Great article on our injuries and praise for AVB...

[jedimonkey]

Last season Kaboul was head and shoulders above everyone. It was a travesty that Parker was voted player of the season ahead of him. Kaboul was rightly first choice centre back.

For me it was between Kaboom and Scotty for our POTY. Would've been nice for Younes to get some recognition though.

Crazy to think that a lot of my Spurs fan mates think he is shit and should be 4th choice CB.

 

[CphCOYS]

For me it was between Kaboom and Scotty for our POTY. Would've been nice for Younes to get some recognition though.

Crazy to think that a lot of my Spurs fan mates think he is shit and should be 4th choice CB.

You should get new mates, mate.

 

[paige09]

thanks. definitely pumped to get him back.

 

[mattyspurs]

Last season Kaboul was head and shoulders above everyone. It was a travesty that Parker was voted player of the season ahead of him. Kaboul was rightly first choice centre back.

It was hardly a travesty Nic. Both players were immense last season and I wouldn't have begrudged either of them getting the accolade.

Travesty is a bit strong mate.

 

[HotspurFC1950]

I do too, having watched him quite closely now. I think it's wrong to say he's just a dribbler, he's just very good at taking the ball past opponents and advancing from deep with the ball at speed creating 2 on 1s all over the pitch - it's great at picking apart opposition shape.

But people don't seem to be quite getting how many passes the guy gets through too, yesterday against Swansea he made the most passes 73/81 which is impressive going and the better we get as a group, and I hope a progression to a more proactive stylle under AVB similar to yesterday then he will great in either a 4-3-3 or in the deeper 2 in a 4-2-3-1. I don't think he's quite got the craft or ingenuity (and even goal threat) to make the no10 position his own and it may even detract from his ability to carry the ball forward at speed as part of it's effectiveness is that it is coming from deep - defenders hate that. He also has the bonus of being excellent n a defensive sense too - all in all a very, very good signing.

Yes well done Mr Levy.

 

[HotspurFC1950]

It was hardly a travesty Nic. Both players were immense last season and I wouldn't have begrudged either of them getting the accolade.

Travesty is a bit strong mate.

Hear hear.

 

[WestBelfast Spurs]

Shame it still feels like he is always one loss away from being called a clown from all corners of the media. What makes it worse is Rodgers' apparent free-pass from the media. Imagine the chaos if we got beat 3-1 at home to struggling Villa. It's nice to see the appearance of more balanced articles like this but I feel he won't truly turn the media round until we actually finish 4th or win something, if at all.

getting beat 3-1 after saying we are going to finish second lol

 

[Bails]

The other factor to remember is despite the injuries, we have taken all the competitions seriously with very strong line ups.

I almost feel we should compare this season to the one when we were in the CL as that was the last time we put out strong sides mid-week and the weekend. We couldn't quite cope with keeping 4th that year so considering our current position and the injuries we have had the overall picture looks good coming into the festive games!

 

[THOWIG]

About time!

 

[Riandor]

The whole furor is really around Chelsea (their money and expectations) and Harry the media darling.
Now that has died down and Chelsea have yet again shown their "class" in the manager department, with Harry now at QPR and with AVB actually doing ok, there is little to report.

AVB should now be able to get on with his job. Of course should we go on a bad run their will be questions, but so far we have ridden the media storm well enough.

If we finish 4th or better this season then it would do AVB the power of good (and obviously THFC as a whole)

 

[playboypaul]

Shame it still feels like he is always one loss away from being called a clown from all corners of the media. What makes it worse is Rodgers' apparent free-pass from the media. Imagine the chaos if we got beat 3-1 at home to struggling Villa. It's nice to see the appearance of more balanced articles like this but I feel he won't truly turn the media round until we actually finish 4th or win something, if at all.

This. Why? Why is he given a green light to balls things up while AVB gets slaughtered 9 out of 10 times?

 

[nicdic]

It was hardly a travesty Nic. Both players were immense last season and I wouldn't have begrudged either of them getting the accolade.

Travesty is a bit strong mate.

Parker was poor second half of the season, Kaboul was consistently our top performer. Not Scotty's fault though, 'Arry ran him into the ground.

 

[parklane1]

Great to see a paper saying something good about AVB, most of the media have been doing a hatchet job on him since he got the job.

 

[parklane1]

Parker was poor second half of the season, Kaboul was consistently our top performer. Not Scotty's fault though, 'Arry ran him into the ground.

Indeed.

 

[AW?]

Are we starting to turn a corner? I don't see so much negative crap on here either too which is pleasing.

 

[parklane1]

Are we starting to turn a corner? I don't see so much negative crap on here either too which is pleasing.

Lets hope so,all AVB needed was time and hopefully ALL fans will now get behind him and Levy.

 

[Matthew Wyatt]

... if anybody can enlighten me as this is my 2nd year following Spurs (and football) and first year on a board ...

You waited 24 years before becoming a fan of Spurs (and footy in general)?! Clearly you were raised by apes or wolves or some such, and, that considered, you write very well, and welcome to the world of man!

Back on topic...

The Guardian is a good paper; really stands out from the competition, which admittedly isn't hard.

AVB is an honest man, and it's admirable (considering the handicaps the article highlights) that he's not a whinger... and he's certainly not a fraud.

 

[Jenko]

Parker was poor second half of the season, Kaboul was consistently our top performer. Not Scotty's fault though, 'Arry ran him into the ground.

To be honest, at the time, I thought he was saving himself for the euro's. Some players only want to play for England to the detriment of they're clubs. West ham fans (on the rare occasion you can find a non racist one who can spell his own name) would say he has form (saving himself for a transfer after they were relegated). I still don't know but just wish he would retire from the international team.

For me, Kaboul was a lot better over the season.

 

[spurious1]

Last year's 1st choice team:

Freidel
Walker Gallas Kaboul BAE
Lennon Parker Modric Bale
vdV
Ade

that team got 4th place. Only 3-5 of those players have played consistently this year...and there was some evil twin taking Walker's place for the first 14 games or so. We sold 2 of our 3 best players. Modric was sort of replaced by Dembele, who is good but not as good as Modric (or else Real would have bought him, wouldn't they have?). Verts compensates for injuries at the back and Sandro is probably better than Parker by now. But in general, our team looks weaker on paper, yet we are in 4th again, along with having to adjust to a new coach and system and 1st choice team...so AVB must be doing something right.

 

[paige09]

You waited 24 years before becoming a fan of Spurs (and footy in general)?! Clearly you were raised by apes or wolves or some such, and, that considered, you write very well, and welcome to the world of man!

Bahaha. Just American. Never really interested me outside of the World Cup. Not going to lie; I've played FIFA for years and loved the game. Last year I had a friend who actually followed so I looked around the league and made decisions on who I wanted to follow. It's definitely a lot more interesting when you pick a team. And thankfully to the internet I haven't missed many games.

Interestingly enough one of our big sports writers in the U.S. Bill Simmons wrote this article years before I started following and I've never regretted my decision.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060719

Now back to the topic at hand..