SoccerBlogs

The names of two goalkeepers feature heavily this morning and while some papers are suggesting that Spurs will make an improved bid for French international Hugo Lloris, others are claiming that any approach for Jack Butland will be rebuffed.

Some papers were suggesting that Tottenham were going in for both Lloris and Butland in an attempt to overhaul their ageing keeper list at the club.

Tottenham Hotspur never do anything easily do they?

Last nights match didn't turn out to be the dominant performance I wanted or expected from Spurs. Yes we won and deservedly so in the end but had to endure a spirited display from League One Stevenage for the second time.

It's back to the second string tonight in a game where Spurs need to grab at least a point in order to ensure qualification for the next stage of the Europa League.

The big news is up front where officially, Harry Redknapp has declared Roman Pavlyuchenko and Gio Dos Santos to be ‘struggling' while in reality it seems likely that neither will make it.

THFC1882 welcomes back guest writer Mike Hooley with a preview of Wednesday's Europa League game:

So, Tottenham Hotspur play a European tie on a Wednesday once again, in what all Spurs fans hope will be a prelude of things to come next season.

However, the fantastic current league run – nine wins and a draw since the Manchester City defeat – is put to one side this week with the return fixture against the Greek outfit PAOK Salonika, current Group A leaders.

Europa League Group A Thursday 16th September 2011

Spurs Team: Cudicini; Walker; Corluka; Bassong; Townsend; Falque (Fredericks 81); Carroll; Livermore; Dos Santos (Parrett 92); Kane; Pavluchenko

'The kids are alright' So sung The Who .

Finally, I am writing about a football match. Not a good match but a match nevertheless.

Tottenham's pre-season tour of South Africa, under the guidance of Kevin Bond and Joe Jordan, started with defeat as George Lebese's stoppage-time goal earned a 1-0 win for Kaizer Chiefs.

Lineups are in:

Tottenham: Starters: Gomes, Corluka, Dawson, Gallas, Assou-Ekotto, van der Vaart, Huddlestone, Modric, Bale, Crouch, Pavlyuchenko Bench: Cudicini, Kaboul, Bassong, Lennon, Sandro, Pienaar, Defoe

Arsenal: Starters: Szczesny, Sagna, Djourou, Koscielny, Clichy, Song, Diaby, Walcott, Cesc, Nasri, RVP Bench: Lehmann, Gibbs, Squillaci, Wilshere, Arshavin, Ramsey, Bendtner

Do I need to say anything about this one?

And now for something completely different. At third (and, later fourth) round stage the FA Cup hardly constitutes fixture congestion, so the question of where it stands in our list of priorities can probably be deferred to another day.

Bingo cards out then, as we look to cross off the names of various squad members last season posing merrily in the club photocall back in August.

Switching from the all-conquering, award-winning, glitz-laden superstars of our rollicking Premiership campaign to the prepubescent kids and want-away squad members on our midweek Europa jaunts is somewhat akin to putting down the Dumas novel in order to tune in to Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds – nobody in their right mind would dispute that it remains quite magnificent entertainment, but the whole forum is perhaps a little more frivolous.

More dedicated followers of AANP will be well aware that when I do eventually conclude fighting the good fight and prepare to meet my doom, ‘twill not be in a hail of bullets or blaze of glory, but coronary failure sustained while watching our heroes. While cheering the news that the various pokes and prods to ‘Arry ‘s cardiac area proved successful, I rather fear for him if he observed on the telly-box the inept tomfoolery of Monsieur Bassong in contributing to our downfall.

Rarely do I expect our heroes to lose – away to the Manchester clubs are about the only fixtures this season in which I would regrettably project nul points - but to that roll of dishonour let the epithet "Rubin Kazan. Away. And With Kids" be added. Those Russians can rightly feel a tad aggrieved at having to slop back off to Siberia with nothing but commemorative THFC thermal underwear, for they had the woolly mammoth's share of possession and chances that night, and are likely to cause us a fair degree of bother on their own patch.

Presumably there were some onlookers last night so enraged by our inability to score as the game wore on last night that they tore up their season tickets at half-time, their apoplexy no doubt reaching such levels when we actually fell behind that they chopped off their own feet and howled for the entire team to be sacked.

All in all this has been a bad few days for us fans of FC Hotspur of Tottenham, or whatever the inevitable spin-off movement will be called once our heroes have moved off to Stratford, or Geneva, or the moon. One point for our lot, but wins and goals galore for the other Top Four-ites (bar Man City, sunk by Darren Bent, most entertainingly) means that the 50th anniversary of the Double won't end in a Disney-esque finale with Ledley emulating the great Danny Blanchflower, hoisted aloft team-mates' shoulders, gleaming trophy in his mitts.

Apologies for the delay –since the final whistle sounded on Sunday afternoon the denizens of AANP Towers have spent every waking minute traipsing the country searching for anyone – anyone – willing to buy Peter Crouch from us. It does not have to be the chairman of a football team. He could be bought by a British Basketball Association franchise, or shoved into a museum for small children to gawp at.

Curl into a ball and stick your heads in the sand, fellow believers, for yet another bout of Balelessness looms large. When previously this curse has struck us we did at least manage to eke out victory against Swansea, but the soulless display sans Bale against Everon was rather hard to stomach - no doubt about it, our heroes look a darned sight more mortal without the handsome young Welshman on the gallop.