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browne's moods |
1.8.2001
- Europe awaits
16.8.2001 - A New
Season
9.9.2001
- Birds - BOGOF
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With
the season fast approaching and the boys doing the business so far in
the friendlies, I've started to think of With
the money and the players attracted to this stage it's has to be THE
priority to reach those elusive few places that give you a shot and I
have more hope than in years that we can do it. With
a potential line up of Sullivan, King (He will play for England one day,
no doubt) Bunje, Doherty, Ziege, Carr, Poyet, Clemence (the weakest
link; no offence Stevie but I’ll explain in a moment, Anderton /
Davies, Sheringham and Rebrov we have a good mix of proven
international quality at the Lane with youngsters who can go all the way
as well. And the depth in the squad is improving in some areas as
well. Iversen, Ferdinand,
Armstrong (if he is fit I hope he does well) are all vying for places up
front, so hopefully no Ryman league players for us this year.
In midfield and defence we have some good youngsters in Gardner,
Thelwell, Etherington who
all look to have a future at the club.
And some of the even younger lads I’ve seen in pre season could
make a breakthrough this season as well Which
leads me too the rest: Perry, Thatcher (he was once touted for What
does Sherwood do in training? I
know he does diddly squat on a Saturday, so I’m assuming Mon to Fri he
plays like Zidane ! Seriously his time has gone and I would prefer to
see him and Freund, who will always have a place in my memory for
running up to Roy Keane…..and then running away from him, sold to the
highest bidder, be it Wolves, Kaiserslautern whoever.
All funds raised can then be put towards somebody top drawer.
If that can happen we will be laughing. Which
leads me to the crowning glory. He
may have his doubters and strange ways, but our manager is a true
football man. Look
at his record, got Swindon going, got Chelsea going, so close with
England (I still have sleepless nights, I don't but it sounds good,
about the Argentina game in 98, when he was on the verge of leading our
country to the Holy Grail of English football and I know a lot of
other people who feel the same way, including some of "that
lot".) And recently he
got a mediocre So'ton side to near the European places.
And
with Hod at the helm, the whole outlook for the club has changed. Finally
a man who knows our club and most importantly how we want football
to be played week in week out, we pays our money to be
entertained - it doesn’t have to be 5-2 or 6-4.
We will take 2-0 and 1-0 if the football being played is quality,
I think you know what I mean. All we need is good
fortune with injuries, what is it with us?
I swear our players sign a contract stipulating they must spend x
amount of time injured whilst at the club. If we can beat those injuries
problems then watch us go. With 4 places up for
grabs in the Champions League I personally am going into the new season
with my hopes high. See you at the Fiore
game, if anybody deserves a testimonial in these crazy times of huge pay
packets it’s Bill Nicholson, I
may be too young to have seen the games but history and this man =
Tottenham Hotspur FC as we know it today.
A true Spurs man. And in closing I just like to say Goodbye to Mr. Campbell. Sol you were a great defensive footballer, but you are not a great man. To captain us for so long and then say all true fans will understand your actions is madness. My respect for Mr. Petit went through the roof when he said he had spoken to Glenn about a move and was impressed, but as he’d spent a short time at Arseville he couldn’t bring himself to do it and come to us. As some Catalans once said about Figo “ We hate you so, because we loved you so”. And if 36,000 of us can bring white hankies for when you return to the Lane it would be quality. See you soon Mr. C., we’ll see you soon. Timmy Boy Browne |
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With
the start of the season just around the corner anticipation is high at
the Lane. After a strong
performance against a rather lacklustre Fiore side, I was glad
(!) to hear that we had lost
to AEK Athens. Everybody
has to lose sometime and I’d rather we got one out the way before the
season proper begins. And
so we start with Villa, a return for Mr. Ginola,
who if reports are true may be suing his manager for calling him fat.
Now we all know that you are “worth it” David but lets have a
sense of humour about some things – non? A
bit of news that has had me scratching my head in recent weeks though
has been regarding the Old Firm coming to England - will they, won’t
they saga. I have every bit
of respect for these Scottish giants but fail to see how they can both
just expect to waltz into the Premiership as if they belong.
Clubs like Fulham have waited a long time to get here and paid
for it with both pound notes and sweat along the way.
But who am I to have a say in these affairs! The
amount of speculation that has arisen from this situation though leads
me to believe that within say 5 years major changes could be afoot.
It will still be the Premiership, but not as we know it Jim. Now
Spurs have the potential to be a big club, not a huge club but big all
the same, yet in terms of footballing
achievements in recent years we have done next to nothing.
I have watched Arsenal and Chelsea in the Champions League
competing with the crème de la crème, plus having world class players
strutting their stuff week in week out in the league, and I no longer
see Spurs as equal to these clubs.
On the other side of the coin both Charlton and West Ham would
consider themselves to be our equals at the present time and I although
I do see their point, I'll have to disagree. Tottenham Hotspur Football
Club are bigger than you both, so don’t be
getting ideas ahead of your station.
Sleeping giant is a cliché that gets used a lot in football, and
I think if Spurs were a schoolboy another suitable cliché would be
“could do better”. When
we qualified for Anyway
I digress. A possible plan
for the future could be to split the Premiership into 2 mini leagues
with the Old Firm being put into Premiership Division 2 as it would be.
This would make them play for their future, with promotion their
necessary target if they wanted to play with the “Big Boys”. My
question is will we be one of those big boys.
On last seasons showing and plenty before then we have failed to
finish in the top 10 let alone top 6.
