Tottenham Memorabilia

Everyone is talking about Tottenham for the second season running, last year it was how we were expected to challenge for the top four, this year it is the Ramos revolution.

Having already signed playmaker Modric, Spurs have reportedly agreed a fee for another midfield playmaker, one Giovani Dos Santos, a Mexican playing at Barcelona.  What else do they have in common, well they both chose Spurs over Chelsea.

Two more players have expressed their interest in coming to Tottenham namely Manchester City central defensive rock Richard Dunne and 21 year old Nice goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, regarded as the best young French keeper around.

Brazillian club Cruzeiro want £6 million in one lump for Bolivian striker Marcelo and Seville are considering Spurs offer for wide man Diego Capel.

And lets not forget Jonathon Woodgate also chose Spurs over going to Newcastle to win trophies and Alan Hutton left Rangers UEFA cup run to join Spurs. Two great signings who have picked up Carling Cup Winners medals already.

What does all this tell, Spurs have ambition, obviously, there will be departures from White The Lane, definately, but more than that, it tells us players know Tottenham are on the brink of Champions League football.  They are showing they want to come here and be a part of the fight, the journey, they are as excited as we are.  It matters not who comes in for our targets, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United or clubs with money like Manchester City and Aston Villa.  The Ramos revolution is a powerful lure and a selling point to entice.

Take heart fellow Lilywhites, we are going to be putting in a serious challenge for 4th spot next year, start looking forward to it. Let me ask you all a question, if these signings and more materialise, do you think this might just convince a certain Dimitar Berbatov to stay? Is that beyond the bounds of possibility?

The longer the break drifts on, the more stars we sign, the greater the lure becomes, will he or won’t he, dare we Spurs fans start to believe?

Let’s take a trip down memory lane to the 60’s.

It was considered impossible to do “The Double” as no team had achieved the feat in the 20th century, that is until Bill Nicholson came along.  He created the great “Push and Run” Spurs side of the sixties that wrote football history, not only doing The Impossible Double” in 1961, but becoming the first British side to win a major European Trophy.

League Champions and FA Cup Winners 1961 (The Impossible Double), Community Shield Winners

League Runners Up and FA Cup Winners 1962 (European Cup Semi-finalists), Community Shield Winners

League Runners Up and UEFA Cup Winners Cup 1963

FA Cup Winners and Community Shield Winners 1967 

Our hero’s in 61 were:

                       Brown

Baker            Norman          Henry

     Blanchflower       Mackay

Dyson           White              Jones
           Smith            Allen

The players:
Bill Brown - Scotland- GK
Peter Baker - England- RB
Maurice Norman - England - Centre-half
Ron Henry - England - LB
Danny Blanchflower - N Ireland - Deep lying play maker
Dave Mackay - Scotland - Defensive midfielder/ box to box midfielder
Terry Dyson - England -Right Wing
John White - Scotland -Attacking midfield
Cliff Jones - Wales- Left wing
Bobby Smith - England - Striker
Les Allen - England - Forward

Another winning streak like that under Juande Ramos would go down very nicely.

If you want signed shirts by the Double Winners visit Tottenham Memorabilia where you can also get DVD’s of all the finals.

A bargain coming up for the lucky reader who is quick off the mark.

Bulgarian Dimitar Berbatov has been a brilliant player for Spurs for 2 season and we will turn over a tidy profit on him, replacing him with a proven finisher who should score a hatful of goals with all the chances Spurs create.

As our way of saying thank you to you our readers, we are giving one lucky person the chance to get their hands on a Personally Hand Signed Shirt by the great man at HALF PRICE.

A cool 50% off if you are fast out of the traps. Go to the Tottenham Memorabilia Collectors Store and place your order, we will give you a massive 50% off.

Happy Shopping

Our congratulations to Jamie O’Hara upon picking up 2 Awards and securing a new 3 year contract extension.

Jamie collected both the One Hotspur Junior Members Player of the Year Award and the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust Breakthrough Award.

O’Hara has impressed the Tottenham Hotspur management team of Jande Ramos and Gus Poyet forcing his way into the 1st XI for a tough debut game.  They are impressed with his progress this season having plucked him from obscurity and pitched him against the best sides in the league.

