It's the big one

Tomorrow sees us come up against our rivals, Arsenal, in their own backyard. Let's not beat around the bush with this one either; this is our biggest match to-date this season.

I don't think Robbie Keane has made the situation easier. Saying that we've got a better squad than them makes Wenger's job a whole lot simpler. Both sets of players are hyped up for this one as it is, pinning Keane's comments to the dressing room door could give them some extra impetus.

How do you think Harry will get the lads to play? It's a given that Crouch will partner Keano up top, so will Harry ask them to pump long balls up? Bentley will also start, which I personally think is great. Scoring that goal he did against them last season should be ringing around in his head and to be honest, I believe Bentley will make the difference tomorrow.

All that said, I still think we'll do well to come away with a point.

THBN Prediction: Arsenal 2-2 Spurs

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What Academy?

I read Mihir Bose's article on Harry's comments relating to the players Arsenal are bringing on.

Harry made a few interesting comments that I never knew were not in fruition at Spurs. For example, he said that Arsenal "have got full-time scouts all around the world and they have invested heavily". So does that mean we don't?

I'm not too sure of what to make of this? I would have thought that a club of our stature was surely employing a network of scouts from around the world? If we are to take Harry's word for it, then we do not.

Now, I find this interesting on two fronts. Firstly, because this means players are being offered to us either via sporting agents, or via word-of-mouth. Secondly, this must leave Harry with little time. He should have enough on his plate and with the added incentive of being a psychologist to Pavlova, his time must be extremely limited.

We all know how Harry works. He can be a bit of a craft so and so now and again, and it's fairly obvious that he plans to talk to Daniel Levy about us employing a network of scouts. Or, he's already spoken to Daniel, and our Chairman has said that he'll think about it; so out comes Harry with his media rendition, so as to hurry up the decision making process.

If Harry and Danny have had a chat about matters such as these, then surely we shouldn't be thinking about making these kinds of moves, but rather, doing them.

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White Kop Lane

What did you make of the Kop-style stand? To be honest, I was fairly annoyed with it at first, but it's definitely begun to grow on me.

I'm no architect, so I can't really comment on the acoustics that the new ground will create, but it looks as though KSS (the projects architects) and Levy are pretty adamant that the noise circulating around the stadium will be ferocious.

Taking a look at the above image, it looks as though they've stuck to their guns and made the stands incredibly close to the pitch, which, as we all know, new stadium designers aren't too fond of.

Does anyone have have the slightest inkling on how long it will take for planning permission of this magnitude to be given? I've heard rumours that it could be anywhere from 3-15 months, which really does narrow it down.

Whatever happens, it looks as though Daniel Levy & Joe Lewis are confident that the new Lane will be finalised by the 2015/2016 season. Let's hope they've counted their pennies, as stadia projects like this one don't come cheap.

Arsenal have never recovered from the £390 million investment in the Emirates stadium. The two clowns that run Liverpool thought about building a new stadium, but then realised the cost and pulled out.

I sort of have faith in Levy though. The guy has proved that he's a shrewd businessman and when the chips are down, he has the nack of turning things around.

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Sacked!

Just read that CSKA Moscow have sacked Juande Ramos!

He was only there for about 2 months or so.

Anyway, do you fancy leaving any messages for poor old Juande?

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Don't blame Lennon

Right then, where do I start? I was at the game and those following my tweets could see that bent frustration I and all those around me felt.

I thought the long walk back to the car after seeing us lose was bad enough; how mistaken I was. We had to endure Harry telling us that he was a bit miffed with Aaron Lennon because he came off without telling anyone.

Firstly, that's not true. I was in the Paxton end and could see very clearly that Lennon went down and then came off just a few metres from the dugout. Danny Murphy (our physio) quickly ran out to Lennon. Danny, explained to Harry that Aaron could not carry on.

