Are Spurs The Real Deal?

Who could honestly say that we would even be asking ourselves this question 3 months ago If someone told us they would lose Gareth Bale to Real Madrid one day before the close of the transfer window? 

This week, Tottenham drew at home to Chelsea, a game they dominated in the 1st half and rightfully took the lead, prompting Mourinho to change tactics in order to get back into it before a horrible refereeing decision led to a Torres sending off and 10 minutes of Spurs pressure before the final whistle meant a deserved 1 point each. The game itself, and certainly the first half makes me confident that Spurs, particularly at home, can compete with anyone in the league. 

Do I think that Spurs are ready to mount a serious challenge for the Premier League title? Short answer: No. I do like the spurs team though.

If you go down the Spurs team, you find a lot of good players. Lloris is a very competent 'keeper now that he's found his feet in a Spurs shirt. The back 4 is still, in classic Tottenham style, shaky. Kyle Walker is a defensive liability at right-back, as is Danny Rose at left-back. They are decent prospect for Spurs and England, but I don't rate them nearly as highly as the likes of Sagna, Zabaleta, Cole and Evra. The centre back partnership of Michael Dawson and Jan Vertonghen is more solid than the wing backs. However, I still have to compare them to the likes of Kompany, Vidic etc and i'm not sure they pack that kind of punch. I would never bet on Spurs to keep a clean sheet in the league, even though the John Terry header yesterday was the first goal they've conceeded this season. 

Moving upfield, I'm not sure that Andre Villas-Boas knows his strongest midfield yet. Against Chelsea he played a fluid 5 in midfield consisting of Paulinho, Andros Townsend, Moussa Dembélé, Glyfi Sigurdsson and Cristian Eriksen. The first thing I notice about this is the lack of out-and-out wingers, the threat of which comes from the oncoming Walker and Rose. I rate Paulinho, Dembélé and Eriksen very highly indeed. Paulinho and Dembélé are both capable defensively but can also drive Spurs forward from deep. Eriksen is a different player; clever, tricky with the ability to create and unlock defences. Andros Townsend is a similar player to Dembélé in my opinion, and i'm unsure of how important he is to Spurs at this moment. Sigurdsson has really found his eye for goal at the start of the season, which cannot be undervalued while new front-man Roberto Soldado finds his feet in English football.

The biggest change I see in this Spurs team to previous seasons comes when you look at the options AVB has on the bench. Record signing Erik Lamela is joined by Jermain

New Boys: Soldado & Lamela

Defoe, Lewis Holtby and Nacer Chadli and really allow Spurs to bring something new off the bench to change a game - Something they did very well against Cardiff when they scored a last minute winner. Personally I think spending so much money on an unproven winger like Lamela is a huge gamble. The English game is unique in it's physicality and rigidity of teams, which leaves many European wingers struggling. That is part of the reason I rate Cristiano Ronaldo as the best player in the world, and why I also think Chadli and Lamela are best suited as impact subs to the bench before leading the line.

The only problem I have with Spurs is that I don't think they'll be able to perform as well as the other contenders over a 38-game season. When I envisage Spurs playing away Stoke or Hull on a cold tuesday night in February, I don't think they'll be as competitive as a Chelsea, Man Utd or Man City. 

With Arsenal & Liverpool both improving too this year, I can see Spurs having to fight harder than even get into the Champions League, before they can eye up bigger prizes

What on Earth is going on at QPR?

For a lot of people, once a team is relegated from the Premier League, they might have well fallen off the face of the Earth. This may well be the case for some readers but the transfer dealings of QPR this summer has been nothing more than baffling.

Everyone remembers the summer of 2012 when QPR won the Championship and in that transfer window, bought every man and his dog that had ever seen a football under Mark Hughes. When they found themselves bottom of the league a few months later, they proceeded to buy another shed-load of players, and when they went down in the summer 2013, everyone predicted a mass clear-out and a totally now squad. However, if you take a look at the QPR squad for this season, you will still see a bizarre array of talent that quite frankly should not be playing in the 2nd tier of English football.

Júlio César
What Júlio César is doing in the QPR reserves is one of the biggest mysteries in football at

the minute, and a conundrum I will never solve. The fact that he is behind Rob Green in the pecking order is strange enough. But in a years time, footballs most illustrious tournament will be held in Brazil. Before the start of this season, César was Brazil's number 1 by some margin but I cannot see how he can keep that shirt with a year of no
football. I don't know what him and his agent have been doing over the summer, but if it is the case that he's happy to get paid every week as his chance to represent his country in a home world cup diminishes, he sums up everything that is wrong with modern football.

Joey Barton

On the 9th April 2013, Joey Barton tweeted

"Some strange people think that i'll be playing in the Championship next season. Good one! QPR might, I wont! #fact"

On the 4th August 2013, Barton was named in the starting lineup in the opening day fixture at home to Sheffield Wednesday and has been in the first team setup ever since. 

Love or loathe (and I certainly loathe) Barton, he is still a good player and should be playing in the Premier League. Why he isn't, or why he didn't stay in France, I don't know.

Niko Kranjcar
Thats right, Niko Kranjcar is playing the Championship. This is obviously down to Harry Redknapp, having bought him at Portsmouth, Spurs and now QPR, but it is shocking to hear this kind of name with a Championship club.

