Views On Latest Tottenham And Football News – Summer Diary

Andre Villas-Boas – nothing to smile about in Monaco [Photo: Alan Hill]Summer Diary 18

Fri 2 August. 

Newcastle United are said to be after another 3 French players; Loic Remy (en passant QPR), Kurt Zouma and Bafetimbi Gomis of Lyon. If these signings come off, the team will henceforth be known in my column as Nouveaucastle, managed by Alain Depardieu. I understand that Mike Ashley’s representatives have been instructed to approach Paul McCartney for permission to use the Frog chorus as the theme tune to play as the team runs out onto the pitch. All together now Bom, Bom Bom (diddly) Bom Bom Bom (diddly)…

Luis Suarez – No Thanks!

We recently published an item asking if you thought we should take on Arsenal in a fight for Luis Suarez’s signature. If you have read many of my blogs, it won’t surprise you to hear that my view on that one is NOOOO! Suarez, Tevez, Rooney –all cut from the same cloth. They don’t meet the moral standards we should aspire to, nor yours Arsene. You just made a statement at a press conference when asked about Suarez’s behaviour that Arsenal have over 100 years’ standards of behaviour to maintain and all new signings would be expected to do so. So don’t sell your soul to the devil after all this time. If you do you are going to have to spend a lot of time pretending you didn’t see the incident that just occurred on the pitch, let alone what occurs off it. I thought you’d left all that behind years ago.

Iain Dowie (Photo: Alan Hill]

Saturday’s mini highlights

Good to see Jeff Stelling and the boys back on Saturday afternoons on Sky. Little changes stand out, like the fact that Ian Dowie has returned with a small beard that makes it look like his head is on upside down.  The Emirates Cup on the TV, with Arsenal going 0-2 down to Napoli and Pepe Reina saving a penalty against them raised a smile or two. Arsenal come back in the 2nd half to get a draw.

Farewell to Clint

The Spurs official website announces that an agreement has been made with the MLS for Clint Dempsey to leave for Seattle Sounders. I’ll be sorry to see him go. Good luck Clint. He wasn’t with us for long but proved reliable and did the business when called upon.

The Monaco game

Looking at the team list, we are having our usual bad luck with the centre half position. It makes you wonder why we let Steven Caulker go when Vertonghen and Dawson are both injured. Presumably AVB is confident those injuries are short term. It’ll be no fun for those left facing Falcao this afternoon. No Paulinho, no Soldado. Adebayor said to have stayed at home for personal reasons. Bale was quoted as having what I thought they said on Sky yesterday was a minor buttock injury. I guess that’s another way of saying a small pain in the a**se. ‘Nuff said.

Tom Carroll in Monaco

The game starts off at a very slow tempo down there on the Riviera. Defoe is substituted by Harry Kane after 8 minutes with what looks like a tweaked hamstring. I don’t think we are going to get much of value out of this game.

Lloris beaten right down at the base of his near post by a snap volley from the edge of the area by Raggi. Shortly afterwards we are lucky to get away with a split offside decision, or it would be 2-0. Fairly uneventful for the rest of the half. Spurs survive a free kick on the edge of the area that hits the top of the wall at the end of the first half.

I was right when I said we weren’t going to get much of the game. 5-2 to Monaco, who took full advantage of our makeshift defence. Our second is a late consolation from Andros Townsend.  Most of the team look like they are still on their summer hols. After that, I wish I was.