Thoughts from the Shelf

Eagle eyed Pasty Muncher - an early subscriber and occasional commenter on The Shelf (we’ve still yet to answer the question he asked at the beginning of January) suggested that the Smart Pants which measured the wearers blood pressure we revealed would be an ideal Valentine gift for a lover to give the man in their lives and suggested they be re-branded ‘Smart Heart Pants’.

Valentines Day is a long way off, so too is Christmas but it has been noted on some shopping information sites that the 7th Wonder of the Shopping World - Trago Mills already has full Christmas displays on show beating their record of last year when a shelves were brimming with Christmas goodies well before the schools returned after the summer holidays.

Every year chaps are forced into panic buying Christmas presents at the last minute and every year our other (and often considerably better) half’s smugly remind us how they had completed the present buying task way back in October. So it is time to make early preparations.

A couple of items caught my eye on a price comparison site which I think may be ideal gifts - who could not feel the pride whilst wearing a Spurs shirt signed by Gazza or at very least appreciate slipping into bed under a stylish Spurs emblazoned luxury duvet cover?

They say Christmas gets earlier every year but I, like The Wizard, wish it could be Christmas every day.

Without any football news The Shelf couldn’t quiet live up to its name, so today we discuss the new signing of Luka Modric from Dinamo Zagreb by Tottenham Hotspur.

Equalling their club record transfer fee set last summer when Darren Bent signed from Charlton, Tottenham have signed Croatian midfield play maker Luka Modric for a fee of £16.5 million on a six year deal that is subject to a work permit being granted.

Signed from Dinamo Zagreb Luka Modric was born in 1985, and at the ripe age of 23 Spurs certainly have the best six years of his career yet to come. For his former club he last year picked up a parallel award with the premier leagues ‘Player of the Year’.

More accustomed to a central midfield role Modric had been playing in a wide left position for his former club showing a versatility that is much needed at the Lane.

Internationally Modric has represented Croatia at under 17, 19 and 21 levels and now figures as an integral part of Slaven Bilic Croatian plans. Playing along side Arsenals Eduardo, Portsmouth’s Niko Kranjcar and Vedren Corluka of Manchester City, Modric is one of a crop of talented young playing emerging in the Croatian national team.

The national team qualified for the European Championships by topping their qualification group Croatia also played a helping hand in ending England’s Euro 2008 qualification, beating them twice including a 3-2 victory at Wembley in the final qualification game.

Due to appear in Group B alongside hosts Austria, tournament favourites Germany and Poland the international credentials of Modric will be put to the test, and the Euro finals could well prove a looking glass as to what to expect form him in the Premier League next season.

It is another sad day to be a spurs fan. As if our underachieving start to the season wasn’t good enough with only one league win in ten, last nights manor in which Martin Jol was axed as head coach and then left in charge for one final UEFA cup match was nothing short of embarrassing.

Now as an avid Spurs fan I am not saying that Jol should not have been sacked, but more the manor in which things have unfolded over the last couple of months that have concerned me. The ways in which the club have acted recently and the dignified way in which Jol has continually reacted, has meant that regardless of the lacklustre performances this season Jol can leave with his head held high and Tottenham Hotspur Football Club looking rather sheepish.

It was as far back as August that that the club were spotted meeting Seville coach Juande Ramos, and with the club touting his position in such ways his position at the club has always been in jeopardy. This can only serve to undermine his authority in the dressing room which has only been seen in public bust ups with several key players.

Whilst publicly backing Jol at the same time this grooming another of Europe’s most promising coaches, the club maintained that Jol would be given time. In my opinion the damage had already been done, and although the club had been caught with their pants down should then have made the replacement as Jol was a dead man walking from this point.

I must however question the ethics of a club I have loved for years, investing £40 million pounds in Jol’s team over the summer to be phased out in August. I personally think that although he was a fans favourite after steering the club to consecutive fifth place premier league finishes (a club first) Jol was due for the boot a long time before August. The Tottenham board clearly had an agenda to fill and the believed that Jol wasn’t the man to deliver which was reflected in some big money summer signings that Jol didn’t agree with Damien Comolli (Director of football) over.

I look back to matches against Seville and Chelsea away last season where the board could have seen tactical weaknesses in Jol’s managerial style begin to appear, but I am not disputing his floors, yes he had them, but it is the events which culminated in the news of Jol’s departure being leaked during an important European game that I am most upset about.

