As summers go, this one has not been a bad one. We have had agonising but
all too familiar penalty defeats in international football. Roy Hodgson's
England side lost to Italy, but ultimately showed in the tournament that the
future may be brighter than once expected. The Great Britain side, managed by
Stuart Pearce, and inclusive of a number of Welsh players, who refused to Sing
the BRITISH national anthem (that is a story for another day), where also
knocked out of the Olympics on penalties losing to South Korea, after Aaron
Ramsey missed a penalty in normal time. Most of our other Olympians were much
more impressive than the Welsh Gooner; Stephen Caulker starred in the
tournament, and a record haul of golds and medals were brought back from a
number of different sports. A gold and a silver medal will be on their way to
the Lane, as Gio was vital in the Mexico Team that won the mens football gold,
beating Sandro's Brazil in the final. It has been enjoyable, we were all
gripped to the screen during the Olympics, but that fact that I have played
more golf in the last two months than I ever have in the rest of my life seems
to suggest that it has nothing on the domestic football season. And our wait is
finally over.
AVB is in, Redknapp is out, Vertongen and Gylfi Sigurdsson have signed on
the dotted line and initially there was great enthusiasm as to who was the next
player to join our White Hart Lane family. Adebayor, Moutinho, M'Villa,
Butland, Llorris, Dimiao. Two days before the season opener against Newcastle
we have not added to the squad. We still just about have Modric, but he will
certainly be a Real Madrid player by the time we play our first home game. I
would like to wish the little Croat good luck and all the best at the second
greatest club in the world (Obviously Spurs being the first), he has done very
well for us and although it is not a popular view he deserves his
"dream" move and should receive a warm welcome when he lines up
against us in the 2013/14 Champions League Final. It is a shame however that
the saga has dragged on this summer, as there is no doubt had the deal been
concluded earlier we could have signed some replacements already and be in a
better position than we currently are.
However, that is not to say that we are in a bad position, we have kept our
best players, Modric excluded. Bale has signed a new deal and VDV has committed
his future to the club. Sigurdsson has looked good in pre-season, and having
Caulker and Huddlestone back will be like having new signings. The one area we
are currently lacking is up front. We still have Defoe, and most would hope
that he would still be a Spurs player by the time the transfer window closes,
even if he might not be the natural player to lead the line in a 4-3-3
formation. In some quarters there has been much discontent about the lack of
transfer activity on the striker front. I don't believe there is a need to
panic just yet, Adebayor looks like it will happen sooner or later, and AVB has
said he wants three forwards, so there should be another on the way aswell.
Once Modric has left there seems to be a chance that Moutinho could be heading
to the Lane. I have no evidence of this and I would not put a bet of a
substantial amount of money on it, mainly because I don't have a substantial
amount of money but positive noises have been made by the player and the new
manager. All in all the squad looks good, and if we can pick up some wins
before the window closes we could be in a very good position by the time the
final pieces are added to the jigsaw.
So here we go, we may not have a full squad yet, we may want bury our heads
in the sand every time someone proclaims that they are ITK and that Messi is
going to buy out his Barca contract to sign for Spurs, we may be wondering if
the defensive is just too high, but we will be there for all the highs and the
lows, and Saturday afternoons will not be about golf anymore. Fasten your seat
belt, it is going to be a rolacoaster.
AVB's BLUE AND WHITE ARMY!!!!!!!!!!!!
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