SimplySpurfect

There's not a chance of Daniel Levy doing business with City after the way they messed him about in the summer over the potential signings of Bellamy and Richards. The only English team that -may- have a shot at signing him would be Chelsea. But I reckon he'll end up at Barcelona or Real Madrid at the end of the 2011-2012 season.

gareth bale is to good for spurs, fair play to the lad used to be a pile of wank but is now looking the business.

How so?

He's a young, brilliant player playing at a Champion's League team. Given the rate he's improved since being at Spurs, he's still likely to be at White Hart Lane for another season while he continues to fulfill his potential before eventually moving on to one of the giants of world football.

It was offside mate simple as that I don't begrudge Spurs the goal because I am sure we have had our share of dodgy goals, but come on mate I know you are a Spud but why defend everything?

I believe Andy Gray said Gallas said he touched it tonight before the game not sure if true or not.

I don't defend everything. If I believed the goal was genuinely illegal, I'd say as much. Makes no difference at all what my opinion of it is, if it's given then it's a goal. It's not as if the goal would be ruled out if I don't defend it blindly. The point is though, as has been mentioned numerous times now, is that the goal was legitimate in keeping with the stupid rules that are currently in place.

As a rather clever poster wrote earlier in the thread, the goal should stand, the rules should go.

And nobody finds it odd that Richard Keys makes that claim but there aren't any quotes whatsoever from Gallas in any of the vast amounts of media outlets? Did Gallas give Keys a private interview where Gallas incriminated himself? In which case, shouldn't the Premier League give the goal to Gallas and not Huddlestone? Hm.

Gallas says he touched it.

Also the rules says gaining an advantage, interefering with the play also. He was.

Schwarzer wasn't at full stretch, you could see him stop a little in his dive as he's unsure about Gallas.

Where did he say that? I've not seen or read anything from Gallas about that.

And again, Schwarzer dived for the ball as soon as he saw it. The late dive was down purely to the six or seven pairs of legs blocking his view, so he saw the ball very late. That would've been a goal completely regardless of Gallas being there, simply because Schwarzer had no view of the shot.

Yep, definitely. So spurs have earned 6 points so far by mistakes by the refs. Stoke, us and Fulham. The ball was in, no corner, offside. I only have one word: London.

Yep. Completely overlook the handball that led to Fulham's goal. As well the foul on Gomes that led to the did/didn't cross the line shot for Stoke, or even the foul on Gomes for Stoke's first goal.

And the corner against Villa, whilst a poor decision, wasn't a game changing point. There are plenty of decisions incorrectly given every weekend, just because one minor incorrect decision indirectly leads to a goal doesn't mean you can just blame the ref.

And again, the goal against Fulham wasn't a mistake by the ref. It was in fact a very good decision, in keeping with the rules of the game.

But you can ignore that too to fuel your London bias, I guess.

So Spurs have picked up 4 points in the past 2 games due to shite officiating? Can't football be wondeful at times?

I take it you were perfectly happy with the blatant handball by Dempsey that led to Fulham's goal, then? As well as Dempsey's constant dirty tactics which he managed to avoid being booked for until the latter part of the game?

The only reason why Schwarzer was slow with the dive was because there was a cluster of players between him and the ball, meaning he had no idea where it was coming. As soon as the ball was in his eyeline, he dived for the ball. The run from Gallas did nothing to alter his action.

And, as some have been saying, in accordance to the rules of the game, it's a perfectly legitimate goal. The rule might be a load of crap to some, as I personally think it is, but you can't blame the ref for adhering to it or Spurs for benefitting from it.

Van der Vaart is amazing. A cut above everybody else at the club at the moment. I'm dreading the inevitable injury is going to pick up in the next few weeks though.

It was a good game, thought the scoreline was a pretty fair reflection of the match, to be honest. Although Spurs were fortunate enough to win the corner that led to the first goal, as I'm not really sure where the deflection was supposed to have come from.

I'd say 1-1 was a fair reflection of the first half, to be fair.

Can see another two or three goals in the second half though. All to play for both teams, and definitely a more enjoyable game than the last game between both sides at White Hart Lane.

You reckon Villa will be going out for the win tomorrow or will they set up for a point away from home?

