Here's a reminder from Sir Alex Ferguson why all transfer gossip must be taken with a large grain of salt. "There's always speculation, people linked us with 112 players one year and we only signed...
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(When it comes to the Champions League, I can't help but root for any English team, unless that team is playing against Arsenal... How the Gunners beat Barcelona is not for me to decide, for I'm certainly not an analyst. My best answer is that Arsenal beat Barca the same way Arsenal can be beaten: Solid defending and goalkeeping, making chances count, waiting for a couple sloppy passes and scoring on the break.

Three weeks to go. The last Fantasy Premier League Double Gameweek of the season. And the Premier League is on the line this weekend as Chelsea travel to Old Trafford looking for an away win. Last April they were able ... Continue reading →

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In our last main report of the 2010-11 season, Damon and Damian review the footballing year for their clubs Liverpool FC and Tottenham Hotspur FC a season of two halves for one and a roller coaster ride for the other.

The Tottenham winger Gareth Bale has had a good season, and loved being the star of Spurs run in the Champions League, but he has suddenly become just a touch over-optimistic. Amittedly Tottenham have had a very good run of results against the Gunners in the last few games, but they haven't finished above Arsenal [.

We're not even into July yet and some clubs are already well into the swing of their transfer dealings. Spurs meanwhile have showed intent by signing Brad Friedel on a free. I'm sure that this is the kind of signing that will again have Fergie proclaiming us as the ones to watch this coming season.

Tottenham are not a selling club. Not. 'Tottenham are not a selling club'.'Oh yes we are '.'Oh no we're not' 'Modric is not for sale at any price'.'Oh yes he is' .'Oh no he's not'. Bold statements and I wish that they were true.Which bit of 'not for sale' do I not understand?Well 'not' for a start.

I'm glad I don't write about England. You'd smell the apathy the second you clicked the link. I do, for my sins, still watch them when I can. Sometimes that's as much to see other talents in action as much as it is England. On Saturday, it was for Xhaka and Shaqiri mainly. They along with Inler and especially Barnetta lived up to their hype.

Please close the gate. Well it's a dog eat dog world in the Premiership as we know but, cards on the table; sleeves rolled right up to reveal nothing but arm; chrystal ball hidden under its cloth and tea leaves thrown straight into the recycling bin, I have absolutely no idea whether Luka Modric, apparently still of this parish when I last had access to the wonderful world of the web, will be

If Seinfeld was famously the show about nothing, then Spurs are the Seinfeld of football, at least for now.

In the past I've been relieved and grateful when things have gone quiet. I cherish rare moments of peace and quiet to punctuate the bedlam of the season. No scandals or internecine arguments, the media looking elsewhere, not to mention winning football matches.

Monday 22nd August 2011, 8pm kick off. (Sky Sports 1, HD1 & 3D)

Old Trafford. Spurs always get a great result there. Should be a stroll and an easy three points.

I hope one day to be able to write that as a preview for a Spurs visit to Manchester United, this isn't the time though.

Spurs team: Friedel; Walker (Corluka); Dawson; Kaboul; Assou-Ekotto; Lennon; Livermore (Huddlestone); Kranjcar (Pavlyuchenko); Bale; Van der Vaart; Defoe.

Losing to this Manchester United team at Old Trafford isn't the cause to call the Samaritans, in spite of what some Spurs fans would have you believe.

THFC1882 presents guest writer Ralph Dixon's match report:

Chickens 1 2 Cockerels

The previews for this match, the chat on Twitter and the fan forums were all spot on and the match hardly needs a report from me at all. You Spurs fans know it in your hearts already, even if MOTD manage to edit their highlights to give a different impression.

Harry Redknapp is the quintessential English manager. Working class roots, played football since he was a kid, steeped in the game, worked his way up in management from the lower leagues. Close to his players, he preaches the virtues of hard work and character. He has prospered in the modern era but his teams would look familiar to fans from any era of English football big men at the back, tough tackling midfielders and wingers with another big bloke up front.