The So'ton chairman questioned us as
a big club the other day, sour grapes I know, but he does
have valid point. The
following are the big clubs in my opinion; Man Utd,
Arsenal, I
know that this is all speculation at the moment, but Spurs as a football
club need to aim high. I
hear and read a lot about ourselves being realistic about the
forthcoming season and I am, I just believe
that unless you aim high you won’t get there.
Mr. Al Fayed has gone on record as saying he believes his team
can win the Premiership, no such noises from Tigana,
but rest assured I’m sure that Mo and Jean have got a master-plan,
they are both ambitious people. The
main reason that this idea has been put forward for two Premierships and
the Scottish teams being involved is MONEY.
It is the game's ruler nowadays and a recent report showed that
football is richer than ever. Unfortunately
it is spending the money faster than it arrives and a lot is going to
foreign shores. Spurs
have spent next to nothing on players this season, by my estimates
approx £5million, this taking into account the fee we received for Luke
Young. And with rumours
that we may sell sponsorship of the In the meantime I will continue to wait for the day when we are recognised as a big club. We have the support, we have the manager and we are beginning to have the makings of a team, we just need the results over the forthcoming season to make it a reality. With change of some shape or form possibly on the horizon, now is not the time to get left behind. So come on you Spurs, three points against Villa would do very nicely as a starting point. Timmy Boy Browne |
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Well,
well, well. 5
– 1. Get that out of the way I’m sure you can
understand the need. And
now back to my Spurs. I
started writing this before the So'ton
game, but thought I’d wait as something of note was likely to
happen. And it did.
Mr. Dean Richards please come and take your rightful place at
the centre of our defence. ENIC
have played the game so far and now it’s time to speculate to
accumulate. We need to
shore up our defence and he is the man to do it.
Our team is currently lacking real experience in defence and we
could kill two birds with one stone by signing one player.
Let me explain, Gary Doherty is good and with time he will get
better, the Bunje man is learning fast,
but still lacking the necessary Premiership experience so we get
Richards now while he wants to come. He
obviously has a lot of respect for Glenn and in fact he may even
instigate a move, although that’s just my guess.
At the end of the day he knows we are a big club. Yes Mr.
Lowe, we are bigger and better than you and even your players think
so. We may be
“Yobbo’s” in your opinion but in my loutish opinion you are
small fry….. the truth hurts doesn’t
it. Anyway back to the two bird’s thing. Last season in amongst the rest of his rather serious failings, mainly going to work chanting “we love you Arsenal” whilst driving via Highbury to the Lane every Saturday, Mr. Graham made a very smart move, he played Ledley King in the centre of midfield. Having seen another imperious display today is there anybody out there who doubts that he could do the same job but even better this year. He has skill, strength, pace, composure and he likes to play the ball, all key attributes that certain members of our squad could do with. In particular how many times against So'ton did Freund get turned and give the ball away, too many. In fact for parts of the game I wondered where he’d gone. Ledley is the ready made replacement and if you disagree, then get in touch. So here we are four games in and what have we got --- five points, a shed load of injuries, mediocre performances and if the press are to be believed dressing room unrest. In other words business as usual at the Lane. I
am not too concerned about any of the above really, been there - done
that - bought the t-shirt, and a mighty fine t-shirt it is as well
even if I do say so myself. If
at the end of the season Whatever people may think or say. The start of the season always brings up these types of events though, so I’m just waiting to see how long it is before the word “crisis” is used in regards to our club. I think we have played far below what we are capable of and yet we’re doing OK. After all, if you play badly and pick up points, don’t the so called experts all claim that’s the true sign of a good team. For
a start, we have very good players to return; the sooner Maurice goes
the better. Have you ever
noticed how just by changing the end of their name foreign players can
make their forenames sound so much better.
Or is just me? Once
we have Stephen Carr rampaging down the right things can only get
better and although Simon Davies looked good the sooner he gets off
the Slimfast diet the better; Daveed
please get in touch as we need to know exactly what you ate two
summer’s ago, our boy Simon needs some muscle.
Until then we have Gus to come back and add more presence to
our midfield. I think as
well that Sheringham and Ferdinand will be
our most dangerous combo up front, to date
they have hardly played together. Our
good points so far; Ziege, better by the
game and although lacking in defence, a goal every two games will do
me. Sicknote,
looking good Shaggy looking good and of course Ledley,
he is a star. More
to come from the rest of that I’m sure. All
in all, we now have a newer (if older) improved team and it will take
some time for them to gel. Of course it would have been nice to
get off to a flier, but the BIG clubs have all dropped points as
well. I just hope this continues and the Premiership race does
develop into one for a change, rather than the Manchester stroll we
are used to seeing come March. I
even saw a comment from Glenn saying that he hasn’t ruled us out of
winning the league, good on you man, that’s fighting talk where I
come from, and what we all want to hear.
It may be pie in the sky, but it’s nice to dream. To
finish here are my Five Why’s? for
September. 1)
Why is Rupert
Lowe so bothered about us, does he really feel that inferior? 2)
Why does Sergei
want to be a midfielder? 3)
Why are Freund
and Sherwood still here? 4)
Why do ENIC not
want to spend any more money? 5)
Why am I making a
list of Why’s? I
know the answers to 1 and 5, 1 is because he knows that And
number 5 is because I am feeling lazy.
I don’t know the answers to the other three, but they do need
to be answered or commented on by someone.
So answers or suggestions on a postcard
please. So
to next week.
I think it’s about time we beat Timmy Boy Browne |