Sandro; Take a Bow Son

So that's why we signed him? I had always thought our young Brazilian was a diamond in the rough. Tonight's performance shined him up brilliantly! Watch your back Huddlestone, it looks like we've got a player that can fit in nicely alongside The Modfather.

Slowly but surely, Sandro has come of age, worn the lilywhite shirt with pride and put in a performance that I will long remember.

Tottenham Hotspur in the last eight of the Champions League. Who would have thought it, let alone predicted it when the score against Young Boys read 3-0?

The stat of never being beaten at the legendary White Hart Lane in any European Cup/Champions League clash remains strong.

Are you watching Arsenal? Probably.

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What Went Wrong?

Mickey Mouse Competition? Course not. How does today's office verbal battering feel? Not enough room on this blog to vent my arsenal of expletives.

Anyway, enough of that. Let's get to the crux of the situation. What on earth went so wrong? Well I am sure a lot of you can give a decent point of view. I haven't seen the game on the box yet, but from the Paxton End, it looked all to obvious to a lot of us that playing three defensive midfielders was just wrong. You know, like the first time you were dared to moonie. You knew you could do it, but also understood just how wrong and foolish it could turn out for you.

And what was with us playing Dos Santos and Bentley out of position? Our biggest problem was that Arsène Wenger had told his defence to not defend deep. Why should they? Was the threat going to come from Palacios, Sandro or Livermore? Not in this lifetime.

We looked disjointed and disorientated. And don't get me started on why Hutton didn't start. He only won us the match on Saturday!

Even though I've vented my frustration, yesterday's match felt weird. I wanted us to beat Arsenal, of course I did; they're our biggest rival, but losing didn't mean the be all and end all of it. Maybe you had to be there to really understand what I mean.

Are there any positives to take from the match? Well, the lad Sandro did well. He's shown us why Daniel Levy flew out to Brazil twice and basically went all out to get him, although I remember us doing the same thing for Stephen Iversen; remember him?

Our young Brazilian prodigy has got an abundance of energy and is a tough young man. Maybe we'll see him earn his place in a few of our squads before the year is out? At this moment in time, if I had to give a starting position to either Wilson Palacios or Sandro, I know who I'd select.

Anyway, back to the "Have you ordered the DVD yet" taunts.

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New Signing Arrives at Spurs

Young Brazilian midfielder Sandro has arrived at Tottenham Hotspur after completing his move from Brazilian side Internacional for a reported, although not often believed, £5.7million.

Sandro left Brazil on a high, helping the club win the Libertadores Cup, making them the champions of South America. Despite having only two full seasons under his belt, the 21-year-old is already a Brazilian international, after making his debut as a substitute in his country's World Cup qualifier against Chile last September.

Sandro is well aware that despite the fact he has won South America's biggest competition, he will be starting from the bottom at Spurs. The young holding midfielder will face a battle to get into the first team with Tom Huddlestone, Wilson Palacios, Jamie O'Hara and Jermaine Jenas all competing for a starting spot. With Spurs vying for silverware on four fronts this season, Harry Redknapp will need numbers in midfield if he wants to maintain a concerted challenge on all fronts. The Betfair Football odds suggest we have a chance of winning something this season.

On top of this, it has been reported that Jermaine Jenas has been attracting interest and it looks like he could miss out when Redknapp names his 25-man Premier League squad for the season. The Spurs manager has already confirmed Sandro will be included.

Our young Brazilian certainly looks to have promise, especially as he graduated from the Internacional youth set up in 2008 making his debut in the first team. The following year Sandro was chosen to captain Brazil's under-20 side as they won the South American Championship. As he became a regular in his club's first team, his reputation grew and his full international debut followed. During his time with Internacional, Sandro made 99 appearances, scoring four goals. He narrowly missed out on being selected for his country's World Cup campaign and instead was named as one of seven back up players.

However, his international career looks set to continue after new Brazil coach, Mano Menezes, named Sandro as one of the 22-man squad of Europe-based players who will take part in a six day training camp in Barcelona.

As Spurs fans, we will understandably be excited to see our new, highly-rated midfielder, who has been likened to former Spurs hero Edgar Davids, who spent two successful seasons with us at White Hart Lane from 2005 to 2007.

Thing is, the lad is going to need a time to settle, learn the language, get used to the weather, his team-mates and the Premier League. If we do see him in action this year, I'll be surprised, but it will also mean that Harry and his backroom staff would have been impressed with him.

Meanwhile, the Wigan betting suggests we should pick up another three points when we meet the Latics next weekend.

The north-west side have already collapsed to two heavy defeats this season and a repeat of the 9-1 win from last term could be on the cards, although I can't see another score line like that for a long time.

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Huge Desires

I thought Daniel Levy was the Tottenham Hotspur Chairman? I was mistaken. It now seems that Mr. Pavlyuchenko is the Chairman of the Board.

“I am prepared to accept any decent offer from Russia”, said our new Chairman.

Coming back to reality; it looks as though our Cameron Diaz lookalike is so eager to leave us, he's bypassed all forms of control at White Hart Lane. If the statement that appeared in the Mirror is accurate, it seems as though Daniel Levy nor Harry Redknapp have any say in the matter. If a club meets his demands, well, he'll be off and that's that!

In other news, it looks as though Mark Hughes is mad enough to spend around £8 million on David Bentley. This story appeared on transfer deadline day, but nothing came of it. We were apparently interested in signing their left winger, Petrov, but Hughes pulled the plug.

I actually believed that story to. There were so many circulating on that day that it was hard to keep up, but after reading statements from Petrov himself, it was clear that our Harry was in for him. I still wouldn't mind it if he joined us this time round. He's been one of the better performers in the Man Sheikh side and if Harry is to carry out his plan of world domination, he needs all the players he can muster.

Getting rid of Bentley and his reported £50,000 per week pay package wouldn't be bad business either.

Whilst we're on the subject of City; if I was Harry, I would make a cheeky bid for their central midfielder, Stephen Ireland. He's not been the same player this season, but that's largely due to the tactics employed by his boss. The Irish player simply doesn't fit into the playing style Hughes has set up.

Ireland is one player that I do admire and I believe he could slot in right next to Sgt. Wilson. Saying that, it looks as though Harry is adamant, in that he wants another strong-ironed central midfielder in alongside Palacios with the wingers providing the attacking flair (cue Petrov).

The fire sale that's been widely reported to be taking place in Madrid, has had us linked with all and sundry, as is always the case. If Harry is looking at players in the Sandro and Muntari ilk, maybe he should bid for Mahamadou Diarra?

Some sites are commenting on the fact that Harry has shown interest in Manchester United's bench warmer, Ben Foster. I've got nothing else to add to this nonsense, so I'll leave it there.
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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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