Blown it! Again!
As usual Spurs had a great opportunity to move up the table and put pressure on Liverpool but like the Spurs of old we blew it.
I haven't seen the goal but it sounds like Gardner was useless once again. It also sounds like we missed plenty of chances to win the game. It depresses me when the screw ups of yesterayear seem to creep back just when we thought we had turned the corner. Newcastle next and we could be managerless.
posted by Paxton Road at 8:33 PM
37 Comments:
Give them a break, after the dross we have put up with in previous years theres just no pleasing some people. Yeah we lost a match we should have won but the progression this far over the season has been so big there is going to be the odd mistake here and there. Its people like you that is the reason that we lose managers as quick as we do.
9:09 PM, March 06, 2005
I agree with Terry...but I feel your pain shelf dweller!
It is easy to lose heart...but winners are defined by how they react to a loss not how they react to a win...
The saints had two goalies playing for them yesterday he was that good. We had possession, poise and chances. The only thing that stopped us was their goalie. And they are staring at the drop so of course they are gonna play up.
They will pick their heads up and I have a feeling we will play up and do the Toon! Nothing to lose and all to play for. They have an extra game and will be knackered and we will be rested.
As for being managerless...why on earth would Jol leave for the easiest job in Dutch football!
He is clearly a man who likes a challenge otherwise he would have taken the easy route to ManU before we came along.
Have faith...hold your head up high and get ready for a taste of glory.
We are having by far and away the best season we have had in ages!
Things can only get better!
COYS!
9:20 PM, March 06, 2005
well said
9:26 PM, March 06, 2005
Gardener useless - what planet are you from. Don't be the typical over reaching - every game has finalities about it sort of fan that has only held the club back over the years.
We must recognise where we are. We have a young team which is only going to get beter. I believe that we have some outstanding players on our books and if we support them - Paramot, Atouba and even Richards, if he ever gets back into the team, then they will play with less fear and that means better.
It may be slightly askew, but Chris Armstrong was a very good striker who had a bad patch and certain tossers in the crowd hammered him so badly that he became a lesser player. Is that what you want to do to our team?
Gardener is a superb athlete, who sometimes seems to suffer from either bad judgement or self doubt, which leads him to mistakes. Dont ruin him for that. It would be a horrible waste for him and the club.
Yes it was dissapointing to lose to a pretty average Southampton side, but they certainly have a new bite about them. All of the bottom clubs fought like hell as the sceptre of relagation looms larger for them - appart from Norwich...
I also agree with Jol, you cant begrudge Jamie his chance to link up succesfully with his dad - (just dont ask Harry what hapened to the Rio money at West Ham)
If we are good eneough, then we will do it.
Not every game will go to form or to plan, that is why we love this game. we have to accept the bad with the good and realise that as we are building and not yet complete, this will happen.
I have days at my job when I'm quite good at it, and other days when I'm not. All players, have good and bad days. Even players such as Greaves, Klinsman, Allen, Hoddle, and whoever else you want to name, had shit games. We are human.
It happens at Chelsea after £200m - and Manyoo who have spent even way beyond that (but mancs still accuse the of buying the title and saying that it doesnt count).
It's a sport that we love, not the calcuable business of a game like chess, wher every action has a certain re-action. Defeats and victories will come and go - and as long as we at Spurs are getting towards our goal, without someone dropping £200m on our doorstep, then we should all lsupport the manager, the team and the club.
If not, go to Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford or wherever else, and leave
our team to get its act together without this constant whining in the background. You will still be dissapoited anyway.
9:28 PM, March 06, 2005
I think i could go to war with some of our supporters, we play well yet we still have to slag off our team, so ok we couldnt get the ball in the back of the net but it wasn`t for the lack of trying or was it for the lack of pressure we applied to the lucky southampton team, but lets look at the season, i dont believe i can remember when we last looked so good so promising, a manager whom needs all the backing he can get from the faithfull the players need us behind them 100% even when we do play crap or yes they will be off, and not to our benifit. So Gardner doesnt fill all expectations he`s not upto standard, well guess what we are not in a transfer window at the moment and believe it or not i have full faith in our management team to recognise that fact.
so lets stop all the bitching and wake up this sleeping giant and push them on for a European spot, a European spot we at the begining of the season thaught would only be possible through the fair play awards.
COME ON YOU SPURS !!
9:57 PM, March 06, 2005
Sorry Spam head but I have to disagree with you completely regarding Gardner. At one point Gardner and King were at the same level. Both young, developing, skilful defenders. Yet King has improved year on year whereas Gardner has languished behind.
He may be a superb athlete, although I'm not sure quite what that means in footballing terms, but he is near useless. From watching him regularly it is obvious that he isn't a quality player. He makes too many mistakes, looks out of depth and worries the hell out of me whenever he gets given the ball.
