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Quiet Transfer Window Ahead.

Title says it all really. According to the reliable sources on FTL there will be little action over the Januray transfer window with the main priority being a long term centre half as we feel short of cover if King was injured. The words "long term" are a little worrying though. Does this mean that if the Chavs do decide they want to partner King and Terry together next season we shall meekly roll over and let our one true star player leave? I have said it before that we cannot sell the cream of the crop and I hope even silly money is turned down if a bid was made for King. It is all very well recieveing £20 million plus in cash but you will never get a replacement as good. Lennon and King are both irreplaceable. Carrick was another issue. While a good player, we had Huddlestone waiting and plenty of midfield cover. We missed him early on but now his absence is noticed less and less. Selling Carrick for £18 million was a good deal. Selling Lennon or King for the same would not be.

Apart from a centre half a couple of young players may be coming in. Wether this means Bale from Southampton I don't know but apparently Tarbarat is a done deal. I know almost nothing about him I have to admit but I hear he can play on the left but is still very young.

Apart from that there does not appear to much on. The club is still peddling the line that if the right player comes along at the right price we shall go for him but it doesn't happen in January does it.

COYS!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from everyone from The Shelf. Here's to 2007, the year when our away form begins to match the home. I hope.

COYS!

Team News

Newcastle United: Given, Ramage, Huntington, Taylor, Solano, Parker, Butt, Emre, Dyer, Martins, Milner. Subs: Luque, Rossi, Sibierski, Srnicek, Edgar.

Spurs: Robinson, Chimbonda, YP Lee, Dawson, King, Malbranque, Huddlestone, Zokora, Ghaly, Berbatov, Defoe. Subs: Cerny, Assou-Ekotto, Davenport, Murphy, Mido.

Even with the injuries etc this is still a strong Spurs line up. If Zokora and Hudd can boss the midfield it will allow Malbranque to expose the Newcastle back four which, to be honest, has never been a strong point for the Geordies. I hope Berbatov can make a nuisance of himself as well as his runs will be important in creating chances for Defoe and the midfield.

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It's Liverpool or filth

The Carling Cup semi final draw has been made and Spurs have been drawn against the scum or Liverpool. The first leg is at home on 15 January with the away leg the following week. I don't know weather this is a good draw or not. In previous years both teams have always put out weakened teams including the scum when they reached the semi final last year, and they almost got through. However, they may not do so this year against us, especially if it is against the evil scum, the only team to play in the top division who never got their on playing merit - shows what true scum they really are.

If we are to progress we would need to make sure we take a healthy lead to the away ground, especially if whoever we play puts out a weakened team. If it is against our south London rivals it will mean 9,000 Spurs fans taking on that lot at the Immigrants and it would be a chance to banish that awful performance we put on there earlier this season.

The Chav's obviously have Wycombe so could it be a Chav Spurs final?


COYS!

Newcastle Vs. Spurs

Another chance presents itself to improve on the away record in the Premiership this Saturday up at Newcastle. If we can put in the same first half performance against Citeh and carry it on for a bit longer into the second half then three points can be ours. However Newcastle are an improving outfit and will provide a stiff challenge to the boys. A point is the minimum required to keep us moving in the right direction and I hope the return of King into the back four, along with Lee and Chimbonda, will help us to keep a clean sheet.

I expect Berbatov wil be recalled to the first eleven to partner in form striker jermaine Defoe. Lennon may not make it due to a slight knee problem so I expect Zokora and Huddlestone to make the midfiled partnership with Tainio on the left and Ghaly on the right. This means we will be narrow across the middle and Ghaly and Tainio will have to help push the Newcastle wingers back to protect Lee and Chimbonda. If Tom and Zokora can take contol of the central areas we can push on for the win.

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Citeh Vs. Spurs

Spurs travel to Eastlands for the 3pm Sunday kick off still looking for an away league goal from open play and an away league win. In Europe we cannot stop scoring away from home and putting in good performances and we need to start doing that away from home in the Premiership. Sticking with 4-4-2 and dropping the cautious approach is necessary as a squad and team like we have currently are much better than the majority of teams we face, and better than the one we face today.