Now that we've cleared that up, let's talk about the match. Firstly, when you're playing sides like Stoke, it's fairly obvious that you shouldn't be lobbing long balls up to your strikers. In my opinion, you shouldn't be doing that anyway, no matter what side you're facing, but against Stoke, it's a big no-no. Why? Because their centre-backs can lap balls like that up until the cows come home. We didn't do this a lot in the first half, but during the second half, it became plan A, B & C. Secondly, you don't play two defensive-midfielder's in Palacios and Huddlestone.

Stoke had set out their stool. They decided to go for it and so deployed a 4-4-2 formation. Harry may as well have played a 4-5-1. I'm not sure why, but Robbie, for large portions of the match, was coming so deep. Huddlestone did nothing, and I mean nothing. This game was crying out for Jenas, or another attack-minded midfielder to play alongside Palacios, yet we decided to not go all-out. Can someone explain why? I would ask Harry, but he just wants to rant about Lennon going off.

The truth is that we did have chances and quite of lot of them. It was just one of those days, but if Harry had opted for a more adventurous line-up, you may have been reading a different sort of article.

Fulham and West Ham did us a favour and we're still in the top four, but if we continue to deploy tactics like the one 36,000+ of us witnessed on Saturday, that top four will be a distant dream.

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Spurs vs. Stoke - Your Predictions

This will be an interesting one. Harry's been in our minds and hearts for a year now and what a year it's been! I remember his first game in charge. We beat Bolton 2-0 and he was out on the touchline, full of enthusiasm. It really was such a change from the lost looks Juande used to pull.

Not much has changed to be honest. The man worked miracles in his first season. Okay, so he continually told us that we only had 2 points from 8 games when he came in, but that's some achievement.

Stoke, unfortunately, are no Bolton. I wish I could see us getting a 2-0 result, but I have my reservations. Pulis will tell his team to go out and batter us. It's up to the lads wearing the Lilywhite to try and overcome the barrage of physical power that will be swung our way.

We may end up seeing this one finishing in a 0-0 or 1-1 draw.

THBN's Prediction 2-1

Follow us on Twitter. We'll be at the game and will tweet throughout it. Last Coke I had was terrible, find out if tomorrow's one is any better, by reading our tweets!

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First January Signing?

All and sundry are reporting that Harry is close to agreeing a deal to bring in Sandro Ranieri Guimarães Cordeiro, or just Sandro to you and me.

This story popped up just before the summer transfer window closed and guess what, the same guys that stated we were about to sign him then, have gone all out on yet another exclusive and told us that now we're near to agreeing a deal to bring this lad in during the January sales.

During the summer, it certainly looked like Harry was scouring the market for a defensive midfielder. Our very own East-Ender admitted that he wanted to bring in Vieira and the media added Muntari, Sandro, Cattermole, Sissoko and Gattuso to that list.

Now, I've only seen around 20 minutes of Sandro in action. He came on as a sub for Brazil when they played Chile last month. He didn't stand out, but then again, he was on for only 20 minutes, so that's not enough to judge him by.

I've got a feeling that the media are reading too much into this new association we have with his club, Internacional. Seeing that Harry was in for a defensive midfielder and the fact that he's their best player, the media could have conjured this out of their arse.

I'll be looking out for this lad when I get a chance to watch highlights of the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (now that's a mouthful).

If there's any truth in this deal, then we'll just have to trust Harry's judgement. We know that he's got a great eye for a deal and has introduced us to some superb footballing figures. It's also interesting to know that Harry is on the lookout for a defensive midfielder. Sgt. Wilson really can't do it all on his own.

To be honest though, if I was Harry, I would make a cheeky bid for Michael Carrick. He's had a bust-up with Sir Alex and it looks like Carrick could be made available. If the rumours of a £14 million bid for Sandro are true, I'd use that to entice Carrick back to us, after all, I feel that we've never properly replaced him.

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We want his kind at The Lane

The Sun reported that Harry's interested in signing Club Brugge defender Vadis Odjidja. The red-top's article wasn't too enlightening either. Apparently, we're lining up a £5 million bid for him.

