Reviewing our season: The Manager

Andre Villas-Boas came to Tottenham Hotspur as a disgraced manager, his reputation damaged by his 8-month tenure at Chelsea. When he was sacked after Chelsea's 1-0 loss to West Brom in March, I laughed at the club and the chairman for living up to their monstrous reputation and, I won't lie, I laughed at Villas-Boas as well. Too bold I thought. Too idealistic, could never be respected by English football.

AVB on his first day as our manager. 

So my reaction when he came to Tottenham? Confusion. Distress. I questioned why Levy removed the first manager
to put us into the Top 4 and replaced him with what I thought was a joke of a manager. I thought to myself right there 'we're losing key players, we don't have the funds, other teams will capitalize: sixth at best'.

11 months later, I feel ashamed of myself for what I thought in July.

We did not start well (but when do we ever?). Three last minute collapses against teams we would usually pick up points against. Analysis showed slow play, long balls, poor final balls. Compare this to last year's football and the future looked bleak for Spurs. I was swiftly proven wrong.  Four weeks later, we beat Manchester United at Old Trafford for the first time in 23 years. From then on, I believed in AVB.

What a day. 

Throughout the course of the year, we have seen AVB utilize the players at his disposal and turn them into a solid team, a team with a backbone. He made Mousa Dembele, an attacking midfielder, into a defensive midfielder who could abuse the opposing midfield. Wilshere, I believe, is still firmly lodged in his back pocket. Partnered up with Sandro, the beast, labelled by AVB as 'the best interceptor of the ball in th
e Premier League', you had a feared midfield pairing.

He chopped and changed the centre backs: Gallas-Kaboul; Gallas-Vertonghen; Vertonghen-Caulker; Caulker-Gallas. It turned out that Vertonghen-Dawson was the right partnership. Maybe it took him three-quarters of a season to work that out, but it was no easy feat, considering last years pair of King-Kaboul was no longer an option. Vertonghen was the best centre of the season and the skipper is on the verge of being England's centre back.

Bale started on the left, with the option of switching to the right if things looked stagnant. But throughout the season, AVB has gave him more of a role in the team. At the start of the year, he was not the player we boast as 'world class'. AVB understands Bale, his strengths, his limitations, his ambitions, his limitations. He could not be just chucked in the middle and told to have some fun, take some shots, or else last year he would've scored just as much. Under AVB, he is a goal-scoring machine, the best player in the league. He will do even more next season.

When it came to strikers, it looked like Defoe upfront could do the job. With 14 goals in the first half of the season I think, he looked liked the striker we had always wanted. He has scored just one goal in all of 2013. Inconsistency is Defoe's limitation. Adebayor has scored 8 goals all season, despite starting many of our games. He and Scott Parker are two players who have not benefitted from AVB. Yet in the final stretch of the season, we have seen the excellent player Adebayor can be. The funds were never there to go out and buy the striker AVB wanted. It was either buy a Louis Saha for half a season or wait till the summer. He made the right choice, although if it were me, I would have been tempted to resign Gregor Raziak.

Everything about this moment was glorious. No league
 position can take that from us.

Some of AVB's team selections this year have been brilliant, pure and utter class management. Bringing on Holtby, Huddlestone and Defoe against Manchester City changed the match on its head. It broke apart the best defense in the league. Sigurdsson's selections in the second half of the season won us vital points, especially against Arsenal, where he looked for large parts the most comfortable player on the pitch. He understands every player in the squad, their strengths, their limitations. Let's just say some have more than others...

In other seasons, 72 points would've been more than enough to get Top 4 and we'd be labeling AVB's first season as the best of the lot. We have lost only 3 games in 2013, 2 in the league. Compare that with last year's collapse, and we know just how solid we have been this season. However, AVB could do nothing to prevent our opponents' form. Arsenal didn't lose a single game since losing to us on March 2nd and picked up 39 points out of a possible 48 since January 23rd. Chelsea's overload of games never led to the collapse we predicted many times. I guess £90million buys you that at the very least.

You have some football fans out there that have said us losing a 7 point gap over Arsenal in the last 10 games warrants AVB's first season being labeled a failure. Believe me when I say it does not. He has exceeded what has been expected of him from after his appointment. Some pundits predicted us to finish below Newcastle and QPR this year! AVB took a broken squad, struck with long term injuries, retirements and big-money departures, and turned it into one of the most feared in the league. We competed for the Top 4 from the first day to the final day. 72 points is the most we have accumulated in the Premier League. And yet somehow, we expect more. It can get better.

Andre Villas-Boas did not want to come to Spurs to restore his reputation. It's just a happy coincidence then that it has turned out that way. I believe he can take us further as a club than we have ever gone before. I believe in AVB.

AVB's Blue and White Army

Jonny Walczak's guide to Dubliners

The Sisters - Has pretty much nothing to do with sisters. Little kid gets molested by a priest. Priest dies, but the kid still can't get over being molested by a dirty old bugger.

An Encounter - Two kids play hooky and come across another dirty old bloke (literally?) on the street. He rambles about a load of shit. Has a wank in a field. The kids have the intelligence to dash off. 

Araby - Teenage boy has a boner over Mangan's Sister, but has no idea why. He goes to the market to find her. She's not there. 

Eveline - Eveline meets this really stand-up bloke called Frank, really top bloke, promises her a life away from shitty Dublin in the nice and sunny Buenos Aires. What a guy, right? Nope, Eveline would rather stay and take care of her family for the rest of her fucking life. Dumb bitch.