Here we go. Back to the Premier League after a busy week in Europe. Wayne Rooney is now suspended for only 2 Euro 2012 matches (not 3 as originally set) but Manchester United are out of the Champions League... I. ... Continue reading →

THFC1882 welcomes another guest writer on board. This time it's Glen Bocking. Glen is an Essex boy but now lives in Stoke so is handily placed to attend this game. Glen's first Spurs memories are the '91 FA Cup semi and final! Great start to his Spurs watching!

Tottenham Hotspur v Sunderland, White Hart Lane, Sunday 18th December, 3pm Kick off

So on Thursday night Spurs European adventure for this season came to an end, despite a 4-0 win at Shamrock. The perceived wisdom is that this is a blessing in disguise and can leave Harry Redknapp and his team to concentrate on getting Spurs back into the Champions League.

Another day, another game, and really this should be another three points. There is no such thing as an easy game in the Premiership apparently, but if there were Fulham at home would probably be it. While they have just won away, they did so at around the five hundredth time of asking, and on the back of two successive ten-man wins and a two-month unbeaten run our lot are in cracking form at the moment.

You cannot be serious! Who would have thought that Aston Villa would do us a favour against Chelsea and help us remain clear in 4th. I suppose that it shows` that Chelsea are in a worse run of form than even the Midlands relegation candidates. Meanwhile we are in our best run of form for several centuries with 9 games unbeaten in the Premiership and 11 in all competitions.

Around ten days ago I mused that I would have settled for eight points from our four Christmas-New Year games. Three games in and we already have nine, which means that the riotously good fun continues into 2011 – still not yet out of the title race, most definitely still in the Top Four race and looking down upon the rotters from Stamford Bridge, languishing beneath us.

Hmmm. And flying forward in attack at every opportunity, in gung-ho and open manner, irrespective of who we were playing, where we playing and whether or not we were even in possession of the ball, had seemed like such a fool-proof plan. After all, if 2010 taught us anything it is surely that no matter how many we concede we will always score more?

There's so much going on at the moment with regards to the new stadium, political spin left, right and centre. Even Pele's talking about it. This afternoon Daniel Levy wrote an open letter on the official site which unless you're blind confirms the boards first choice is moving to Stratford.

I'm finding it really hard to write anything in relation to Saturday's game. I'm not sure why that is but maybe it's the fact I can see 4th spot slowly disappearing into the distance? As a result this will be short and sweet.

We were unlucky with injuries at left back but with only 10 minutes on the clock before Bale had to leave the action and judging by his previous left back performances this season it might not have made much difference.

Theo Walcott, Gareth Bale, maybe it's something in the water but Southampton seem to have gotten a knack recently in producing young, promising British talent. The latest one to emerge is Alex...
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Of course the grit bin's empty. Spurs have bought the lot. So, in the fleeting pause between transfer speculation and Stadium turbulence, just time to play another couple of football matches. Football is becoming a real distraction from the more important aspects of the game: finance, money, funding, investment, commerce and business, to name but one.

March 10, 2011 – There are more Manchester United stories published in the media than any other club – some are worth reading, others are absolute garbage! So how can anyone possibly keep up with...
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Before the AC Milan away game I wrote a piece entitled How To Beat AC Milan. Today I'll do the same for tonight's opponents Real Madrid. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending whether you enjoy my 1000 word updates this won't take very long because the simple answer is we can't.

Dopo le grandi emozioni della Serie A, si torna gi in campo, in serata, con Champions League. Prendono il via, infatti, i quarti di finale della prestigiosa competizione continentale, con le gare d'andata Inter-Schalke e Real Madrid-Tottenham, mentre mercoledì sar la volta del Barcellona, in casa con lo Shakhtar Donetsk, giustiziere della Roma negli ottavi, [.