Joey, given the strikers' poor showing lately, do you think Harry Kane deserves a place on the bench? He's still very young, but he's the only striker at the club who's scoring goals regularly in the games that he's playing.

Well, Redknapp said he plans to rotate more after CL games, so I reckon we'll see a few changes. I'm expecting something like

Gomes

Corluka King Bassong Assou Ekotto

Lennon Van der Vaart Jenas Modric

Crouch Keane

I expect King to start, since he'll be getting a two week break after tomorrow. Van der Vaart only played 60 minutes on Wednesday so he should start. Bale absolutely needs a rest, IMO. I'd have gone for Kranjcar in his place, but he seems to still be having fitness issues. If he's improved enough, he should start, otherwise Modric can go left.

Van der Vaart and Jenas should be sufficient in the centre as I don't really anticipate it being a tough tackling contest in the middle.

Despite scoring a few goals in the past couple of weeks, Pavlyuchenko isn't really getting up to much in the rest of the game, so Keane should be given a start.

One thing is for sure, I'm very very worried about the prospect of Young vs Corluka tomorrow. In recent meetings, Corluka has dealt with Young extremely well, but with the poor form he's been in so far this season, that may very well be the battle that decides the game, to be honest.

Can't wait to see Warnock fall flat on his arse against Lennon.

Why can't you wait for that to happen!?

Oh and he might not play, apparently he's in a really poor form at the moment.

Lennon or Warnock?

I know Lennon hasn't quite hit the heights of twelve months ago. It seems to be a mix of not quite being 100% over his injury (he was out for about 7 months, afterall) and a lack of confidence. He seems quite reluctant to attack his full back this season, for some reason.

Although to be fair to him, he has still assisted or been heavily involved in three or four Spurs goals this season.

It's politics. London transport authorities are apparently giving Spurs a hard time over their proposed new stadium.

It is also a good way to humiliate West Ham, who would make a mockery of the place.

Hit the nail on the head there, I think.

Not even the transport authorities, Haringey council have been making it very difficult for the club to get their plans approved. It's been how long since the club submitted their first proposal for consideration, only for Levy to have to re-draft it multiple times to comply with Haringey's changing demands.

I think this is Levy's way of telling Haringey that Spurs have other viable options. So Haringey have to either support Spurs and their multi million pound investment into the community, or risk losing the big money maker from their district altogether.

But if it's a case of either him buying a junior ticket or not buying a ticket at all, then surely the club gains more from the junior ticket.

As AVFC-POB says, it's not like he's denying a ticket to someone else who is prepared and able to pay for an adult ticket.

Well, although Villa tickets are pretty cheap, I still can't afford prices like £30 for Bolton at home....

I always knock a tenner off, order the Under 16 tickets online, get them sent through at my house. People on the turn stiles never check, my Dad's 55 and has been with an under 16 ticket

I know it's cheating the club but at the end of the day, It's not as if we are selling out so £20 to the club is better than £0 at all.

So yeah.....buy the cheaper tickets, no one will ever know.

That is brilliant!

Sadly, with our new stadium access cards, which have all of our account details including age, I'm not even able to purchase a single junior ticket online now.

Seriously, some of you have a GlastonSpur obsession. You berate him every time he posts but whenever he's not around, you talk about his next arrival with the anticipation of a kid waiting for Christmas.

It's time to move on from this addiction. I suggest switching to booze and hookers.

Category C at nearly £40? Jesus Christ, that's a disgrace. I really feel sorry for your fans if you do get a new stadium, because ticket prices will increase even more.

Yeah, I'm well aware of that, unfortunately. With the cost of a new stadium and rate of inflation, I would not be surprised at all if the absolute cheapest seats are £55+ by the time the new stadium is in use.

My God. What a joke.

By the way do you have people on turnstiles or electronic?

Both. Up until the start of this season there were just people on the turnstiles, tearing tickets. Now they've introduced member access cards, which you absolutely have to have in order to get the barcode scanned and get let in.

Only problem is, they don't work properly. During the Young Boys match, people were arriving to their seats 25 minutes after kick-off because the barcode scanners weren't reading cards properly and the staff weren't letting people in, making them go to the ticket office to print off a back up ticket.