The fans reacted in the only way they could with a standing ovation for the man for the man who has the highest league win ratio of any previous manager over his three years at the club, delivered two fifth place finishes, and put Spurs back on the European map. What was clearly meant to be a match where Jol could go out in a blaze of glory in front of the home fans who adore him clearly backfired as we lost miserably 2-1 to Getafe.

In my view Jol’s departure was a result of the boards need for quick returns on the money spent this summer, and with a top four finish looking bleaker by the week they became ever more impatient. Jol should have been given time to turn the season around, but this was impossible due to the clubs own sabotage through the meeting of Ramos and his role at the club became untenable. As a result man whose record should have bought him more time to turn things around was axed.

I look forward to Blackburn with Clive Allen and Alex Inglethorpe at the helm, although it would not surprise me if Ramos was in place soon after.

The next Spurs trip is planned, and currently we have a bus of 14 travelling up to the lane to watch the home fixture vs. Blackburn on the 27th October. With the current goings on a Tottenham I am not looking forward the match as I have done in the past, and our start to the season does not fill me full of confidence in getting a result.

The last trip was to Derby at home, where two early Steed Malbranque goals set up a thrilling 4-0 win, the biggest win I had seen at the Lane. The trip acted as a pilot run, as we have a plan to make the trip to the Lane several times this season. As it turns out the minibus was easily booked and costs were kept low between the ten of us that travelled that day.

On the trip to watch Spurs vs. Derby we had planned to stay in a bed and breakfast in North London so there was no rush back and we could make a complete day of it. We used
Trusted Places to look up a suitable bed and breakfast in North London so that we didn’t have the hassle of finding one once we had arrived in the capital. Having only ever stayed with relatives, I was unfamiliar with places that a group of us would be able to stay but through Trusted Places this was soon rectified.

After the success of this trip we were eager to plan another, and after booking the tickets as soon as the club released them on general sale, we hear less than a week later that Mr Jol may not even be in charge for the fixture. Lately there have been a string of managers linked with his position at Tottenham, Ramos, Lippi and most recently Jose himself. As a Spurs fan I think the back door grooming of managers by the club that has been going on lately is unfair on Mr Jol.

People forget he has delivered two fifth place finishes in two seasons, unprecedented for Tottenham in the premier league. Now that we get somewhere near the right track we want to replace him from as early as the second game of the season. People forget the run of fixtures we opened with and the fact we started the season with £100 million of talent on the injury table.

All I can say is that I hope Martin Jol is in charge for our next trip, giving him a proper chance to turn the clubs season around. After all I love Martin Jol, Martin Jol loves me.

September comes and the football season is well and truly under way, with a variety of leagues from the Premiership, to local grassroots football competing on a Saturday afternoon for varying degrees of honours.

With the new season usually comes new kit, and for most a new pair of football boots is on the shopping list. This was true for my summer shopping list, but this year I was caught weighing up the pros and cons between the current blade and stud offerings. This has been an ongoing debate at the top of the game for some time. Do blades cause more injuries to players due to the way they grip the turf?

The argument is that a once a blade has gripped, it cannot swivel as freely as a stud whilst in the ground. This therefore could leave your foot embedded in the turf whilst your body countermeasures and impact from a tackle or fall. There is also the concern over the harm they can do to other players in tackles.

It is true that bladed boots have become less commonplace in the top leagues, and although not confirmed to cause more injuries than their stud counterpart, this surely is not a vote of confidence for the design.

With the most common football injuries affecting the lower extremities, including hamstring strains, sprained ankles, knee cartilage tear, hernia and cruciate ligament, the impact a boot could have in preventing such injuries cannot be over looked. I looked back at my own personal experience, and growing up playing football I had never obtained a serious injury until I adopted blades. In three seasons since I have pulled knee ligaments twice and sprained two ankles. A coincidence?

I don’t wish to make assumptions, and the in my opinion bladed boots are in fact more comfortable due to the increased surface area to distribute impact over. They also remain the dominant model manufactured by Adidas as well as many other leading brands.

Although companies like Nike tend to stick to studs, there is also criticism over the protection offered in such boots as the Total 90 model. The argument here is the increased flexibility of newer, lighter boots compromises its overall protection.

‘The metatarsal injury was unheard of years ago, now with modern lightweight football boots its responsible for 30% of long term injuries.’

Either way, the fact remains that there are over 240million registered players worldwide and both boots are readily available to kids and adults who play the game. The fact that some models are not used by certain professional leagues sends a range of mixed messages, and I for one would like some professional conclusions drawn up so people can make informed decisions on which boot to purchase.

