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Is it just me or are you really
getting fed up with football these days ??
I thought it was my age, but the
endless childish antics off the field are replacing the joy and
excitement we fleetingly get from what the players do on it.
The whole Cristiano Ronaldo saga
through this summer has been one big bore, with Real Madrid trying to
flex their muscles to show they are kicking sand from the summer beach
into Manchester United's face. So, moving further down the food
chain, suddenly everyone thinks that Spurs are such a great team that
they all want to have one of our players (or more in some cases) in
their sides.
Alex Ferguson has gone on record
as saying that Berbatov would noticeably improve his team. Rafa
Benitez tells the papers that Robbie Keane is an intelligent player who
would fit well into his team, although looking at some of the Liverpool
side, not on the intelligent premise.
For Benitez, this is nothing new.
With practice under his belt in tempting Gareth Barry through the media,
his message going out to Reds fan Keane was like sending an Eros arrow
to the Irishman's heart. Maybe it is the way things are done in
Spain (if the Ronaldo situation is anything to go by), but over here, it
is nothing less than tapping up ... in the most public way.
Then a story about Sunderland
making a bid for over a third of of our side (Kaboul, Tainio, Malbranque
and Chimbonda) for anywhere between £12 million and £23 million hits the
headlines. And an interest in Darren Bent is added to the total
should they be able to reach the price tag Spurs are asking.
So, Real start saying they want
the winker, Ferguson gets all tetchy with them, Real bring out the
disgraceful analogy to slavery, Ronaldo goes into hiding away from his
red faced manager and all the time the price for United's prize asset
rises.
With Berbatov and Keane, I would
imagine that the actions of the interested parties were to plant the
seed in the players' minds and to hold out until late in the window to
force Spurs to sell cheap. Tottenham's complaint is, I think, a
warning shot across their bows to raise the price if the players do (as
Levy stated in his website rant) leave.
Well, whatever the Premier League
decide over Berbatov and Keane, let them all go. Tottenham are
bigger than them and although we are once more at a stage in the club's
history, where it looked as though we had a decent side who might move
forward, we will carry on without them ... and I, for one, will give
them the boos they deserve when they return to White Hart Lane.
Whatever they have achieved for this club will be wiped out by their
willingness to jump ship as soon as they get the chance.
Berbatov was shunned by United and
other big clubs when Tottenham shelled out £10.9 million on him and gave
him the platform to show what a good player he is. Keane had been
a wanderer and might well have ended up with a team like Bolton had
Spurs not given him a home where he finally settled and was allowed to
play to his strengths. He, especially, has said that he was happy
at the club and wanted to achieve more with Spurs after winning the
League Cup in February.
The others are players who might
be fringe members of the team/squad, so I can't blame them for going and
the club were actively allowing Sunderland to speak to them.
Tainio and Malbranque have been good servants, while Chimbonda has been
a disappointment in both attitude and application and Kaboul will, I
think, be a good defender in time, but that is what he might not have at
Tottenham.
I read somewhere on the Internet
that if Tottenham are taking the moral high ground about Ferguson and
Benitez publicly making their interests known about the club's players,
that Spurs should look at their signing of John Bostock from Crystal
Palace. I would think a large number of fans, including Spurs
fans, would agree that the player is worth more than £700,000, but, in
my view, Tottenham have done nothing wrong in signing the player.
Yes, the tribunal decision might under-value the player, but he was
coming to the end of his contract, he had turned down a new deal at
Palace and would become a free agent (with compensation due to the South
London club). It may have been Tottenham playing the system, but
they were at the whim of the tribunal and the price they put on
Bostock's head. Simon Jordan's beef should be with the FA, and the
tribunal and not with Tottenham.
What Ferguson and Benitez have
done is different and deserve thorough investigation. The
punishment will not match any misdemeanour they might have committed,
but the one major charge that should be laid at their door would be them
driving another nail in the coffin of the game.
No longer is there loyalty.
We have known that for a long time.
Now there is a lack of decency.
It might lead to a lack of
interest with fans being sickened by the behaviour of many in the game.
Tottenham are not whiter than
white, with their manoeuvring over the dismissal of Martin Jol and I
suppose what goes around comes around.
But when two of the four biggest
clubs in the country resort to these tactics, it is not what is expected
nor wanted by the fans I have spoken to.
Whoever wears the lilywhite shirt
next season, they will get my cheers, while others may draw opprobrium.
Perhaps the game is not changing
that much at all.
...
Keep the faith.
MY EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE CUPS AT WHITE HART LANE
MY EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE CUPS AT WHITE HART LANE
MY EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE CUPS AT WHITE HART LANE
AND THE SPURS GO MARCHING ON.
BRUCE
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