The Sun got it wrong in saying that he's a defender. Odjidja is a defensive midfielder. Whenever I've seen him play, he's deployed just in front of the back four and he's fairly adequate at getting stuck into the oppositions face and break up play.

He's strong for his age (20), although his passing could improve and he's quick. From what I've seen of him, he needs to mentally toughen up a bit, but that'll come with time. The lad's built like the proverbial brick-house; the trick is to get him to act like one.

If there's any truth in this story and we do end up bringing Odjidja in, he could become a success. I say 'could', because he's not a great traveller. He moved to Hamburg last year and had a bit of a bad time adjusting to life in Germany. Martin Jol didn't play him either, which, didn't really help the lads confidence.

He's by no means the finished article, but I would value him at £5 million on the few occasions I've seen him play.

If we had the cash, I would go all out for Moussa Sissoko. I've had the pleasure of seeing him in action a lot this season and although his team, Toulouse, aren't playing that well, he's been in great form. If France beat Ireland in the World-Cup play-off, expect this lad to shine at the World Cup.

Last I read, Toulouse wanted £18 million for him. If he does as expected at the World Cup, his fee could rise considerably.

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If you score, celebrate

I can see us beating them 0-2 tomorrow, plain and simple.



Let's face it, with the mess that they were (still are) in, Paul Hart had no choice but to bring in Championship players. Championship players normally end up in the Championship.

O'Hara, who's been solid for them this season, won't be in the side, whilst King (who Patrick Barclay of the Times called the best centre-half in Britain) should be back.



Anyway, let's get back on topic. There's a big chance that one of there ex-players, i.e. Defoe, Crouch, Kranjcar, could score. With that in mind, can you see one of them celebrating?



I'm starting to get annoyed when players don't celebrate a goal, just because it was scored against their previous club.



I can understand that Pompey fans wouldn't be too happy with Defoe knocking in a couple and celebrating with Crouchie (or however you spell it), but what are we supposed to feel?



These players wear the Lilywhite of Spurs and when they score for our side, they should celebrate with us.



We're the ones that will have to get up early and travel down to Portsmouth. I would have said that we pay their wages, but Sky do that now (oh how football's changed). The decent thing would be to run over and celebrate with us.



Now I'm not saying that Crouch/Defoe/Kranjcar should go and do an 'Adebayor' (although that was great of him and I wish he does it again), but celebrate the goal with us.



Anyway, enough with the rant.



Portsmouth 0-2 Spurs

Defoe, Crouch & Harry to get booed.



Ickle Fickles

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Thanks, but no thanks

There was a time (last summer) when I would have welcomed Klaas-Jan Huntelaar to The Lane. Thankfully, those days are long now gone. It was only a few months ago when we were all talking up the lad and saying how good of a signing he would be for us. A.C. Milan fans were doing the same thing. You should hear them now.

Working in an international accounting firm means that we get to meet quite a few people from the continent. Today, I met an A.C. Milan fan who found the time to tell me all about his clubs' recent woes. Not all the blame was pointed at Huntelaar, but Milan just aren't themselves at the minute and the Dutch striker is getting an earful, because it's his job to stick the ball in the net but as yet, he's shown that he doesn't quite know where the goal is.

Today's warning from my Italian colleague was short and shrift; "Stay away from this player!"

The Eredivisie has a knack of producing players that simply cannot do it when they get taken away from the comfort of that league.

Mateja Kežman and Afonso Alves spring to mind. Kežman was quite prolific in the Dutch League, scoring 105 goals in 122 games for PSV. Alves to, was fruitful, notching up an astonishing 45 goals in 39 games for Heerenveen.

Unfortunately for Kežman, his luck in front of goal run out when Chelsea splashed the cash on him. The Serb scored a measly 4 goals from 25 games and hasn't hit the headlines since his move away from the Premier league. Alves also failed to live up to expectation, scoring just 10 goals for Boro in 42 games.

I wouldn't want to throw Huntelaar into the same basket as the above two mentioned players, but his record away from the comfort zone of the Eredivisie doesn't read well.

