Wolves boss Mick McCarthy is pleased that Spurs manager Harry Redknapp believes his side is too good to be relegated.”I’m delighted he feels that we’re not going down and I agree with him,” said McCarthy.”Quite a few managers have said we’re too good to go down – we’ve got to prove it.””Harry’s up front and honest and he’d have said that with one hand and hoping he’ll slap us with the other.” The former Ireland boss admires Tottenham’s brand of football and sees no reason why they cannot go all the way in the Champions League. “They’ve done very well so far. I think they have big-match players that whatever big game is thrown at them they can handle that,” he said.”If they get through that, then why not? Who’s to say who will win it?”For some reason Wanderers have done better against the top sides than fellow strugglers. “Maybe it’s to do with us being the underdogs, but there are all sorts of theories,” McCarthy said. “But I don’t think anyone treats us lightly, not after the results we’ve had.”Teams are all bunching up at the bottom and the subject turned McCarthy to song. “It’s like the old song about 10-in-a-bed – the little one said roll over, that’s what it’s like at the minute,” he said. “Nothing’s sorted, nothing’s settled, everyone is scrapping away and that’s the way it’s going to be until May 22.””If Albion, Blackpool and all the others win their next two games, it doesn’t matter, we could still do it.””It might take 40 points to survive, but it’s not about when you get them – as long as you’ve got more than three other teams before the end of the season, that will fine.” Ronald Zubar will not face Spurs due to a back problem and is likely to be replaced by Kevin Foley. Stephen Hunt is out with a calf injury and Wolves have doubts with Steven Mouyokolo, who rocked his knee in training, and midfielders Dave Jones and Dave Edwards who are both doubtful with leg injuries. Jamie O’Hara, on loan from Spurs, is ineligible.
What a night it was for Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League last night. They went to the San Siro and not only beat AC Milan, but also kept a clean sheet and go into the second leg at White Hart Lane next month in a great position.
As well as winning, Spurs win clearly got under the skin of their opponents, none more so than Gennaro Gattuso. Rino Gattuso was involved in an amazing scuffle with Tottenham coach Joe Jordan, as the Italian went head-to-head with Harry Redknapp’s assistant.
Afterwards Gattuso said that “I lost control, there is no excuse for what I did. I take my responsibilities for that.” Redknapp made light of the situation saying that “There would be only one winner there – Joe. I’d have my money on Joe. Of all the people to pick on, don’t pick on Joe.” I’d have to agree with Harry…
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Former Inter Milan boss Leonardo has been unveiled as Paris Saint-Germain’s new general manager.The Brazilian had been linked with the post since leaving Serie A club Inter earlier this month, and has finally reached an agreement with the PSG board.
Leonardo’s arrival comes as president Robin Leproux departs the club, having been removed from his position to allow the new general manager full control over PSG’s transfer policy.
The 41-year-old spent one season in the French capital as a player, and said he was excited to return.
“I’m really happy to be there. I have strong memories in Paris,” Leonardo said.
“I always thought I could come back but I did not know this would be like that.”
“It was not easy for me to leave Italy. In Paris, there is much to know and to do. This club is 41 years old, a tradition. It’s a big club coming out of a good season.”
Leonardo spent just six months in charge of Inter after the dismissal of Rafa Benitez in December, but helped the club win the Coppa Italia last season.
State-run Qatar Sports Investments bought a 70 per cent stake in PSG last month and have resolved to return the club to the upper echelons of European football.
But Leonardo said the club would not rush into success by spending big in the transfer market.
“The owners want to work in the long term,” he said.
“We do not want to buy 10 Messis, that’s not how you build a team. You need a base. It exists and must be improved.”
“We want to play in the Champions League and be good in France. I think the first thing is to talk with the coach (Antoine Kombouare) and see who will stay or leave.”
“The transfer window ends on August 31. It is not a project to win the first game but in the long term. I have to study and, slowly, build a project. “
PSG begin their Ligue 1 campaign at home against Lorient on August 6.
Fulham have beaten Sunderland at Craven Cottage on Sunday, with a 2-1 victory lifting the London club up to eighth place.
Clint Dempsey opened the scoring with an exquisite free-kick, before Phil Bardsley equalised for the visitors. However Moussa Dembele restored the hosts’ lead less than a minute later, claiming victory for the Cottagers.
