The Fan

The Times are reporting that Spurs’ UEFA cup game tonight (Thursday) is likely to be Martin Jol’s last in charge:

Martin Jol’s reign as Tottenham Hotspur manager looked to have ended last night after he accepted a £4 million compensation package to leave the club. An announcement is expected this morning. Juande Ramos, the Seville coach, has accepted the job but may not be in place until the start of next season.

The Times Online

 

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In support of Paul Robinson

After a number of blunders Paul Robinson’s England place is rightly under threat.

Rightly, because no player should be guaranteed the position in the team. But, the quality of his potential replacements still cause concern.

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Jermain who?

Has everyone forgotten about Defoe?

With England 2-1 down to Germany at Wembley, McLaren chose to substitute both strikers, Smith and Owen. Without Rooney, Bent and Johnson through injuries, who did he turn to? Not Jermain Defoe.

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With a treacherous board behind them, and a notoriously fickle set of supporters, who in there right minds would want to be manager of Spurs?

Spurs were reported to have met the Ramos camp over the weekend before telling Jol his job was safe providing he delivered Champions League football.

From: BBC - Ramos ‘snubbed huge Spurs offer’

 

Martin Jol has turned the club from an average mid table club into the most likely challenger to the almost impenetrable ‘big four’ of Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal.

All the Spurs’ board have achieved is to undermine their manager.

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You can only wonder what the reaction to this would have been if the foreigner had done this to the England international, and not vice-versa.

West Ham’s Javier Mascherano believes Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe should have been sent off for appearing to bite the midfielder in Sunday’s match.

From: BBC

 

Any chance of action by the FA is slight because the referee dealt with the incident at the time, deeming it a bookable offence. FIFA does not permit further action unless the referee has not seen it.

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With Juve effectively relegated for 2 seasons due to their 30 point deduction in Serie B it seems inconceivable that they will be able to hang on to all their players or even loan them out for a year.

Not too many leagues will be able to match the Italian clubs’ salaries, so England will be a likely destination for many who leave.

Here’s a list of transfer speculation of England’s top clubs and who they are targetting.

Chelsea

Alessandro Nesta (Milan), Fabio Cannavaro, Pavel Nedved, Gianluca Zambrotta (Juve);

Manchester United

Patrick Vieira, Pavel Nedved (Juve), Gennaro Gattuso (Milan), Luca Toni (Fiorentina)

Liverpool

Mauro Camoranesi, David Trezeguet (Juve)

Arsenal

Gianluigi Buffon, Lilian Thuram, Patrick Vieira, David Trezeguet (Juve), Filippo Inzaghi (Milan)

Tottenham

Lilian Thuram (Juve), Filippo Inzaghi (Milan)

Source: BBC

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‘It’s a difficult ball for goalkeepers, this one moves all over the place. We just have to live with it, but it’s not at all goalkeeper-friendly,’ said England goalkeeper Paul Robinson.

“There’s no stitching whatsoever. It’s two sections glued together and it’s a lot lighter than the Premiership ball. There’s a plastic coating around it and when it’s wet it’s even worse.”

The keeper was not officially supposed to get hold of one of the new balls until yesterday, but had the foresight to order half a dozen of his own at a cost of £420.
From: Guardian

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England new boy Aaron Lennon took a pay cut when leaving Leeds Utd for Tottenham Hotspurs, despite rising a league from the Championship to the Premier League.

Leeds manager Kevin Blackwell explained: “The contract that he had was so prohibitive to Leeds - it came from the Premiership days - that there was no way we could afford to keep him.”

From: BBC

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Spurs to miss out on Champions League place

The number of English clubs in the Champions League limited to 4

In a twist from last year’s scenario where Everton feared they might lose their Champions League place to arch-rivals Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspurs will lose their spot to Arsenal if the Gunners are victorious in this year’s competition.

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