The 21 year old has taken his fare share of free kicks, they still need a lot of work not really troubling the goalkeepers but potential is there obviously and the fact that he can play in a variety of positions, left back, left midfield, central midfield, certainly is an added advantage, making him a useful squad member.

Life will be tougher for him next season with Gareth Bale back and maybe a new left winger, but along with Gilberto gives Spurs 3 left footed options. This has been a well documented area for concern, despite Steed Malbranque performing well under the new regime.

The other great news for Tottenham fans, well this one anyway, is that Dawson does not want to leave. Why would he want to move to a lesser club like Newcastle, which if reports are accurate have offered £6 million for him?  They will be finishing below us next season and struggle to reach Europe, so it could only be for regular games.  Anthony Gardner is available Kevin and he’ll be cheaper!

Dawson will come back with confidence renewwed next year and wont let us down as probably the 3rd choice centre back. Quite how often King will play I have no idea, but he and Dawson were a very effective partnership.

Congratulations also to Paul Stalteri and Fulham for their great escape. Paul was a solid, honest, gives it 100% player for us and that is all anyone can ask for. We wish him every success with Fulham after his signing takes place on July 1st, but not at our expense!

Finally let us offer our congratulations also to Robbie Keane who collected the One Hotspur Player of the Season and Mansion Player of the Season Awards.

Robbie captained most games in the extended absence of club captain Ledley King scoring 23 goals, his best ever return for us. He has a record to maintain now as each year with Spurs he has increased his goal tally.  Somewhat of a nomad in his youger days, he has finally found his home with us which has clearly been shown through his consistent displays.

Tottenham next season will have more new faces who may need time to gell together. We have seen it before when they don’t click straight away results suffer.

A new keeper will have to form an understanding with his defence. He is in charge and the back four need to have total confidence in him or it affects their play. Keepers tend to settle quickly so whilst their may be the odd misunderstanding this is not an area of concern for me. Cerny is off to QPR and Robinson will go so we will need to sign two keepers.

A new centre back. Yes we need another but I am a fan of Dawson, who last season was fantastic carrying the defence in King’s absence. He made the England squad but has not had such a good season this time around. He has looked as though he needed a rest after christmas but with no cover has had to continue playing or maybe a lack of confidence in Robinson and Cerny affected his performances. Whatever the reason, we need him back to his best next season. There are so many games in a season now that he is important to our squad, if he went we would have to sign two or 3 centre backs and I can’t see that happening. Kaboul and Rocha will surely both go and how many games will King be fit to play? Spurs need Dawson.

Left back. Spurs have been looking at left wingers which suggests to me that Gareth Bale will be playing left back and not in midfield. Ramos signed Hutton and he loves to attack on the right so Bale will suit the style Ramos wants us to play, quick passing and movement. Having him back will be like having a new signing and a good one. Gilberto is another who loves to attack, presumably he is the cover for Bale so Lee Young Pyo may go together with Chimbonda. Who will be our cover for Hutton? Stalteri signs for Fulham on a free transfer on 1st July.

In midfield Spurs will have Modric pulling the strings, I expect Lennon to be on the right, a new signing on the left, leaving the holding midfielder role. How many games will Modric and Huddlestone play together? Young Huddlestone can only get better and to have him spraying long balls to the flanks with Modric and Keane interchanging at the sharp end would be a very attacking option.

Zakora has improved as the season has gone on and gives us another style in the holding role but will he be at Tottenham or are we chasing someone already?

Malbranque is a hard working player who seems to dribble past players,  keep the ball, tackle back, ghost in for chances and miss them, another miss against Reading, will he stay? His downside for me is lack of pace and his finishing.

,Jenas turned up against Reading, he never stops running but if you remember the comment from Andy Townsend that he is a player who has to know he is loved, a confidence player, will his nose be put out of joint at the arrival of Modric? If so should Spurs let him go?

Berbatov is going for Champions League football so a top class striker will be arriving. Refusing to pose in the new kit and not ordering any for next season tells us he won’t be here. Thank you Dimitar for two seasons of sheer class, you have improved Robbie as a player as a result.

Ramos has said the area of the game we need to look at is our finishing, we create chances the chances, so whoever arrives will be a proven finisher and will therefore cost money. According to some reports Villa has told his agent he does not want to go to Spurs so doubt that it will be him.

We can look forward to more top signings over the summer, let’s hope they gell quickly because if they don’t we may not be challenging for the top 4!

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?