10:01 PM, March 06, 2005
Toms7 - you miss the point. we know he had the ability but sometimes lacks confinence. Beating him up about it wont improve him or the team.
His athletic ability gives him the chance to redeem errors - look at wes Brown - at one point lauded the next getting stick - in a way his injury was a blessing as he was able to come back a new player. Gardener has it all - potentialy - and if we hammer him it will never come through. Agree about Ledley, a rare talent well expressed.
10:09 PM, March 06, 2005
Jesus, some of you lot need to calm down. Read what I said again. I didn't say Gardner was useless, I said I heard (from other forums) that he was. I openly admit that I didn't see or listen to this particular game. However you can all get off my back. I've been a season ticket holder for years travelling all over the place to watch Spurs away as well. My post was because I was fed up, not slagging off the team. You lot should round on the people who boo individual players like Atouba, not me who is just stating his disappointment.
10:34 PM, March 06, 2005
Dont comment on a game you didn't watch... And I agree with others, give them a break... Jol has done a great job... And will continue to do so...
10:43 PM, March 06, 2005
u didnt even watch motd. (thats a full stop by the way m8, as in end of story)
11:04 PM, March 06, 2005
What people are not mentioning is that we have a much larger squad these days and far better competition for places.
I do not condone vocal criticism of Gardner and Atouba at matches, but we are here to express our views away from the stadia. And I am quite sure that each of us are frustrated with Gardner's errors which accomplished professionals like Naybet wouldn't make. And essentially the Moroccan veteran is ahead of Gardner in the pecking order, as will Michael Dawson be.
With regards to Atouba, he generally makes very few mistakes and people berate him as he appears so awkward on the ball which makes people edgy, yet he befuddles the opposition more than the crowd.
Let's not dwell upon one bad result. After all, we are have seen so much progression under Martin, and if we hold on to him I am confident that Europe will happen. If not this season then certainly next.
11:11 PM, March 06, 2005
Sell defoe for £20 million, then play keane. Gardner is crap, full stop, anyone who has watched spurs for the last 3 years would know that. Tubes will get better.
11:26 PM, March 06, 2005
Sell Defoe??? Surely you are having a giraffe. Potentially the best striker in England. Robbo, King and Defoe of the 3 foundations of our nascent.
Offloading our best players to raise whatever sum of money makes a bold statement to our fans, other clubs and our team that we are a selling club...like that little team to the east of us!
11:40 PM, March 06, 2005
Selling Defoe is a no no though on recent form it should of been Keane who started against Southampton.
Defoe is a class act and must stay at WHL along with King and Jol. Dawson will hopefully be fit to play alongside King soon when Naybet is unavailable and remember we have Davenport as well who is gaining good experience down SCBC.
11:49 PM, March 06, 2005
Indeed, Davenport is yet another bright young prospect on our books. But keep an eye out for the lad, Huddlestone. I hear from good sources that he is an absolute star in the making who can play both in central defence and midfield.
11:55 PM, March 06, 2005
Gardner: Considering he’s over 6 foot tall he should be a lot better at heading the ball away that he actually is. Also, his positioning is dodgy at times. Plus, since Sven picked him for the England team a couple of seasons ago (which his did not make through injury) due to his ability to keep pace with Henry, he has not really progressed. Know wonder we have bought a lot of centre backs, all too young and without experience at present, but I gather that Tom Huddlestone could be the real deal next season.
Atouba: His ball control is good, if a bit too much of a showman, but fundamentally when playing at left back he needs to learn to be much closer to the opposition on the wing than he actually is. He tends to play more inside and therefore gives too much space to them to make free crosses/ free runs. I know he is young and has plenty of time to develop, but consider this – Martin Jol must have pointed this out to him on quite a few occasions this season. It just appears that he is just not listening/taking this in!! Not european football, nor top six, material!!!
12:22 AM, March 07, 2005
I go home and away, recently we have played some good football which has been encouraging,though admit at times havent been threatening enough, against southampton on another day it could have been 3 or 4-1 but as said before the keeper played well.
Gardner and Atouba do make mistakes but we do have others that will take their places if Jol sees fit.Keep the faith,this season has up to now been a good one and theres a lot more to come from us yet.Our support,home and away has been tremendous.
COYS!!
12:42 AM, March 07, 2005
I agree that after all the dross we have put up with over the last few years just because we lose one match doesnt mean we should all be up in arms. I think we should be able to beat teams such as Southampton and also Crystal Palace who gave us a hammering but just because we havent doesnt mean we are back to the bad old days.
However as someone who goes regularly home and away the reason we do lose to these teams and not take our chance to put pressure on the teams around us when we have the chance IS because of players like Gardner and Atouba. They are dreadful. Gardner has no idea of position, he constantly gives the ball away and 9 times out of 10 when we concede a goal it is from someone he is supposed to be marking. King is a different player when playing with Gardner and looks nervous the whole game trying to cover for him.
