The Ugly Truth

Now that the dust has settled after another wonder goal from Bale,which secured us three points in our chase for a place in the Champions League, I can imagine most of us who went, watched or listened thought that we barely deserved to win due to another uncreative & lackluster performance.

There have been quite a few matches this season where we’ve gained points through doing just enough & just as many occasions where the opposition have had a decent period of the match, creating chances along the way.

We’ve managed to cling onto or snatch a goal towards the end of games & whilst Villas Boas did learn from conceding too many late goals to defending very well in the last ten minutes, it seems we’ve had to rely far too much in those last ten minutes to gain anything from the match.

Many will swap that euphoric feeling of snatching a win when all seems lost. The Bale goal on Saturday epitomize that point. Team playing poorly, resignation amongst us all, that the mob down the road will out do us again. Then up pops the welsh maestro to send us into apoplexy. Is that one moment of genius better than watching us play Southampton off the park & comfortably turning them over, say 3-0? Not in my book, as I don’t want to spend 80 mins worrying about the teams performance just to go ballistic when we sneak a win but through out this season that’s basically what we’ve had to endure. May be not the 80 minute scenario every game but it took until late November against West Ham before we put in a consistent performance over the whole 90 minutes & I, unlike last season, can’t remember games where we’ve totally out played the opposition.

I’m not a Redknapp apologist but I do recognise that under his leadership, Tottenham played some of the best football I’ve seen at The Lane since the heady days of the early eighties when Hoddle, Ardiles & Hazard continued the philosophy of our great club. The game, is, about glory & the Tottenham way & Redknapp brought it to us. Those famous quotes From Nicholson & Blanchflower are engrained in our ethos. We don’t want to become a club that grinds out or nicks a result . We don’t want to become exactly what we hate.
Yes it’s great that we’re still up there and it’s in our own hands to secure top 4 position but surely we don’t want to see the same style of football like that next season.
Redknapp took his eye off the ball & there lies his downfall.

There’s no, one, person responsible for our downturn in entertainment, the finger can be pointed at Levy, Villas Boas & the players respectively. I’ve said since the start of the season we’ve missed Modric & articles by fellow fans support my view. He left a massive hole in midfield which Dembele, despite his impressive start in a Spurs shirt has failed to fill. Would Moutinho have filled the void ? who knows but one thing we do know is that we need a creative midfielder who regularly picks a great pass. There is class at the club and we need to add that or we’ll struggle, like we have this season, to boss a game.

It sounds fanciful but Levy needs to do his business early and allow Villas Boas the time to work with the new players. I like the manager, he shows both passion for the game & our club but there have been times when I’ve wondered what exactly has he said to the players before the match or at half time that they have played exactly the opposite to what they did in the first half, good or bad. Southampton comes to mind. Totally out playing them in the first half clinging on in the second.

We’ve had countless sound bites from the players about what they need to do & how important the last few games are, then they produce performances like Wigan & Southampton.
It’s a combination of all these points that have had us playing so mundanely so it’s up to all those concerned, Chairman, manager & players to up their game if we’re to avoid the same scenario next season.

Clinching CL next season isn’t vital but will help immensely if we are to compete with our rivals, as we all know they will be investing heavily in their squads.
Getting 2-3 top players in & keeping our Welsh crown jewel has to happen or we may well get much of the same next season. Without Bale we will struggle but with him & some exciting signings then we can look forward to next season.

I know everyone above has the best interests of the club to heart but I’m getting pretty tired of being the also rans & continually getting mocked by those goons & their increasingly irritating keeper so, as for now with three games to go I’ll take 3 ugly wins but as for next season that’s a different matter.