanted to sign him but he didn’t want to move abroad that early. I heard that we were close to signing Brazilian captain Leonardo after the 94 world cup as well (don’t laugh, we were quite good in those days).
Yup. It’s us again:
Maradonna twice (as a lad and prior to moving to Naples - he has even played for us (ossies testimonial). He was also offered to Sheffield weds - a a pattern is emerging here.
Dennis Berkamp - Long story, but basically down to the fucknugget sugar not being willing to pay the wages.
Emanuel Petit (when he was good) came for a trial, we fannied about, and even paid his cabfare to Highbury.
Graham Souness: Told he would never make the grade, played for us once in the UEFA cup against an Icelandic team.
We also sold Pat Jennings to Arsenal as we believed that Barry Daines was a better keeper.
and of course…
David Beckham: Trained at the lane and we never offered him schoolboy forms.
We also scouted and knocked back Stuart Pearce and Ian Wright.
Vetch,
has Lee Trundle a pie-related injury?
great player, I wonder where he’ll be playing next season.
[ul]
[li]Quote of the day:[/li]
If it is the case that you need just a first 11 and three or four more players, then why did Christopher Columbus sail to India to discover America?
- Ranieri
[li]Perhaps next week we could consider the all-time Pie Shop XI – I fancy Fowler and the oldie Mike Summerbee up front . . . more next week.[/li]
[li]Far more than the usual number of tight matches in the Prem this weekend, imho. Very tricky stuff indeed. For the fixed betting crowd, London_Calling recommends noting Yorke back for Blackburn and Hamann for Liverpool – both beyond crucial and ‘tipping the balance’ factors.[/li]
[li]My local has started showing live Prem games at 3.00pm on a Saturday. I know this is just starting to become a trend and it’s [sub]kind of[/sub] illegal . . but it’s damn handy! Well, at least until they get grassed up.[/li]
[li]I’m worried about tomorrow. I’ll say Spurs 2 Bolton 0 but I don’t bet on Spurs so it’s easy to say. I worry about an upset . . .[/li]
[li]Glad you chaps are so enthralled by the Spurs chat – warms the cockles . . .here’s more, cos I know you’re all itchin’[/li][/ul]
<White Hart Lane moments>
Tomorrow’s team selection should be interesting; I don’t see how Pleat can continue the ‘Ledley experiment’ (defensive midfielder) without dropping Guf or Sharon Sicknote – fwiw, the bastard spends entire seasons on the missing list and then, just when you want him injured, he’s itching to play! Anyway, at least one of the above is about to get a first glimpse of the sun setting on their career, imho.
Seems to me what we ended up with on Wednesday was slightly remarkable, if a product of circumstance; a midfield diamond with Ledley at the back, Robbie Keane at the head and, left and right, Blondel and Mabizela – obviously, Postiga and Zamora were up front, ahead of Robbie. A version of 4 – 4 - 2
The mad thing about this is;
(a) If you push the full-backs up and keep Ledley back (as was his old role), it’s Glenn’s wing-back 3 – 5 – 2 exactly, or
(b) It can be a narrow, through the channels 4 – 3 – 3 (with an interesting strike force of Postiga, Zamora and Keane)
- All formations with the same personnel and with only subtle alteration.
Fwiw, I do think it was a one-off and due to the need to press for a result without Kanoute and recognising that we do have a problem getting midfielders causing opposition defences to creak without Kanoute.
Anyway, I imagine Big Sam the Coach driver hasn’t a clue how we’ll play his bunch of mercenary foreigners tomorrow. But that just puts him in the same boat as the rest of us.
Interesting times.
Btw, I don’t think Postiga is a waste of money. I do think it’ll take a while to get some value from him. Plus, in a market that saw Kewell go for £5 and Kanoute for £4, the £6.4 for Postiga was £2-3 over the top, imho.
</White Hart Lane moments>
My local also has a moody sattelite card. It is a bit like watching a game commentated by the bloke from the fast show “hethethethetheth pethethethetheth chriswadlle. goooooooaaal!”
for THFC on Saturday (a 3pm Saturday kick-off, jumpers for goal posts, small boys in the park…) I agree with LC.