Citeh have a good home record and don't concede many. However, they don't score many either and have had four 0-0 draws at home so far this season. However, if we can get Lennon into the sort of positions he got into against Charlton then we should unlock the door today and I am backing Berbatov to pick up his first away league goal this season today. Being able to play with Defoe for a few games will help the partnership understanding and they both looked impressive on Thursday and last Staurday. Apparently Dawson is supended, although there is no mention of it on the Spurs site. If so Davenport will play alongside King, the first time he has had the opportunity to this season. Lee will probably be recalled on the left with the excellent Chimbonda on the right. I think Lennon will start wide right, with Steed on the left trying to stretch the Citeh back four. However, Lennon showed he can be vertisile and could well appear behind the back two like last weekend. Huddlestone will continue in the middle with Ghaly alongside. Up front will be Berbatov and Defoe.

COYS!

Spurs progress

Spurs saw off a good Dinamo Bucharest side yesterday with a quality perfromance. It could easily have been a bigger win with Spurs attacking with ease and stretching their opponents all over the pitch. Lennon played well and Defoe looked impressive scoring twice and this can only help his confidence. In fact the team looked good all over the pitch and I hope it will lead to our first away victory in the league this season against Citeh at the weekend.

We have been rewarded with Feyenoord with the away leg first around Valentines day with the return a week later. Due to the Feyenoord fans rioting against Nancy their is currently an on going investigation and with our previous history against them I would not be surprised if the away leg was played behind closed doors. It appears the UEFA have appealled the original suspended verdict and will now push for this as there will be trouble if we play them in a full house.

Based on our form in Europe this will be our toughest test yet but I don't see why we can't beat this lot and push on into the last 16th. This is now a competition I think we have an excellent chance of winning as we now appear well set up to play in these European games and with our form improving in the league I see good times ahead.

COYS!

Spurs Vs Charlton

It just goes to show what an awful lot of medicore teams there are in the Premiership when we sit only 3 points off third place even though we find it impossible to score away goals from open play and are still to find an away win from anywhere in the league this season. If we can put a run together then fourth spot is ours for the taking as the only two teams who have so far hit any sort of form is United and Chelsea. Failure to finish in the top 5 this season based upon the current form of the majority of teams will be a big big failure and we now need to step up to the plate and start winning those away games.

We also need to start thumping the crap, especially teams who sit in the bottom third of the table. One of these teams is Charlton who visit tomorrow. I doubt we shall keep a clean sheet as Bent is doing well and Fat Boy Reid will have a point to prove but we have the quality to beat this team and we have to do it convincingly. With Keane injured it will give Defoe and Berbatov time to begin to form a partnership and Keane's injury could actually be a blessing in disguise. I love Robbie Keane and his winning goal against 'Boro just goes to show what he can do but the lack of a consistant partnership up front has hindered the understanding of our strike force on the pitch. I expect Berbatov to get at least another assist tomorrow and Defoe to hit the back of the net.

Behind the front two will be Lennon and Malbranque in the wide positions. With Jenas injured and Zokora suspended it will give Huddlestone a longer run in the side along with Tainio. Lets hope he is match fit unlike his last appearence. In fact, if he isn't, Murphy will sit in alongside Hudd.

The back four continues to pick itself and I expect Lee to keep his place after a reasonable performance on Tuesday.

COYS!

Is there any pride in our team?

As I think more and more about the scum game I think that the Spurs players are a bunch of over hyped lazy bastards and tomorrow is a great time for them to prove me otherwise. Regardless of what Poll did or what team Jol put out their should have been some fight from our boys in the derby game. To see an under strength scum team, who without Henry are not really much better than us, play the ball around us was plain embarrasing. They were clearly up for it and looked like they wanted to win. Only Keane and Dawson showed any real fight and looked liked they gave a shit against our biggest enemy.

King comes onto the Spurs website the following day saying how sorry he felt for the fans and I'm sure he did but where was the fighting talk from him on Saturday. Jol's saving grace was that he looked fucked off and he had the players in for training on Sunday. He needs to have told them, in no uncertain terms, what a fecking awful performance the players put in on Sunday and how that shower of shit against anyone, let alone the scum, can nenver be tolerated again.

