Long ball fails to deliever

When we beat Charlton 3-1 a couple of weeks ago we played the ball through the middle to Keane and Defoe and did not result to long balls. When Mido returned we resulted to a more direct style which did get us an equaliser but nothing else. The fact we got the equaliser was because Mido was unmarked for the hoof from the back. Every other time Wigan marked him tightly and although he won a few flick ons they did not come to anything.

Our worst players on the field have to be the two full backs. Stalteri is going from bad to worse. He does not know when to go to the player or when to stay back and often makes the wrong choice. His attacking play with Lennon was non-existant and Kelly must deserve his chance now. On the other side Ting Tong has pace and a right foot. Ok if he was playing on the right but hes not. He gets to the byline and while we all hope for a first time cross he cuts back. Not so bad but he then cuts again back onto his left meaning he has to cut back AGAIN to his right - by now he is tackeld. Time for him to jog on.

Other players to note was Davids who was better than last week but not fantastic - Danny Murphy was useless. Why?

Fourth spot, no chance based upon forthcoming fixtures and current form. We worry about the scum but it could well be Bolton who nick it now.

COYS!

Spurs screw up, again.

Whoops! It happens again, a last minute goal to rob us of points. Not good enough I'm afarid and it is unlikely we shall finish fourth now unless our form picks up and we actually play well for a whole 90 minutes, something we have not done for the whole season.

Against Sunderland we were very poor. In fact, Sunderland look better and sharper than we did for the whole game. Davids, Jenas and Carrick all played short passes and almost every ball into Defoe and Keane never quite had enough pace on it. The pitch was terrible and we should have adapted accordingly. You can't pass the ball around crisply on a pitch like that and thus we should have resulted to more direct tactics. We did not until Murphy had smacked in his equaliser. If we had pressurised the Sunderland back four like we did in injury time earlier on we would have picked up the vital second goal and all three points. We didn't and now lie four points above the filth.

I can't see the scum winning at Anfield tomorrow but comparing the lousy run in we have compared with theirs I feel we will need to win at The Library and probably at West Ham for us to finish in the final Champins League spot and sadly I don't think we can do it. One win in six is not good enough and if you want to finish in the top four you cannot afford a run like that at any point in the season. Failure to close teams out is the problem at the moment and the team needs to recitfy it before we drop not only out of a Cahmpions League spot but out of the top six. A time will come when we screw up and the other teams don't.

COYS!

Spurs confirm Shelf Story

Tottenham Hotspur confimred today the main part of the story yesterday on The Shelf. Puma will produce the new Spurs kit for the next five seasons and pay approximatly £5 million a year for the privilage of doing so.

The rumors had been doing the rounds for a while on the main three Spurs message boards, Glory Glory, COYS and FTL. Spurs did not confirm the team sponsor though.

I do hope that they have a renegotiation deal in case we do manage to cement ourselves in the top four in the next two or three years because we shall be able to make a lot more money out of these sorts of deals and don't want to be tied in.

COYS!

New Kit and Sponsor to be announced

Latest rumors flying around Glory Glory, COYS and FTL suggest that the club will announce a new kit manufacturer in a press release tomorrow. The expected kit maker will be Puma who will pay the club £20 million over four years. It is also expected that the club will announce LG as the sponsor for next season although no figures have been branded about yet.

Spurs may also tease us with a sneak peak at next seasons kit.

Keep an eye out tomorrow to see if this is true or bollocks.

COYS!

Mido, donkeys and Rasiak

Mido has been thrown out of the Egypt squad after a storming row with his coach. In the row Mido told his coach that he was a donkey. His coach replied "No, you are the donkey!" I suspect that Mido and his coach were mixing each other up for Rasiak. Neverhteless Mido is on his way home and could be available for Sunday's trip to Sunderland.

In other news Rasiak is off to the south coast's Premier Club, Southampton to assist in their further drop towards Division 3 in old money. I'd like tot hank Rasiak for raising my blood pressure with his inability to jump or run in matches against Leicester and Fulham.

Below is a great video by Ralph from Glory Glory.

Rasiak Video

Everyone at The Shelf would like to thank Rasiak for his services.

COYS!

Spurs sweep away sorry Charlton

Danny Murphy must have sat in the stands thinking he made the right choice moving away from Charlton as Spurs showed their superiority all over the pitch. In fact it was no wonder he had been dropped from the Charlton side as they played long balls which were easy for King and Gardner to snuff out. In fact it took until the 44th minute before they had a shot in anger, Marcus Bent firing against the cross bar. By then, of course, Spurs were two nil to the good with Defoe creating a good goal and Jenes latching onto a great through ball by Keane.