I really don’t see how Pleat can’t play Mabizela, he’s on fire at the moment.
I can see anderton getting the nod over Blondell, and in any case I would go with Dalmat (a cert for the pie XI) to start with. Maybe Ricketts too…
Non Spurs stuff…
Man City have announced a £50m debt. Doomed, doomed I tell ye. Especially when we beat them like a red-headed kid in the cup.
Not so doomed, imho. 45,000 season ticket holders, a new ground and a waiting list of five years . . .
L_C’s team selection for Sat coming right up . . .
Season tickets that cost two bob, ground that doesn’t belong to them (and they have to share the revenue from when the crowd gets above a certain level). Waiting lists aren’t revenue producing.
Lots of players on big contracts, and long contracts, big squad, mental manager.
Leeds Lite
The major positive is they must have surely the most loyal fans in the country - big crowds in the 2nd division etc. They probably haven’t rented any goldfish either.
Yep, they do need to keep the revenue’s coming in and for this lot to produce Cup runs without bringing more playing staff in - I hope they have youngsters knocking att he door. For sure, it’s a lot of wedge.
I don’t know about the players wages there. If they’re the old days size, then there is slight cause for concern.
<White Hart Corner>
It’s hard at the moment, picking the team because you just don’t know the undercurrents . .Here’s a stab at Pleat’s conservative yet experimental mind set:
Keller
Carr – Richards – Gardner – Tarrico
??? – King - ??? – Konchesky
Keane – Zamora
- those two midfield positions are the issue, for me. I think it might be:
OJ Mabizela rightside, and Dalmat at the head of a diamond (just to see how he gets on there). That would be interesting; no Sharon, no Guf, Ricketts to come on after 73 mins. as the electric eel and Postiga also.
As an aside, I do have great sympathy for poor old Stevie Carr; he must have seen more possible suitors than the Tory Party membership, yet he keeps battling on. Good pro.
I think Pleat might like to try that selection, but is he too cautious, perhaps he should be cautious ?
</White Hart Corner>
What a day.
And I am not refering to Arsenal humiliating some relegation side I am talking about the final round in Norwegian football.
A bit of information. My local team is nowere near the top division in Norway and never will be. Comming from the Nothern part of the country I hate the southern teams more than the Northern so I support other teams from my part of the country in the top division.
This year Tromsø fought against relegation. In the last round they needed a win to stay in the division if Aalesund beat already relegated Bryne (which was almost certain, Bryne hadn’t taken a point away from home all season). Tromsø played away against Rosenborg the dominating team in Norway who had already won the league.
Rosenborg had playes poorly in the last 2 home games and this was the final home game of the year and they said they wanted to give their fans a good experience which meant that a fixture which looked good a few months ago was now much worse.
To make matters worse Tromsø’s keeper had been injured and the replacement was a guy who had retired and never played in the top division. To top it off this morning Tromsø’s best forward’s wife went into labor and he stayed at home.
The game was in Trondheim where I am a student so I went to it to support Tromsø.
Tromsø was the better team in the first half and created chances and defended well but scored no goals while Aalesund took the lead in their game.
In the second half Rosenborg was better and created some chances and Tromsø created fewer and when they had the chance their finishing was poor. Aalesund scored a second goal to put their game beyond doubt and Tromsø had to score. But instead Rosenborg took control and it looked like it would be a draw. But then in the extra time a long ball gave a Tromsø player the chance, he had only one player beat. he rounded him but was fouled outside the box. The Tromsø fans screamed in anger, it would almost certainly had been a goal and the offender should now get sent off which meant he would miss the cup final. Everything would have been better if he had let the Tromsø player go.
But the ref only gave him a warning and it was now just one minute left of extra time.
The freekick was deflected to a corner. the corner was chaos, the Tromsø players tried desperatly but couldn’t get a clear shot and it was cleared to another corner. It was now past the 3 minutes of extra time and it was the last game still being played but the ref let the second corner be played, the fans and supporters of 2 other teams listened to the radio to learn their fate. The ball came to the back post where a Tromsø player jumped and sent the ball into the net and scored his only goal for the season.