Martin Jol hailed his side’s performance and feels it has been a good season for the club.
“It was a great season, fantastic season and we ended on a very high note,” Jol told Sky Sports.
“I think that’s quite an achievement especially as we’ve played in Europe. It would be a great achievement from this club to be in this position after a hell of a job in Europe.
“Today was 54 or 55 games so I think it’s great.
“We’ve got terrific youngsters, good experienced players so the only thing now is to keep all these players together,” he concluded.
Fulham have leapfrogged Liverpool into eighth place with the win, and take on Tottenham at White Hart Lane in the final game of the campaign.
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Tottenham Hotspur boss Harry Redknapp has confirmed his ongoing interest in Joe Cole.
The England midfielder is available on a free transfer after leaving Chelsea at the end of last season.
Cole stressed throughout the World Cup finals that he was focusing on England and not his club future.
Redknapp is keen to ensure that future is at White Hart Lane despite reported competition from Arsenal and former club West Ham United.
"We're interested in Joe," Redknapp confirmed to talkSPORT."I know (chairman) Daniel (Levy) was talking to his people and we're interested.
"If the chairman can pull a deal off I'd love to have him at Tottenham.
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"But it all comes down to if we can do a deal. I don't get involved in the financial side, the chairman can do that with Joe's people.
"Hopefully there is a deal that can be done because we would love him at White Hart Lane."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Only a couple of years ago, this sort of fixture would the acid test for Liverpool’s title and Champions League qualification aspirations.
In the current environment, with inconsistency besetting the campaigns of the country’s biggest clubs, this clash has become a gauge as to whether Tottenham, not Liverpool, have what it takes to break the established order at the top of the league.
Coming off a resounding win against Werder Bremen in another impressive White Hart Lane European performance, Spurs must avoid the sloppy display they put in against Bolton after their last night of Champions League exertions if they are to topple a Liverpool side that should welcome back Joe Cole to it’s starting XI.
Even without Steven Gerrard Liverpool will possess some level of threat, and as we saw against Chelsea- Roy Hodgson’s men are always keen for the fight when the big boys are knocking around.
New Newcastle signing Papiss Cisse had a dream debut against Aston Villa on Sunday, popping up with the winning goal in a 2-1 victory for the Tyneside club.
Alan Pardew’s men were boosted by the return of Cisse and countryman Demba Ba from the African Cup of Nations, with the latter opening the scoring for the hosts in the first half, taking his Premier League goal count to 16 for the season.
Robbie Keane equalised in first half injury time to square things up at the break, before debutant Cisse stole the show and guaranteed three points for the Sports Direct Arena outfit.
Pardew is happy to keep the good run of form up, and knows that his Senegalese strike partnership will cause defences problems for the remainder of the season.
“It was a good win because Villa came here and looked lively. They looked lively first half,” he admitted to Sky Sports.
“Although they scored just before half-time, they deserved to be level. They deserved to be in the lead at half-time. We accepted that and second half we knew we had to be better and more controlled, and we were. We limited their breakaways on us and we got a bit of pressure building.
“Of course we got a dream goal for us, because he’s a new signing and he wanted to do well. It was a fantastic goal.
“We mustn’t get carried from the team ethic we have got here because the guys did brilliantly to get a result at Blackburn in the week and again we have put in a display here that has been strong.
“(James) Perch in midfield was brilliant. We had no Cheick (Tiote) today, no (Yohan) Cabaye, but we keep winning. That’s a great thing.
“Having said that, you still need great players because they change games. Papiss did that today and Demba has done it for us before. It was a real bonus that he got a goal on his debut.
“They are a dangerous pair. We have got dangerous strikers all over the place here because Shola (Ameobi) and Besty have done well, (Peter) Lovenkrands is there as well and (Hatem) Ben Arfa, so we have got firepower. We just need to tighten up a little bit more,” he concluded.
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The Geordies are in fifth place, and in battle for a top four finish as they are only a point behind Chelsea in fourth.
Bayern Munich are looking to hijack any forthcoming advances from Chelsea or Manchester City for highly rated Ajax defender Gregory van der Wiel, according to Talksport.