We stated the second half as we finished the first. Keane charged down a clearence which Huddlestone collected. He then put a great ball in for Defoe to nick it over the keeper. We continued to push and Keane could have scored two more but great defending and a narrow angle foiled him on this occasion. Charlton did get one back when we slowed down a little and their fans (worst this season at WHL) must be wondering why Jerome Thomas does not play on a more regular basis as he tormented Stalteri.

Keane and Defoe showed that they can play together today. The Goons have four tough matches coming up, with three of them away. We need to take this opportunity to push on and increase the gap between us and them. I don't want to have to go to the Library with three games to go and need a win.

COYS!

Spurs Vs Charlton.

I write almost every week that the next fixture is always a "mst win" game. For us to harbour European ambitions in the premier European competition then they definetly are and with us failing to win, let alone score in the last three games then we have to get back to winning ways against Charlton. Only slip ups by the Goons and the top seven during the week have meant we have stayed fourth place but the scum, Wigan and Bolton are all clsoing in on where we are. Failure to win tomorrow would leave us only one point above Arsenal and they have a game in hand, albeit away at Anfield.

Danny Murphy will not be allowed to play tomorrow due to a gentlemans agreement but I have to say that I am quite looking forward to seeing him in a Spurs shirt in 8 days time. He has the second highest assist rate in the Premiership with 8 to his name, which is even more impressive considering that he has not featured for a month. His ability to play balls along the ground instead of in the air will assist Defoe and Keane no end in trying to score as high balls aren't much use when you are not much over 5' 7".

It has come as no surprise that we have been rubbish since Mido went and Rasiak proved once again that he is not up to the task ahead of him. It is not his fault that he is not good enough but you just seem to get the impression that he couldn't care less anyway with lacklustre performances and a lack of effort. Effort will win a lot of Spurs fans over (see Freund and Brown) but being damn lazy won't and is one of the reasons the crowd have turned on him. I don't agree with having ago at your own and he won't improve his game but you also have to help yourself and Rasiak has not done that. I am hoping the vicious rumors flying around that Defoe has a cold and Rasiak will start tomorrow are wide of the mark.

The back four continue to pick itself with King and Gardner in the centre (Dawson suspended) with Stalteri right and Kelly left. Kelly was poor again against Fulham and you have to wonder why Ziegler is on loan at Wigan while we have no left back cover.

Tainio and Davids may pass fitness tests and if they do they will both start. If not we shall have Carrick and Huddlestone in the middle with Lennon on the left and Jenas on the right. However I am pretty sure Tainio will make it which would allow Lennon to have more of a free role on the right. Defoe (fingers crossed) and Keane will hopefully start up front and the strong rumors are that Barnard will make the bench after scoring 18 goals for the reserves. It is about time the lad got a chance.

COYS!

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Spurs get lucky after screw up.

We lost to Fulham yesterday after Jol made a mistake and played Rasiak over Defoe while the ref made even larger mistakes ignoring a blatent penalty and red card offenses and then the player who should have been having an early bath scoring the winner in injury time. You could not make it up and I hope the dreadful Howard Webb is exposed in the coming months and is promptly demoted out fo the Premiership where he is not up to the job.

Luckily though, all our rivals either lost or drew today with West Ham doing us the biggest favour by beating the scum at The Library. However, had we beaten Villa and Fulham, like we should have done in both, we would now be five points better off, a massive 9 points ahead of the scum. Other results have let us off the hook this week but I think that it could come back to haunt us at the end of the season, especially with our difficult run in.

We bought Moany Murphy in from Charlton at the end of yesterday but I am not entirely sure where he will play. Ghaly also joined, a tough tackling midfielder to replace Brown and probably Davids in the long term. Murphy could be the key to getting Defoe and Keane firing togetehr though as he can put a wicked pass through when necessary and most importantly those passes will be along the floor. Lets face it, we are a bit long ball at the moment and this signing could change things.

Rasiak showed once again that he is shit and I hope to never see him in a Spurs shirt again. Defoe WILL leave in the summer if he can't get back in the team soon and everyone can see that Defoe is miles better than Rasiak, even when he has the strop. Sort it out Jol as the scum won't keep on giving us favours. We must beat Charlton on Saturday and Defoe must start with Keane if we are to achieve the three points.

COYS!