On the stands it was chaos with fans hugging and jumping and screaming, noone even knew who had scored but noone cared.
I love stories like that.
Indeed. Bless.
So, Spurs lost?
<Spurs stuff>
I am utterly speechless at Pleat’s team selection and formation. We can all make mistakes but this was so elementary, so obviously wrong, his instincts should have been screaming at him to think again.
With the exception of playing Doherty for Gardiner, this was indeed the starting formation. Doherty makes no sense without more information that we’re not privy to. But it’s still small potatoes.
The real issue was that he selected both Anderton and Poyet for those last two midfield berths; Spurs didn’t score, Bolton had 28 shots (on target and off) on goal, scored once and hit the bar four times. Spurs had 10 shots in total. At home.
Credit where it’s due. He took off Poyet at half time, which is always an admission of having got it wrong. But it was too late.
Spurs ended up with Ledley King on the right side of midfield - this is akin to kitting out a gold fish with a spacesuit. Pleat had, at best, lost the plot; by then it was so wrong he couldn’t see a way back.
I just don’t know what to make about errors of judgement of these proportions. I’ll give him this one chance (I’m sure he’ll be relieved to know) but I don’t want to see Anderton and Poyet ever playing in the same team again
And I only ever want to one of those names on a team sheet in exceptional circumstances. From now on, both are ‘filler’, squad players until, at the very latest, the end of this season. Enough.
The squad has the capability to be dynamic, surprising and resilient. But it needs the right combination and formation. Move on Pleat, leave the past behind.
</Spurs stuff>
Barks’ dog food Lovely story!
Good story, Barks’ dog food.
Oldham: two-all away draw with the division leaders (Plymouth). On the face of it, a very good result – both goals coming from the unlikely source of David Beharall, a centre-half of the old school. Unfortunately young John Sheridan gets red-carded for nutting a rather dirty opposition player, then his little brother Darren tries to even the scores in the tunnel at half-time, then our star midfielder Paul Murray gets red-carded in the second half (two yellows I think).
Good result but down to nine men for the second time this season and rumours of an FA investigation. We escaped with a £5,000 fine once already; this means £25,000 I believe, which we cannot afford to pay.
Very worrying indeed.
You just haven’t got £25,000, have you?
Leicester:
- I am NOT TALKING about the Wolves game last week.
- What have we got rid of Brian Deane for? He’s imposing, he’s got the skills, defenders don’t like him. Why did we sign Les Ferdinand in the first place? We didn’t need him because we HAD BRIAN DEANE. I don’t get it.
- Thank fuckeroo we won yesterday. sigh of relief First half, I had no idea how we were going to win. None at all. We were bad. Second half; we put it together just enough to get two chances, and scored from both. We got away with blatent handball and various general acts of stupidity, but we got the points. It might have been different if Yorke hadn’t fannied about with his first touch, thus essentially wasting his shot. Heigh ho.
Spurs stuff:
I took my son and his pal to the game. I think I missed a trick, I should have christened the lad Jonah - I don’t think he’s ever seen us win. Maybe I’ll take my daughter next time (apart from the fact that that would be an offence against nature, she’d like the police horses though)
We were rubbish - it was as bad a performance as I’ve seen in a long while. Bolton could easily have won 5-0 or more. Thank god for the wood work. It’s time to end the King as a midfielder experiment
At least Pleat was honest afterwards saying that we were rubbish.
Oh well arsenal away next week - piece of cake. sigh.
Watching MOTD (or whatever its called) I was struck by how well the filth are playing, and with their imminent exit from the league of teams that came fourth they are now my favourites to win the league. Henry must surely be the best player in the league (and possibly the world) right now.
That boy Mutu looks awsome too. Sadly Zamora doesn’t
Still there’s always the cups. Or the fair play league. Or the Middlesex cup. Or the Pontins Footbal Combination.
Pleat was a prat, and he’s a bigger prat for blaming the team and not taking any responsibility himself when his judgement was clearly wrong.
Yep, well done Leicester. It’s a joy to see Souness stew.
Anyway, onwards to the November thread.
Would the last person leaving please switch the light out.