Van der Vaart retires. What a brilliant player he was for us. The shushing of the Arsenal fans, the kissing of the granny, so many great moments.
Serge Aurier was arrested at the weekend for domestic battery, which would explain his absence from the squad on Sunday. I really think Spurs missed a trick with this signing, with his nebulous history in France there for all to see, plus he has not been anything near the player we were told he was. It's not been a great year for us off the pitch, what with the stadium fiasco, no signings, Hugo Lloris' drink driving arrest, the Man U speculation with Poch and now Aurier. It is amazing how a season can potentially go up in flames in under a week.
To me, while Aurier had potential to be good, I was always suspicious that he would change is ways off the pitch. There is hope that a new setting would do so, but there are so many more things other than moving cities which is needed, and there was little I saw that made me think this. I also suspect I am not alone with this, though others will view this lack of change in a different light. As for Poch, this is standard. Whether it be Man U or Real, there will be speculation. Part is because of what he had done with Spurs, part is because they will offer more money, and part is just the nature of managers not staying long term. IMO, this is much ado about normal. As for the stadium, that is the biggest whiff of this season, even if it ends up that Kane is out for the season. We all knew that it was a risk to have the stadium open for the start of the season, but the delays upon delays should have been dealt with much earlier. That said, Wembley has become somewhat a comfortable rental home, and I don't think it will be too bad to stay the rest of the season. Oh, and for Lloris, meh. Even the most responsible people make errors, though this could have been supremely serious. I would like for him to have take precautions (don't drive when knowing he would be drinking, etc), but that does not appear to be anything typical for him and appears to be a one-off.
The FA has handed Poch a 2 match touchline ban for his berating of Mike Dean after the Burnley match. The FA are a bunch of twats - how do Klopp and Nuno not get bans for running onto the pitch and celebrating with their players? I think this was not for the incident with Dean (who is another prat) but in response to his criticism of the FA for not helping English teams in Europe with fixture scheduling. What a joke.
Some law changes for next season: The hand ball law has been changed to remove the word "deliberate". That was done to remove the loophole allowing players to score with their hand or arm unintentionally. That is bad news for Arsenal, as they have cornered the market on scoring with hands over the years. Substitutions: players will no longer be allowed to do the old slow walk across the pitch from the farthest point - if they are 2 yards from the touchline, they will be told to go off there. But don't worry, I am sure Big Sam and Tony Pulis will tell the player to come off to stand in the centre circle and walk twice as slowly as usual. Free kick walls: attacking players will no longer be allowed to go into the defensive wall, they will have to respect a 1 or 2 meter barrier. The one law I would have added was to force the goalkeeper to take a goal kick within 20 seconds. The first offense would be a warning, second a yellow and third a sending off OR you give the attacking team a corner. That would speed things up.
Must be a Spurs fan at Apple. Second time - I think - Spurs have been shown at an Apple event. // edit: Maybe Jony himself, he was a guest at the old White Hart Lane a few years ago.
Ajax have beaten Juventus in Turin to reach the CL semis, meaning that is who we'll play should we get past City*. honestly, I think I'd've preferred Juve … Ajax have looked absolutely brilliant against some top, top sides. If we're not going to win it, they're easily the team I'd most prefer to see do so. football as it should be played. *in no way presumed, of course.
And United got smoked 3-0 by Barca, De Gea with a howler on the second goal (why couldn't he have done that at Wembley against us?). Looks like the happy wanderer Solskjaer is getting found out.
I love how long a break we've had from this. I've been able to decompress a bit. I'm barely even nervous about it. starting this weekend, though, i'll begin to obsess. by Tuesday or Wednesday, I'll be shitting bricks. The game, itself, will be awful. I will hate every second of it. but if we win, I will retroactively convince myself that I loved every minute of it - that it was among the 90 best minutes of my life. but it won't be. I'll be a wreck.
The epitome of 90s Spurs, Justin Edinburgh, has died at just 49. RIP JE, not a great player but a great servant and part of the Tottenham Hotspur family.
wow. that's a kick in the junk. RIP Justin Edinburgh. he was the manager at Orient and he just took them back into the League having topped the Conference (or whatever the 5th tier is called now). the last time I thought about him (when they secured promotion) I was thinking, "he must be on top of the world - what a great life". and now this. only 49. really, really sad.
Edinburgh was always for me a symbol of the mediocrity of the team then. Not disastrously bad as a player, just meh. (In fairness I wasn't paying close attention in the early 90's, with no Sky subscription to watch them, and a new baby to keep me busy.) He was from my part of the world, south Essex, and part of me stupidly thought, if he could play for Spurs, I could. Then as a manager his name kept popping up, often with clubs from the same area, like Grays Athletic when they briefly were half decent for a non league side, and ultimately with Orient, my Dad's team. Such a shame he will not be there to take them back to the League and restoring some pride to the O's. Far too young to be lost.
The fixture list is out! We start the season August 10th at home to Aston Villa at 12:30 pm ET. Our first 2 away fixtures are Manchester City and Arsenal, but we don't have any stretches where we play the top 6 in back to back rounds and have a favourable looking holiday schedule. https://www.premierleague.com/fixtures?co=1&cl=21
on the road immediately following 4 of the 5* group stage CL games isn't great, but hey-ho. better news is that of the 11 fixtures immediately preceding/following a CL group match, only one is against 'top six' opposition (Liverpool away on 26 Oct). *one of the groups stage games is immediately followed by an international week, so no one is on the road that weekend.
Damn...he should be eviscerated. edit to add, as a teacher, I understand he is 16, but even 16 year olds do know better. btw, never noticed Kane had a lisp.
Remember this? Poch and Eric Dier's debut and a lovely through ball from a certain Harry Kane... https://www.instagram.com/p/B0p6tv4n5Y-/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_video_watch_again