The Dutchman is a product of Ajax’s esteemed academy and at 23 years old he is a player who would suit a number of top European clubs. Talksport has claimed Bayern have put the wheels in motion to launch a bid for Van der Wiel, who has been in Chelsea and Bayern’s sights since last summer’s World Cup.
Van der Wiel’s agent Hakim Slimani responded to the interest shown by Chelseain his player earlier this month on the website sport.co.uk when he was quoted as saying, “If (Jose) Bosingwa leaves Chelsea there will be an opening for Gregory, but it depends what happens with a number of players.
However Talksport’s latest speculation implies Bayern are looking to pip the West Londonersto any potential bid for the Dutch International. The highly rated youngster is rumoured to have a valuation of £15 million, which is unlikely to discourage the European heavy weights vying for his signature.
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You perhaps knew that Tottenham Hotspur were in for something of a tough day as soon as the starting line-ups were filed, before their 4-2 defeat at the hands of Chelsea last Saturday.
The subsequent losses of both Gareth Bale and Mousa Dembele left Andre Villas-Boas’ side looking somewhat anemic on paper, and so it proved in practice, too, as the Lilywhites came unstuck at the hands of Roberto Di Matteo’s classy Blues side.
But although there was a rightful sense of overwhelming of disappointment come the final whistle, there shouldn’t be any need for overwhelmingly drastic post mortems. Spurs suffered a tough day under even tougher circumstances but fans shouldn’t start basing a catalogue of gloomy seasonal predictions off the back of the Chelsea result. It’s time to harness a little perspective at White Hart Lane.
So often it feels that those who frequent White Hart Lane, inhibit an almost perpetual inability to do things by halves. When a defeat occurs, it has to be deconstructed, picked apart and used to forecast a whole series of potential long-term issues ahead. A league loss to the outstanding team of the Premier League so far has produced some pretty startling forecasts from a small section of supporters. Take your pick from AVB’s inability to set a team up to a perceived need to invest £50million in players come January.
The truth is that, of course, both the team and the manager made mistakes during the weekend. Spurs again appeared to sit back after taking the initiative; despite his limitations against the Chelsea midfield, taking off Tom Huddlestone for Jake Livermore proved to be a poor substitution and none of the Tottenham back four came out the game with much to shout about. Especially not William Gallas, with the Frenchman suffering his second roasting against his former employers of the calendar year and perhaps his most chastising in recent times.
Yet, you don’t even need to prefer your glasses half full, to gauge a sense of perspective about Saturday’s events. Spurs’ loss of Gareth Bale would be somewhat akin to Chelsea losing their most potent attacking outlet and had Juan Mata not been playing, you can play devil’s advocate as to how well they would have done. Throw in the very glue that bonds Villas-Boas’ 4-2-3-1 together in Moussa Dembele, and you’re already facing something of an uphill battle.
But while the aforementioned pair rightly have taken prominence in Spurs’ list of absentees, let’s not forget the others that have been missing in action. Throw in Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Younes Kaboul and forgotten man Scott Parker, and you can forgive Villas-Boas for being a little proud with how his team coped on the weekend. That’s your first choice left winger, central midfielder, left back, centre half and current club player of the year, all out on the sidelines.
And still, Spurs can count themselves more than a smidgen unlucky to come away from the game without taking anything. The Lilywhite’s amassed 23 shots against Chelsea, even with the loss of their two creative lynchpins in Bale and Dembele and although you can attribute every goal conceded to a mistake somewhere along the line, both Gallas and Kyle Walker picked an unfortunate day to produce a couple of real howlers at the back.
While there has been a degree of reactive disdain towards the Frenchman, despite performing nowhere near as bad as what some have discredited him with in recent weeks, you couldn’t escape the feeling that his performance against the Blues was a watershed one for all the wrong reasons.
For Kyle Walker, his goal-producing cock-up in injury time had been coming for a number of weeks now and this time, he didn’t get away with it. The stick he’s received from some has gone well over the line but there’s no getting away from the fact he needs to raise his game considerably in the coming weeks. Hopefully with help from both fans and management, we’ll slowly see him coaxed back into form.
And although impatience may be growing in some quarters, the truth is that this team are still finding it’s feet under a new system, especially at home. Spurs have steadily grown in confidence, but they remain a cautious prospect when playing at White Hart Lane and after another improvement in their last home tie against Aston Villa, a visit from the league leaders was never going to represent a tie to incrementally improve their performance. Villas-Boas is getting there, but there’s no magic wand to get their home form going. It takes time.
