Tottenham Memorabilia

Another day and yet more speculation.

A German defender, 3 Spaniards, a young Dutch striker plus the rest. I’ll wait and see and have spent a little ime looking at all the footage of Modric I can find.

Skillful of that their is no doubt, my slight concern is will he be able to handle the physical side of the Premier League.

The league he has been playing in is relatively weak, which just leaves his experience in Cup competitions and games for Croatia. Not a lot of experience for just under £16 million.

Only time will tell of course and I hope we have got it right. Tottenham have missed what had become a traditional for us, a playmaking central midfielder. I grew up standing on the terraces watching Glen Hoddle (why didn’t they build the England team around him) and a guy called Micky Hazzard, a lovely and underatted player in my book.

Chris Waddle, Gazza, we have been spoilt really, will Modric be the next in the line, is he ready to take the mantle? Her is a video, you decide.

Tottenham 1 Bolton 1 and another game where Spurs don’t take their chances, 11 shots on target compared to 1 from Bolton.

So let’s look at the Luka Modric who has just been signed for a reported £15.5 million from Dinamo Zagreb after being chased by a host of clubs including Juventus, Chelsea and Arsenal.

The 22 year old Croatian international Luka Modric was born in Zadar, Hrvstka, SFR Yugoslavia (now Croatia) on September 9th 1985. He is 1.72m tall and weighs 65kg, playing central or left of midfield as the playmaker.

Modric has been capped 24 times by his country, starting 18 times, scoring 3 goals and picking up 1 booking.

He has played 8 games in the Champions League, scoring twice and 6 games in the UEFA Cup, scoring once, being booked once. In total Luka has played 87 times for Dinamo Zagreb scoring 25 goals, not a bad return for a midfielder.

Luca was named Prva HNL Player of the Year in 2007, why not look him up on You Tube, where you’ll find a few videos.

Many more products have been included in the Spurs gifts section of Tottenham Memorabilia such as a range of golfing accessories.

No sooner had these new Spurs items been added when an order arrives from Australia, so they picked up a bargain.

I mention this as an intro, there is a strong following for Tottenham down under and not only with the ex-pats. Soccer loving Aussies clearly like a stylish game which of course is just our style.

This leads me to wonder where everybody watches the game, at home, at the pub, at the ground?

Are you aware you can get a FREE live football stream of Tottenham games direct to your PC via the internet?

There are many sites, and many that you pay for, but one I use more often than others is www.livefooty.doctor-serv.com

If you have difficulty accessing this direct, try typing live footy into Google and it will come out top of the list.

You can use this site for most games whether they are shown on sky or not. It is an easy site to follow. Tonight’s Liverpool v Chelsea game will be there.

Happy viewing.

Speculation time at the Lane with a host of old names and a few new ones thrown in the ring.

Harry Hotspur in his blog makes a case for Ronaldinho coming to Spurs to rebuild his reputation, stating he is only talking to Spurs and AC Milan. What do you think? Regardless of whether he would come to Spurs or not, are you for or against the idea?

Who would you like to see arrive?

Let me throw two names at you, one young, one experienced for the left side.

Having watched him several times I am a fan of Aiden McGeady at Celtic, a lovely left sided winger who can cross and is not afraid to take people on. He on one side and Lennon running at pace on the right would force teams to defend.

Another with a sweet left foot who has lost his form of late is John Arne Riise at Liverpool. He would add experience to the squad and can play in defence or midfield.

We have Gareth Bale coming back of course and we don’t know where Ramos will want to play him so do we need a full back or midfielder?

Bring on the summer and let’s see who we acquire.

Another game Tottenham take the lead, create chances and fail to put them away.

Spurs lead only lasted 6 minutes after Berbatov struck with his left foot after 6 minutes, the chance being created by Lennon.

Aaron Lennon never stopped taking people on today which was a welcome sight after what has to be considered a poor season for him. He made one cross into the 6 yard box in the second half which would have been a tap in if Keane or Berbatov had anticipated and taken the gamble of attacking space.

Over the last few months press speculation suggests Lennon may be part of the clearout but Ramos has stated he has the potential and needs to improve his end product. On the form of today I can’t see Tottenham selling Lennon. He went on runs, had close control and was beating players on a dreadful surface.

Radek Cerny showed again he just is not good enough when in the second half Bent was through and should have scored. His positioning was wrong (not by far, but enough) and went to ground too early. With a bit of composure Bent should have lobbed it over him, instead he blasted it against the bar.

Jamie O’Hara has been a midfield find, I am not convenced about him as a left back yet though. Still, with Bale to come back and Gilberto we at least have 3 left footed players.

Who is the full back cover for Hutton who has been an excellent buy? Who will be the 4th centre half? Who will be the left back if Bale plays in midfield?

Which of these 11 will still be at Tottenham next season: Jenas, Zakora, Huddlestone, Malbranque, Chimbonda, Lee Young-Pyo, Bent, Kaboul, Tanio, Boateng and Rocha?

At last someone has admitted it, Spurs prolific strikers do not score enough goals.

Don’t be daft some will say but stop and think how many chances Tottenham create. Often Spurs are all over teams but do not tuck the ball away. This has to improve.

There have been over 100 goals at White Hart Lane, but not enough of them scored by Tottenham. Attack is the Spurs philosophy now, that’s great, but you have to back it up will goals aplenty, 4 - 4 draws are not good enough.

Look at the Chelsea game, Spurs could and should have won 5-4 in the dying moments. This is exactly the type of chance that Tottenham have missed to many of, the type Spurs must score more of.

During the summer Ramos must be ruthless with under achievers and buy quality. Tottenham after the sale of Defoe have 3 strikers, Bent will surely go, Berbatov might be tempted by the Champions League, leaving Spurs only with Keane. To try and find 2 quality strikers is difficult, 3, well I just can’t see that much money being available when you consider the need for a central defender, a full back and a new creative spark in midfield.

Having just returned from Lanzarote where I watched the Tottenham games against Chelsea and Portsmouth with an Arsenal fan (who would rather watch Spurs because we entertain) I caught the Newcastle match.

Oh dear, the boys have given up, well not all of them, Woodgate, Hutton, Dawson, Bent and Keane are trying, the midfield are on holiday.

Since this game we are being linked with Michael Owen, so let’s look at this and see if it is a good idea.

His goalscoring record in today’s game is not in question, many people had dismissed him for England before his last injury, not me. Owen scores goals, full stop.

As a striker you need people to create chances, you make the runs, give them to opening to play the ball into and tuck it away. Michael Owen does this without question.

Fitness, injuries, lack of pace, are the downsides we are told. Owen has shown that he needs games after an injury to get his sharpness back, notice he has started scoring again. Jonathon Woodgate and Darren “Sicknote” Anderton suffered from injuries, people dwell on this too much, no player is always injured, he has had his share, is he therefore due a change of luck?

Has everyone forgotten a certain Alan Shearer, he kept scoring goals at Premiership level as he gradually slowed down. Michael Owen has been a world class goalscorer, Tottenham create stacks of chances, he will score goals in the Premier League given our service, but can we accomodate him?

Berbatov and Keane are the number 1 pairing, that won’t change if Berbatov stays. Our other target man Darren Bent is starting to show signs of ability, great header verses Newcastle and the cameo against Portsmouth. Life has been tough for him, just look at what Defoe is doing at Portsmouth now he is playing regularly.

Michael Owen could fulfill the Keane roll on a rotational basis, the worry is that Defoe factor.  How much football would he get and would it be enough to keep him sharp?

This for me is the only question to ask ourselves and the answer to that determines wether we go after him or not.