It has seemed a long summer as an avid spurs fan, and as previous posts have detailed their has been an air of optimism quietly building as the squad has been added to prepare sufficiently for an assault on a top four finish this year.

This optimism was still lingering with our first trip away to Sunderland, and although we have never been our best on the road over the last two seasons, I still found my self believing this year we would be off to the flying start we have needed last year.

After seven wins out of as many games preseason I felt this optimism was justified, but was sorely brought down to earth with a bump after watching the first 45 minutes of the opening fixture of the season. Not an ideal advert for the most exciting league in the world I am afraid!

With the second half much the same, Sunderland added to the disappointment by nicking a late 94th minute winner when there was only 3 additional minutes to be played. *First gripe of the 2007-08 season*

Overall I am not that worried, I didn’t expect too much from this fixture and in fact bet on the draw, but home to Everton tomorrow is a different matter. I expect nothing other than three points from the fortress that is The Lane to put us in good stead for my own trip to The Lane this Saturday to watch our match up with another newly promoted side - Derby.

We will need the points over these next two outings with both Man UTD and Arsenal in our next three games, closely followed by both Liverpool and Newcastle who are also hoping to have promising seasons after a busy summer period.

It isn’t news to many that Tottenham have been fairly active in the transfer market throughout this year’s pre season. After the strain last season’s cup runs put on the squad, it was clear both strength and depth needed to be added in order to make an assault on the top four a realistic ambition during the 2007-08 season.

The major summer signing comes in the form of Darren Bent, signed from Charlton for 17million pounds. Overpriced in my opinion but his quality is undoubted, and should provide additional firepower to the already impressive attacking options of Keane, Berbatov and Defoe who combined netted more than 60 times last year!

With news of the sale of Mido for six million released today that should balance the inflated price tag paid for bent, and IMO is a player we won’t miss. He seemed an inadequate back up for last season’s arrival of Berbatov, and failed to impress me after his loan deal at the lane.

One area in where a need for improvement was emphasized during last season’s campaign was our left flank. The lack of naturally left sided players at times made the team look unbalanced, and should have been a priority signing for us before the 17 million pound signing of Bent. With the arrival of Bale for 10 million we have a natural left footer, who can play full back, or push up to the wing in times of need. Also arriving this summer is Adel Taarabt who can push out to a wide left position also.

One other consideration last term was the long term availably of King. Over the worst now *touches head* he should be back before long, but cover cost us points last year, and could have cost us even more had it not been for the performances of my player of the season Dawson.

Our signing of Younes Kaboul from Auxerre will provide more than adequate cover, and I’m sure the French U21 international will be looking to break into the first team before long.

These four signings have added the quality required for a top four assault, and with the potential signings of Kevin-Prince Boateng, German under 21 young player of the year, and Wright-Philips providing additional wide options, the face of the Spurs squad could change even more by the time August the 31st roles around.

So Exeter city have reached a final at Wembley. For a long time people from in and around Exeter have dreamt of hearing that, and although it is not the illustrious FA cup final, it is the Vauxhall conference playoff final with the prize to the winner being football league status.

The performance that put city through away at oxford last Tuesday seems to have got the city believing that this year is the year that city reinstate themselves. After over turning a 0-1 deficit in the first leg, city drew 2-2 over the two legs and went through on the resulting penalty shootout.

Now we have a situation where after consistent demand, over 30,000 tickets have been sold, with over 100 official coaches making the eight hour round trip to the capital. One thing is for sure, regardless of the result, Exeter have shown that they have the fan base to justify football league status.

Seeing as these are thoughts from The Shelf, it would seem inappropriate not to post about the actions of UEFA this week in kicking Feyenoord out of the UEFA cup for crowd violence. After numerous warnings, and already playing behind closed doors at home, more crowd trouble occurred resulting in the last 16 match up with Tottenham being thrust into turmoil.

After recently purchasing tickets for the home leg, I was understandably disappointed to find out that Feyenoord had in fact been kicked out of the competition. Now we are either left with a rematch against the unglamorous Wisla Krakov who finished FORTH in the UEFA cup qualifying group, or a bye to the next round.

It has been widely rumoured that the board want Wisla Krakov to be reinstated to make up for the loss in gate receipts, although as Spurs remain in all four competitions in January, the manager Martin Jol would understandably take the bye and a much needed free fixture.

We will just have to wait until Thursday 25th to see how UEFA decide to deal with Spurs, and consequently my dream tickets.