Against 'Boro I want to see a reaction. I want to see every player fight for that ball and take the game to Middlesboro. I don't want to see an opposition goal be the only thing that kick starts our game, as in recent weeks. We need to not let 'Boro get near the ball. Man for man, squad for squad, we should be top 5 every season but with gutless performances abound top 10 will be lucky.

Jol needs to make it clear to the current squad that they need to perform week in week out. No more fucking around away from home - we need to start beating the shit - Jol improved our away form no end last season, and now it is a mess. Whatever Carrick brought to the team find someone else who can - Tainio and Zokora aren't currently it. Let Zokora do what he did in Europe. Put Huddlestone alongside him tomorrow and when fit, Jenas back in the team - everyone could see what he brought to the team in the second half against th filth. And in January, sort out that left side once and for all.

Another season of mid table rubbish and even higher prices will not be tolerated and while we will all probably all turn up again next season, the players who have the ability to make us great again - the King's, the Lennon's, the Dawson's will be fucking off to some other club. It must not be allowed to happen.

COYS!

Jol gets it wrong.

I am not usually one to criticise Jol as he has done good things for the club and I still feel he can take us places but he got it wrong today. The scum were there for the taking in my opinion with three first team players out either injured or suspended and a game in midweek while we had the week off. However we looked to contain the filth instead of going for them like Bolton and Fulham did. Keane was told to drop deep and stop Fabregas from playing but he did not do very well and Tainio was not in the game in the first half. We allowed the scum to put Lennon out of the game - they put three on him, but did not use the space this created elsewhere on the pitch. Berbatov was isolated and found it difficult to get into the game.

We should have played our usual 4-4-2 formation and kept with JD. I'm no massive fan of Defoe but he worked very well with Berbatov against Wigan and his pace would have given the scum back four more to worry about.

The ref had his role to play with three lousy decisions costing us three goals. Both penalties were joke decisions and the dodgy offside saw us two nil down at half time and out of the game. But I agree with Jol here - we cannot put too much onto the ref (even tho he cost us three goals) as we did not turn up in the first half. We allowed the goons to pass around us and we gave them far too much respect. Zokora and Tainio should have been in hard on their two central midfield players but more often than not we were left chasing shadows - the display all round was just not good enough.

Hopefully we can get this defeat out of the system quickly with a win against 'Boro but unless we start picking up away points very quickly we shall find ourselves back in mid table rubbish once again.

Oh, and scum fans - crap support as usual deciding to finally make any real noise when you went 3-0 up - Pathetic, as usual.

COYS!

Spurs Vs Woolwich Movie

Just a little movie to get you in the mood for tomorrow!



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Woolwich Nomads Vs. Tottenham Hotpsur

Spurs travel down the Seven Sisters Road tomorrow for an early kick off against the evil nomads from Woolwich. They have recently moved out of The Library (which is now being torn down) to a new stadium - expect plenty of caravans in the area - The Effeminate's.

Latest team news suggests that Henry is out with a neck injury. This would be great news as even the most die hard Spurs fan has to admit he is pretty good and is their main man. We saw how he turned the game when he came on last season at Highbury and his lose would be a massive blow to the scum cause and great news for us. Of course this could all be Wenger mind games so we shall have to wait to see the team sheets to be sure.

Their other good player, Gallas, is injured as well and Senderos is suspended after seeing red at Fulham leaving the goons light at the back. Fabregas will still have to be watched tho and Van Persie can score a few if given the chances.

For Spurs we go into the game having a week's rest, while they played on Wednesday. Apparently, Wenger sees this as a "farce" but there is no conspiracy against you Arsene. Spurs play in the UEFA cup and this week was a match day - it is hardly our fault, or the Premiership's, that it just so happened to be our rest week in Europe.

The Spurs team will line up with the same back four as beat Wigan last week. Across the middle will see Lennon and Malbranque in the wide positions with Zokora alongside maybe Tainio or Jenas. Tainio was superb at Highbury last season and Jenas is only just returning from injury so I would go with those two. Berbatov will continue up front alongside one other. On last week's performance that role really should go to Defoe but Keane could also get the nod as it will allow us to match the scum if they play 4-5-1 which they often do. A tough one for Jol.

Wenger has been spouting his usual arrogant crap about how the scum WILL beat Spurs tomorrow. I hope we put on a performance to stuff those words right down his weedy French throat.

See you there Yidos.

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