Obviously, the price also varies depending on where you sit. But when I went to Wigan (Cat C) a few weeks ago, one seat cost £39.20. Young Boys cost me £49, and that was for a top tier, near the corner flag seat.

The £60+ ones I think are the ones that season ticket holders have first option on, ie the ones near the half way line.

And Spurs have already lost to Wigan and West Ham. Villa could turn up with a team from the 70s and still have a decent shot at a 0-1 win.

Agree with Trent - Redknapp isn't someone I regard in high esteem, but he's a bloody good football manager. Deserves a shot at the England job if it's possible at some point.

Hopefully Spurs will pick up an injury or two tonight. Seems they're pretty deflated at the back at the minute, anyway. Though, is King likely to be fit for the weekend?

If he plays tonight, he'll almost definitely not play at the weekend. Unless times really do get desperate and Redknapp has no choice.

Regardless of the CL fixtures always being midweek... midweek fixtures are always a pain, no matter what.

You'd still think though that an arguably rather historic and important game, that all aside, wouldn't need to go to general sale.

It doesn't matter how historic the game is if people just can't afford it though. The tickets that were going on general sale were mostly individual seats that were costing between £60-70 because it's deemed a Category A fixture. That's a hell of a lot of money to pay for one ticket, regardless of the importance of the match.

I won't be going to the match, although mainly for travel reasons. I went down to the Young Boys home match a few weeks ago, having to leave at 4:30pm (I live in Brierley Hill, not too far from most of you, I'd imagine) on the train (which cost £45) and I didn't get home until nearly 3am on Thursday morning. As much as I do love football, it's just too much time and money to do that too often.

Especially for a game that's being shown on TV.

And while most Spurs fans won't be having to travel as far as me, it's still a huge expense during a time where luxury spending has had to be cut by most people. I'm sure three or four years ago, the match would've sold out quickly, but now a lot of people are having to save up their money for specific games, with most people eyeing up the Inter home leg, I'm sure.

Yeah I'd agree with that team as Palacios and Bassong are decent prem players but neither are champions league standard imo.

One problem with that is I've seen nothing in Defoe's career that suggests he's suddenly going to morph into an effective Drogba type leader of the line, always works much better in a two upfront.

He'll never be a Drogba type player, but that doesn't mean he can't work up front on his own. He does have good off the ball movement when he's not forced to hang on the defender's shoulder, looking for Crouch's flick on's. And he's deceptively strong for someone of his stature.

I can see him working as sort of a poor man's Eto'o, as long as he gets support from Van der Vaart and Bale. He's certainly the only striker Spurs have who can consistently put the ball in the goal.

Also, I don't think Pavlyuchenko can play the lone role at all. He's played there a couple times already this season and has been dire. It amazes me how often he falls over when the ball is played to him. He also has no pace or strength. He's a very good goal scorer, granted, but he's probably the least suitable candidate Spurs have for the lone striker role.

Dawson, Gomes and Defoe are big misses. I do find it strange that you're bemoaning Woodgate, King and Gallas being injured.

Woodgate's on the verge of retiring, King obviously can't play every 3 days and Gallas was very injury prone at Arsenal so not sure why you're surprised they're all injured.

I'm not surprised that they're injured. Well, except Gallas, as I can't really say I followed his career too closely at Arsenal, so I have no idea of his previous injury record.

But they are still Spurs players and they are still all injured, so they get put on the list of injured players. It's not so much a big deal missing Woodgate out, but including him in the injury list is the only time I get to type his name anymore.

Ah, Dean Richards. I remember when signing him was a massive coup for the club. Those were some dark days indeed. IIRC, he was signed for £8.1m from Southampton. We can thank Glenn Hoddle for that one.

Apparently (ie I just found a website saying it) Kaboul was originally signed from Auxerre for £8.2m and Hutton was signed for £9m, making him the most expensive defender.

And yeah, Corluka has played centre back in the past. He played there on Saturday. But I don't think he's ever played well at centre back. Incidentally, he is a rock at centre back on the previous two Football Manager games. Which shows they don't get everything right.

What's with this Redknapp love in?

I think he's a word removed.

You don't have to like someone to appreciate the work they've done. I'm not exactly a fan of Ferguson or Wenger's character but that doesn't stop me having massive respect for what they've achieved in their careers.