Since his big money move to Real Madrid in January 2009, he's scored 8 goals and that's including his spell in Milan.

If anything comes of this "swapping Pav for Huntelaar" story, I can see him starting life at The Lane just as Pavlyuchenko left it, on the bench. And yes, I really do think Pav will leave in the January sales and to be honest, I don't blame the lad.

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Harry's not to blame

I recently had a chat with Hank, a mate of mine that's a Portsmouth season-ticket holder. He's come along to The Lane a few times and you could say that he know's his football pretty well. The only downer is that he and a lot more Pompey fans blame Harry for their current plight. Now, call me stupid, but how is Harry to blame?

Last I saw, Harry took Portsmouth into Europe and transformed them into a respectable Premier League side. I'm not saying that all Portsmouth fans want to vomit at the sound of Harry Redknapp's name, far from it, but the few that I know, want nothing to do with the man that brought them the F.A. Cup.

It's at this point where the cliché of the common football fan being fickle comes to mind. The majority of us, whether it's Torquay or Tottenham fans, are fickle by nature and maybe it's the fickle ingredient within our game which adds to the spice. Nevertheless, some fans do go overboard.

Portsmouth, at the moment, are a debacle. As Spurs fans, we know a mess when we see one. We've suffered enough torment over the years to know a "mish mash" when we see one and make no mistake about it, Pompey are in one now.

Who's to blame? Surely their Chief Executive, Peter Storrie has to take some, if not the bulk of it on board? Then we have Sacha Gaydamak, a wealthy man that stems from a wealthier family. He though, lost interest in the club after seeing how much money it would take to make his club a force. Faced with a top capacity crowd of just over 20,000, a training ground that even cockroaches would have trouble with and spiralling wages, Gaydamak decided to shut up shop and ceased investing anymore of his cash into the club.

Up steps Sulaiman Al-Fahim, a self proclaimed Doctor (of Real Estate apparently). He was the guy that made us all laugh when he was involved in the City takeover. Talk of "we'll buy Ronaldo, Kaka and anyone we want" immediately set alarm bells off. After a brief love affair with Manchester City, he realised just how much he loved it in England and so bought Portsmouth. I say buy, but no money actually changed hands between Gaydamak and the Doctor. He simply took on the debt. Realising that he didn't have a pot to piss in, sold the club onto Ali Al-Faraj.

What was the one constant in all of this? Peter Storrie. He presided over the Gaydamak, Al-Fahim and is now set to embark on the Al-Faraj reign. We'll just have to see whether the new owner has any clout or not.

I think you get the picture though; Harry built up a team from nothing, yet fans bemoan his spending spree. When the likes of Diarra, Johnson, Defoe, Crouch and Distin were being ushered into the club, I didn't hear any "protect the clubs balance sheet" chants from the Pompey faithful. Instead, what we did hear, was Harry talking up his players and encouraging them to push on.

When a manager is given money to spend in an attempt to take his club on to higher levels, he will (unless he's Arsène Wenger). Harry asked his Chief Executive (Peter Storrie) to get him certain players. Storrie went out and got them. Peter Storrie was the one who brought the players in and escalated the wage bill into oblivion, not Harry.

All this talk about Harry needing ex-SAS bodyguards when he returns to Fratton Park is really beginning to wind me up. Peter Storrie should take a long hard look at his actions over the past few seasons and Portsmouth fans should also lay off Harry and take a long hard look at the real culprits.

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The Imaginarium of Doctor Palacios

Since Harry brought Sgt. Wilson to the club, nearly all of us have been singing his praises. I say 'nearly' as there are some that don't quite get why the rest of us think the world of Palacios.

Unfortunately, in recent weeks, I think we've seen the worst of our tough-tackling Honduran. There's no doubt that he's suffering from a lack of form. I don't think I'm the only one that's noticed a fair few of his passes going astray.

I don't want to write the lad off, after all, he's had a whirlwind year with all that's gone on both within football and in his private life.