Other names in the QPR squad include Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Gary O'Neil, Danny Simpson, Richard Dunne, Andy Johnson (Yes, THE Andy Johnson from years ago), Shaun Wright-Phillips, Jermaine Jenas, Junior Hoilett, Alejandro Faurlin and Bobby Zamora. All these players have had fairly long or successful spells in Englands top division. 

QPR have also brought in some of the Championships top talent including ex-Blackpools Matt Phillips, ex-Wolves captain Karl Henry and Championship leading goalscorer last season Charlie Austin (who I do not rate by the way).

As many may expect with that squad, after 9 games QPR are 3 points clear at the Championship and remain unbeaten with 7 wins and 2 draws. That said, they have hardly set the division alight with Premiership quality football. QPR have only scored 10 goals so far in those 9 games, and scraped victories against lowly Yeovil, under-achieving Bolton and only managing 1-1 away to Huddersfield ;).

They are yet to be really tested against the big-hitters of the division and I will be interested to see how they fair at places like Nottingham Forest and Watford.

Would I like to see QPR back in the Premiership?

Pains of Manchester

I am writing this on the night of the 28th September 2013, shortly after David Moyes' Man Utd lost at home against West Brom. This leaves them 12th with 7 points after 6 games including 3 losses against todays opposition, Liverpool and Man City. This underlines a thoroughly underwhelming start to life in the fast lane for David Moyes and has a lot of United fans concerned as to just what the post-Fergie era has in-store. 

I must admit, when news broke of Sir Alex's retirement, I was desperately against the appointment of David Moyes. My (slightly ambitious) best case scenario was José Mourinho taking over and bringing a certain Cristiano Ronaldo over with him. On paper, David Moyes had a fantastic track record at Everton, but his lack of 'big time' management, as well as no European experience worried me. As it was, he was picked and I tried to be optimistic.

If I was David Moyes, on day 1, I would have turned to the board and said:

"Listen, it is VITAL that post-Fergie, we prove to everyone that this club is still at the top of the world and to do that, I want to be strong in the transfer market and make at least 1 marque signing. I want to stamp my authority on this team and this season."

Instead, we got half-arsed attempts to sign Thiago Alcantara and Gareth Bale, as well as embarrassing pursuits of Leighton Baines (WHO THEY DO NOT NEED), Cesc Fabregas and Ander Herrera. This left them with Marouane Fellaini secured bang on deadline and the farcical summer display left us a laughing stock.

On the pitch, pre-season results were pretty terrible, but noone really read much into that. In the Community Shield, the not-so-shocking win over relegated Wigan and decent display away at Swansea in the first week left us thinking 'maybe we'll be ok'. But since then, both performances and results have been thoroughly unacceptable. Part of the blame lies with the players, the selection and the management. 

We looked clueless against a defensive Liverpool side, posed no threat to Chelsea at home and looked like a pub team at the Etihad.

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So now I'm going to name and shame the players I have issues with, as well as praise the few (very few) that deserve to wear the famous red shirt. If a player isn't mentioned, it's a positive thing.

Phil Jones & Chris Smalling

These two are grouped together because they are exactly the same. I think they are 2 talented English young players with great potential. However, neither of them are anything more than incompetent at right-back. Phil Jones is the worst right back in the league. The boy can't even pass, and every time he crosses the ball I feel like kicking an orphan child to death in rage. Please get well soon Rafael.

Anderson & Nani
Sir Alex signed Anderson and Nani signed back in 2007 and in my opinion have both proved to be completely wasted potential and are now useless. On the plus side, Fergie recognised this and already penciled their names on the team sheet under the heading 'BENCH'. Moyes has recently given Nani a new contract and he is firmly in the 1st team setup, something I despise. I would have sold them both in the summer and delighted to recoup anything around £15mil between them.

Ryan Giggs & Tom Cleverley
It pains me to say this but Giggsy's time is finally up. I am pleased to see that he is involved in the coaching side of the team but he's no longer good enough to play at this level. Unfortunately for Cleverley, he was and probably will never be good enough to play at this level. He contributes very little next to Michael Carrick and is a waste of a shirt. He is part of the reason I don't mind that we have signed Fellaini, as noone can do as little as Cleverley.

Wayne Rooney

I will openly admit that I was wrong about Rooney. In the summer after he said he wanted to go, I said 'fuck it, let him go, hes been overrated for 2 years.' Since then, he has found his hunger and passion that I hadn't seen since 2010. The only success Moyes has had this season so far is his handling of this situation.

Shinji Kagawa
Please play him Moyes, please fucking play him.

Actual quality players - De Gea, Vidic, Evra, Carrick, Valencia, Rooney, van Persie

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Man Utd will not win the Premier League this season. I said that at the start. I just pray that Moyes & co figure out what the fuck they're doing soon because 7 years of this will ruin Manchester United Football Club.

Sidenote: So far, La Liga is a better league to watch than the Premier League this year

About Me

I am a 21 year old footballing fanatic called Ash. I will be blogging about anything and everything football orientated, with particular reference to my beloved Huddersfield Town as well as Man United. That said, I will vent my anger and discuss all avenues of the beautiful game. 

Hope you enjoy