That said Jol has bought well and Dawson and Davenport are there to replace him sooner rather than later i hope. We have an excellent squad now and odd blips against lower teams will become rarer as crap like Gardner are replaced.
12:48 AM, March 07, 2005
To criticise Atouba and talk up the prospect of Huddlestone is niaive.
From the 3 times I have seen Huddlestone he has a lot in common with Atouba. He is also a very young skillful prospect who tries too many tricks in dangerous areas, and often gets caught. He will hopefully turn out to be a good investment, but he is certainly not he finished article at this stage.
Those at the club think he is going to be very good, but they thought that about Davenport but now they not so sure - thus the purchase of Dawson.
Huddlestone will not be a regular first player in 2005/6. If, on the odd occasion that he does play he gets similar stick as Atouba as he goes through the learning process, then he will probably never become a top-class player at this level.
9:31 AM, March 07, 2005
We all know that Gardner and Atouba would not feature in Jol's first choice 11.
10:54 AM, March 07, 2005
Gardner is a waste of f*****g space. Perhaps he should concentrate more on playing football than being in night clubs in Coventry till 4 in the morning. (i got him to sign a beer mat!)Why oh why we are playing shit like that when we have Davenport on loan and others waiting. Should have given our young Brazilian a chance or at worst bloody Dean Richards! Hes taking £30,000 a week off of us for doing nothing! Ledley needs someone good along side him. not that twat!
12:29 PM, March 07, 2005
It's a bit harsh to call Gardner crap. He has as much physical ability as King but seems to have concentration lapses (which admittedly can be costly). I still think it's a bit soon to write the player off. If anyone can cure him it's Jol.
12:37 PM, March 07, 2005
Im not one for slagging of our own players should gardner have been playing on saturday ? i think not .He only played because Naybet was injured , what concerns me more is that we seem to have a 4mil player in dawson who hasnt evan kicked a ball for us yet , and another of our prospects davenport is at the saints gaining experiance why buy players we cant use? i agree with buying young english players and giving them experiance but i worry that gardner needs vast improvements , especially on his first touch and his concentration is poor .at least from midfield to attack we are enveid by most
1:01 PM, March 07, 2005
I find it frustating that Garderner played... he makes too many mistakes. Davenport is doing very well at southampton is a much better reader of the game that AG. King/Davenport or Dawson when hes fit would be a much better option.
But the Southampton game was an odd one, we had enough chances to win, but there Keeper was excellent. 9 times out of ten we would of walked away with at least a point!
1:33 PM, March 07, 2005
Yes it's frustrating when we get into a position where one win means we can break into that spot we all so covet, and we lose. But rather than in previous seasons where weve rolled over for teams at least were creating the chances and looking threatening.
I wasn't at saturdays game but by all accounts their keeper wouldn't have looked out of place with a flowing red cape and a large "S" on his chest, we had more shots on and off target than Saints and more corners, any other day it could have been a repeat of the 5-1 at the lane.
Lets be confident that we can get something at Newcastle, we've already done it this season and we're a game away from cardiff (although it should be two). and as for Jol leaving, If he can resurrect Spurs he'll have the pick of the jobs in a few years should he want to move on, at the moment its all 2+2=5
C.O.Y.S
2:47 PM, March 07, 2005
Gardner was terrible, bad control, lack of commitment, continual making of comical errors and for some1 who's 6 foot odd he wins nowhere near what he should in the air!!
The amount of times Kamara and crouch played off the shoulder of Gardner and because of it got in on goal was diabolical to say the least. But full credit to Harry Redknapp for spotting the 6Ft weak link and making kamara and crouch alternate between him and King to cause confusion!!!!
I mean......... Crouch out strengthed gardner to get to a ball going towards our goal???? Have you seen crouch? they are considering putting a roof on st' Mary's to stop him blowing away with the crisp packets down through the tunnel are.
There just seemed to be no understanding between the pairing at the back and this was clearly displayed by the amount of times KING raised his arms and gestured toward Gardner everytime he was not up with play and one of the southampton Fwd's got in behind us!
I for one would have liked to have seen Pamarot partner KING in the middle of the defence as i think his display against Nottingham Forest last week was his best in a spurs shirt to date.
He is clearly not a RB and Harry Redknapp must have known this as he wanted to sign him as a CB for southampton when he took over this season!
Pamarot as a CB was class, his positioning was class A, his tackling was spot on and his commitment 110%....... Not ba for a player whom the papers are saying isn't happy and wants out!!!!