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This week, the languagecaster team attempt to predict some big games at the foot of the table in Spain and England, wonder if Manchester United can be stopped in the Premier League and who will win the big derbies in London and in Rio de Janeiro.

Arsenal stud attacking midfielder Samir Nasri, who was excellent in the first half against Manchester United, dribbling around United right back Fabio on more than one occasion, is rated as 50-50 for the Gunners' away match with Stoke this upcoming ... Continue reading →

The three of us can reckonThat the Champions' League would beckon If we could only score some goals. How many straws can you clutch at the same time? And how many straws if successfully clutched will keep you afloat? There are plenty of straws in the wind, but some are more elusive than others. The first straw was that if we won all three of our last fixtures everything would magically come

Final Score: Tottenham Hotspur 1 (Van der Vaart 17) Orlando Pirates 1 (Jele 40)

Spurs Line up: Friedel; Naughton(Walker 45); Kaboul(Dawson 45); Khumalo; Rose; Bentley(Lennon 45); Palacios(Corluka 45); Modric(Jenas 60); Bale(Kranjcar 60); Van der Vaart(Keane 45); Defoe (Pavlyuchenko 45)

Spurs took to the pitch for their second game of the Vodacom Challenge to take on South African champions Orlando Pirates.

Use your credit card Daniel in case we have to return the goods. The only people who benefit from window shopping are double glazing companies. But there's plenty going on around Spurs at the moment: window shopping that is. Now I like a nice shop window as much as the next man and if you ask Mrs JimmyG2 she'll tell you it's one of my favourite displacement activities.

Spurs arrived at Coca-Cola Park in Johannesburg without a win so far in the Vodacom Challenge tournament but still found themselves in the final against the South African Champions Orlando Pirates. It was their second meeting in 5 days after they played out a 1-1 draw on Tuesday.

My shout for a guest report from the Brighton game was answered by Mike Hooley, a man who's first game, at the age of eight, was the '81 Cup Final Replay. Good start! Unsurprisingly for someone getting their Spurs education in the '80′s, his favourite player is Glenn Hoddle.

Here's Mike's take on yesterday's match:

Brighton 2 Spurs 3: Pre-season friendly, 30th July 2011.

The pleasure of seeing Spurs play football. White shirts, navy blue shorts, a proper game. That's all I ask. Not so much the victory, not even its emphatic nature, but just to know that our season is under way and a sense of how we are and what's to come.

Monday's cloud of Great Depression, created by an unhealthy combination of high quality mystery drama and an increasing sense of personal anxiety, has blown away.

The boys done good, as the adage goes. It might have been a distinctly unexotic first step into Europe's junior competition yesterday evening, but they were steps plenty big enough for Jim Jefferies and his half-baked Jam Tarts. In fact, you might even say: we proved to be rather...sticky customers?

THFC1882's Stuart Watts takes a look at the season ahead, Rob Handworker offers his thoughts throughout.

The Odds

(All odds are those offered by majority of bookies using www.oddschecker.com on 8th August)

Premier League winners: 50-1

Top 4 Finish: 3-1

Premier League Top Scorers: Defoe & Van der Vaart 33-1; Pavlyuchenko 50-1; Crouch 66-1

Europa League Winners: 14-1 (joint second favourites with Roma, behind Atletico Madrid, Sevilla & PSG)

FA Cup winners: 12-1

Carling Cup winners: 12-1

The Players

As it stands there are barely any personnel changes so the playing staff remains reassuringly familiar.

Guest writer Gareth Johnson was at last nights match for THFC1882, this is his report on the start of our Europa League campaign:

I originally thought of describing last night's game as a stroll in the park however, thought better of it.

Frankly we got away with it: it could easily have been 8 on both sides of the north London divide. By the time Spurs found a little of the good stuff, City had made and missed three good chances. More opportunities came their way as the game progressed and they eagerly sliced through our toiling, bewildered defence.