I also think that the lack of another strong midfielder is cause for concern. Sgt. Wilson get's booked every other game. He should be up for a ban shortly if this trend continues and it's at times like this when one wishes that Harry had stepped into the Imaginarium and brought out another tough-tackling central midfielder. Palacios, no matter how good he is, can't do it all on his own.

If Harry is to go with The Modfather and Lennon on the flanks, then either Jenas or Huddlestone really do have to step up to the plate. But let's face it, Jenas runs as hot and cold as an Edmonton council flat's plumbing and Huddlestone, although a fantastic passer of the ball, will never have the commotion Palacios brings to the table.

We've all heard the Muntari tales, but much like the Brothers Grimm stories, I can't see that materialising into anything.

If there's money in the kitty, let's hope Harry can bring in a central midfielder that will provide the cherry on top of the Palacios Troupe.

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Set to steal Pompey

The Sun has said that Harry could be lining up a smart little mover for David James.

Let's just hope that a deal materialises this time round, although I do think Levy was right to not sanction a £2 million transfer fee for the 39 year old, even if he was the England keeper at the time, which, let's face it, isn't hard to be with the current crop of England keepers.

I know there are those out there that think Gomes is great and should be given more time, but I'll have to side with Harry on this occasion. James may also drop a clanger every now and then, but nowhere near the degree that Gomes has and probably will again, given the chance. I can see James definitely suring up our defence.

Speaking of our defence, word is that Woodgate is back in light training. The worry is that our medical staff still can't pinpoint the problem and so are giving him a concoction of injections. Should we be worrying? Hopefully King will be back to face Portsmouth at Fratton come Saturday. It feels like it's been ages since we last won a Premier League match and with Pompey on a mini revival, I can still see us picking up all the points.

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Points mean prizes

Assigning points to games is a trait shared by all football supporters. You know the scenario: sitting down with a pen and a list of your team’s forthcoming fixtures and coming up with a final points tally. If the accusation of unrealistic ambitions is a fair one, Spurs fans do this more than most.

Trying to be objective is not always easy (‘we’re due a draw at Old Trafford, so I’m putting a point for that one’) but a glance at Tottenham’s next few Premier League games does give cause for encouragement. A trip to Portsmouth is followed by home matches against Stoke City, Sunderland and Wigan Athletic, with the small matter of the north London derby coming in the middle.

Even if the point-counters set aside nothing for the Emirates – and I for one fancy another high-scoring draw – we should still be sitting pretty by the time we travel to Aston Villa and Everton, two teams with similar aspirations to our own.

This is obviously a recipe for getting your hopes shattered, as having your team in the top three at Christmas could well lead to some festive disappointment. But the question is, why not? We’re playing well enough and as long as we beat the teams we should do (see above) Spurs can continue to mix it with the Premiership title challengers.

Maybe the players have been doing the same thing, if the constant articulation of a top four finish is anything to go by. A lesson that should have been learned over the last two seasons: make the predictions when you are playing well, not before the season has even started.

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The story that just won't go away

Sulley Muntari's agent, Frank Schreier, said that both Inter and Spurs are in talks. I'll tell you what, this is one deal that I'd be over the moon at.

Harry has said a few times that we lack bite and he's not wrong. We saw what happened in the Manchester United, Chelsea and Bolton games. It's quite apparent that Sgt. Wilson can't do it all by himself. The lad needs someone in alongside him and Muntari would be an excellent choice. If there's anyone that can pack a punch and strengthen our core, it's this fella.

Can you imagine our midfield housing Modric and Lennon on the wings, with Muntari and Palacios holding it all together in the centre? If the occasion called for it, Modric could play in alongside Sgt. Wilson or Muntari, with Kranjčar coming in on the left.

I think any deal involving Muntari leaving Inter could hit a snag. It's not because we don't have the funds to do it, it's just that Inter are set to lose Vieira to Arsenal or Lyon come January. This will leave them short of options in the "defensive midfielder" bracket. If "The Special One" sanctions the deal and we bring in a couple more players, I can see us really pushing on towards the back end of the season.

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