3:56 PM, March 07, 2005
Pamarot did well against a no-hoper team like Forest, so lets calm down a bit - he did as well as Gardener - but don't lets jump on the scapegoat bandwagon and blame Gardener for the defeat. Defoe, Mido & Kanoute should ALL have scored but they didnt. Who's culpable for that? Gardener? I dont think so.........
4:16 PM, March 07, 2005
I agree wrt Pamarot @CB. Naybet's distribution is v.poor - he has been a +ve influence on King this season and brought some steadiness at the back, but our goal should be better than this. We call Gardner 'Bambie on Ice' - how many times did Leon Knight (5' 5") outjump him against Brighton. The difference between an OK CB and a top class one is often the number of mistakes they make, and Gardner makes too many unfortunately. Is Dawson injured?
4:33 PM, March 07, 2005
I wasn't scapegoating Gardner for the defeat because as ou clearly stated we should have converted at least 2/3 of our clear cut oppertunities.
I was clearly pointing out that our back line with gardner in it seems far too suspect and always likely to concede a goal or 2.
As for Pamarot playing well against a team of the calibre of forest......... a player can only play agaist what is put against him and i don't really see how his positional sense/ commitment and tackling ability (which were top class in that game)can be judged based on the oppositions strengths / weaknesses etc
4:57 PM, March 07, 2005
In answer to your question on Dawson...... I extracted this paragraph from his interview on the tottenham site
Meanwhile, Michael reports that he still a little way from fitness following a shin problem and can't wait to get going in a Spurs shirt.
"I'm still struggling a bit, still in the gym trying to keep myself fit and what have you. I'm not sure when I'll be fit and, as you can imagine with being at a new club, I am gutted about it. I just want to get out and get playing - I'm sure I'll be back soon and I can't wait to start playing."
5:02 PM, March 07, 2005
I DONT LIKE ATOUBA, OR GARDNER,but would nver verbal them at a game, just hope jol doesn't have them in his long term plans, i think mendes should get alot more games(whne hes fit) the everton game was are best performance of the season and he was everywhere, i have not seen a spurs midfield more hungry for the ball, so im happy, before there was no hunger, now one defeat and players and fans are upset!!!although id like to have scored a goal against souphampton, how do tottenham manage to have these damn curses, dearbys,chelsea, i think this will change, we cant afford to lose any of our big players but jol and king are the most important! come on you spurs top 6 and the fa cup?? i have money on this!!
6:20 PM, March 07, 2005
Things are moving forward. The thing is not to expect too much too quickly. As jol has said europe would be a bonus not a necessity. The most important thing at the moment is that jol is still the man in the hotseat come next season.
7:16 PM, March 07, 2005
Pamarot played as well against Forest as Gardener did, no better no worse.
Gardener has got mistakes in him I agree, as have even the best, but to blame him for the defeat against Soton is ridiculous......
Jol picks the team, he is responsible, why doesn't everyone get on his back?
'Cos we WANT him to succeed and it's hard to replace a manager. But a centre-half? Well we've got them coming out of our ears so fuck Gardener and get someone else in.....
Anyone can see that Gardener has ALL the attributes to be a good centre-half but he's so obviously a confidence player. So please get behind the lad and lets not get on his back (especially when we haven't even seen the game).
And don't forget if someone is not good enough or is playing shite then blame the MANAGER 'cos he's the one picking them.......
8:38 PM, March 07, 2005
I haven't blamed him for the defeat.
9:11 PM, March 07, 2005
why dont we get rid of king & robinson cos they have made 2 almighty balls ups this season both costing us goals .what about defoe for the chances he misses? NO didnt think so ! STOP SL;AGGING THE BOYS OFF & GET BEHIND THE TEAM. WERE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.
9:16 PM, March 07, 2005
give rid of gardner all the mistakes come from him.... lets try pamarot.. everyone see how well he fought against Nott's Forest. he and king could work well.
10:15 PM, March 07, 2005
Going back to the original post, I can understand that a loss for the Tottenham of yesteryear would have put the doom and gloom into the fans of yesteryear. But we have the strongest squad for at least twenty years in my opinion, and for once there is some long-term hope for fans. We also have a HEAD COACH who is gelling well with the squad and the coaching staff.
Believe it or not there are still a lot of positives to take out of the Southampton game - we created a lot of chances (most 'keepers wouldn't have stood a chance with the one-on-ones, well played Smith) and put a lot of continuous pressure on them from the moment the goal went in. OK, we didn't score, but going into a cup tie against Newcastle - and for the rest of the run-in - we are looking like a side to be feared once again.
I'd rather have the loss last Saturday and at least 7/8 in the Prem come the end of the season (plus a possible FA Cup Final) than be in the Saints' position and have to struggle for survival.
It's time we all got behind the team for the rest of the season, good bad or indifferent.
WE ARE SPURS AND WE ALWAYS WILL BE!!!!!!!
12:29 PM, March 08, 2005
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