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Furthermore, the context of the loss certainly does nothing to keep expectations well within balance, either. The home support were loathsome to endure chants of ‘Champions of Europe, we know what we are,’ but the fact remains that their London rivals are a better side, however much that may hurt fans to utter. The next time Tottenham come up against an attacking unit as talented, mobile and devastating as Chelsea’s, might not be till they go to Stamford Bridge in the April of next year.
If losing to a team that could well end up Premier League champions- while their own starting XI were depleted by injury- constitutes a terminal issue for Spurs’ season, then there isn’t much hope for the rest of the league, is there? Let’s not forget, on the same day Spurs were sunk by Mata’s magic, there was another team in North London that put in an abject performance in a 1-0 defeat away to Norwich City.
The nature of the defeat on Saturday and the opponents who inflicted it upon Tottenham, have made the wounds of the weekend’s proceedings a little bit sorer than usual. But fans can’t let the pain of a one-off game catalyze an outrageously gloomy forecast. A win against Southampton on Sunday can see Villas-Boas’ side hop into fourth and regain momentum in the push for Champions League football. For a side that is very much one still in transition, that’s not too bad at all.
Are you reading much into Spurs’ defeat at the hands of Chelsea during the weekend? Let me know what you think on Twitter: follow @samuel_antrobus and bat me your views on all things Tottenham.
When the first international break of the season comes around it gives a club time to reflect on a their start to the domestic campaign and assess how their new faces have settled in to their new environment. For the Gunners they can look back on the first two weeks of the new term with a broad smile on their face. Three games in, no goals conceded and five points from a possible nine on the board. Not bad after a summer that saw Arsene Wenger wave goodbye to his two most influential players. A 2-0 victory at Anfield last Sunday certainly laid bare a slight modification in philosophy at the Emirates Stadium with many attributing the North Londoners’ promising start to the influence of Steve Bould following his promotion to assistant manager in place of recently retired Pat Rice. It may only be early doors but Bould’s influence has already shone through with the Gunners back four visibly brimming with confidence, structure and discipline Wengers’ new number two is rightly taking the plaudits for that. With an attack bristling with new blood, fresh energy and bags of creativity there is a sense that the club, having removed any remnants of past glories, are now ready to move forward and finally end its seven year trophy drought.
This week on FFC is Abou Diaby the man to the hole left by Alex Song in midfield and why is Bacary Sagna criticising the Gunners current transfer policy?
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Best of FFC
Will new rulings see many look to Arsenal as the ideal blueprint
What state do Arsenal currently find themselves in…
What is going on with Cesc Fabregas?
Are we looking too much into his influence at the Emirates?
This Diaby fever can last all season…
A genuine upgrade at Arsenal?
What does Wenger do with this embarrasment of riches?
Arsenal star hails Bould’s influence at the Emirates
Kouyate confirms Arsenal transfer talks
Arsenal hopeful of securing a new deal
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Best of WEB
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When Does A Stadium Become Home? – A Cultured Left Foot
Could he be on his way back to Arsenal? – Gunnersphere
The Other Man That Makes Arsenal Money – Online Gooner
Can he really be Arsenal’s new Song? – Gunnersphere
Don’t tell me that you think it’s green … – Arseblog
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Peter Hill-Wood defends Arsene and Arsenal – shock / horror | Steve Bould fan club grows and grows… – Le Grove
So we didn’t play that well then, the opposition were just poor! What Rubbish! – Highbury House
Jack Wilshere Will Surely Be Key To Arsenal’s Season – Transfer Tavern
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Quote of the Week
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“I expected the departure of Robin van Persie. We all expected it. It was ‘obvious’. But the Alex one, it was a surprise! He is 24 years old, he has three years remaining on his contract. I still do not understand. It is huge loss for the club. When you see the two best players of last season leave, you have a lot of questions. Sometimes in the street the fans talk to me. I can understand they are upset. I am just like them, I don’t understand everything. At Arsenal you come back after holidays, you make preparations, and you see two players leave and the season resumes – it has been like that since I have been at the club. I am used to it now” Bacary Sagna criticises Arsenal summer transfer policy