After the Race - Rich bloke hangs around rich blokes, races around in some really nice cars. Has great education. Plays poker. What an easy and happy life? Nope, he's unhappy too. Ungrateful little shit.

Two Gallants - Two guys called Corley and Lenehan goes out and shags a bunch of women, steals money from them and resigns them to a life of poverty and prostitution. Should be called the Two GalLADs. (Shit joke).

The Boarding House - Mrs Mooney is a bitch. Polly is a bitch. Mr Doran gets fucked over (literally, again). 

A Little Cloud - Little Chandler is a bitch. That's right, a bitch. He bitches about Gallaher, even though he's done well for himself. He bitches about his wife, even though he lets her abuse him every night (not literally). And he makes no attempt to change his life for the better. Reads poetry.

Counterparts - Gotta feel for Farrington. I mean, he beats his kid for cooking him dinner, but he really has a shit life. Full marks if you mention 'cycle of abuse' in your essay.

Clay - Don't get me started on this bitch. Buys cake. Loses it. Crys about it. Expects death. What a pointless existence. 

A Painful Case - Poor woman has a shit marriage and flings herself in front of a train. Morale of the story? Joyce hates marriage.

Ivy Day at the Comittee Room - If this comes up in the exam, you're gonna fail. Shittest story in the whole fucking book. 

A Mother - Really caring and considerate Mum dominates her husband but tries to dominate some musicians and fails. Why? She's a woman.

Grace - Drinking's bad, m'kay. 

The Dead - Gabriel, a socially-awkward rich guy, can't take banter and rambles on about shit even though nobody listens to him, but really wants give his wife a good seeing too at the end, only to get completely rejected. 

Michael Furey dies because he had a boner over Gabriel's wife, Gretta. 

Freddy Malins is funny as fuck but he's completely out of it. 

Thank God Joyce never made the sequel, Dubliners 2: Dubliners-ier. 

Here's a fun lot. 

StubHub: Empowering the rich, extorting the common man

News about the arrival of a company called StubHub at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club would normally have gone straight under the radar, considering nobody had heard of them or would care that we had become associated with yet another company. Far f
rom it, the news of StubHub's arrival at the Lane has been heard across many of the regular match-goers. The reaction has not been positive.

I have been fully informed about what exactly StubHub does, its purposes and its consequences. StubHub are an eBay-esk ticket market, where season ticket holders can put up their tickets on open bid or on a set price and sell it to anyone (Spurs fans, neutrals, away fans etc). Selling your ticket requires no contact with the new recipient, apart from the exchange of money.

So what can we interpret from this?

Many people use eBay as a legitimate way of selling goods for profit. My mate used to do it and he earned a veritable mint out of the auction and buy-it-now system. I even considered doing it myself, but really didn't have the cash to get it up and running. StubHub, therefore, could be used in a similar sense to make money out of fellow fans. Say I had a season ticket, what does it cost, £1000? I could sell each of my £50 worth tickets for £60 or £70, maybe £100 for derbies, and across a season I could make a substantial profit. And it could all be done legitimately and according to the rules. I could leech off my fellow Spurs fans and not a single consideration would be given by StubHub. How does that make you feel?

What else?

So, say I put a £50 ticket on open auction. The ticket, like I said, would go to the highest bidder, the person with the most money to spend. If people weren't already being priced out of matches due to the extortion of current ticket prices, StubHub would enable more people to feel redundant and left to watch the match on a stream at home, alone. As a result, the Lane would be filled with more of a higher class of person, a person with a comfortable wealth.

Football is the common man's game, well, at least it is still that in our minds. We all as kids kicked around a deflated white ball in the playground, thinking we could all be the next Ronaldo (fat Ronaldo, always fat Ronaldo). We grow up, rid our selves of those dreams, and instead, put our faith that the pros playing the game could satisfy our childhood dreams in a way we could never do ourselves.

The wealthy man, the privileged man, has had his dreams met and is comfortable. Football fans should not be privileged like that. We are the discontented masses, perhaps unhappy by the cards we have dealt, but happy to spend all our emotions in a football ground and on the shirt we love. StubHub would empower the privileged, not the common man.

StubHub should not be allowed at football. Ticket touting is condemned by us football fans and should not be tolerated in any form. This is simply legitimized ticket touting. The owners have allowed StubHub to enter the club because they have been financially rewarded by them, only that.

Daniel Levy said on the final day of the 2012/13 season in an open letter to the fans that 'you [the supporters] are what this club is all about'. Bound by these words, he must listen to our protests, against this money-making company, existing only to empower the wealthy and extort the common man, and he must meet our demands.

Let us all remember, football without fans is nothing.

Duel of the fates

I don't believe in fate. I've said so before on this blog. So the deadlock between Spurs and Arsenal right now at the end of the league is just a stressful coincidence, however entertaining it may be for the neutral. Somebody who would believe in fate would argue it was always meant to be like this: North London rivals deadlocked till the final match, for their seasons' ultimate goal.

Oh the temptations of the Champions League! How much we would all curse and shed tears and sweat for the prospect of hearing that music (Adebayor's favourite music, I hear).

When we were on the peak of our form, it looked like we could 4th, 3rd, even 2nd. It wasn't foolish not to factor in the (many would argue inevitable) drop in form. Our rivals were always gonna step up their game at the back end of the season. Chelsea, benefited with a large, talented squad, could not only cope with the extra games but also managed to go on a impeccable run of form. Arsenal have also gone on a run of form after being knocked out from all competitions, the quality of one of the league's most experienced managers proving vital now. Can't hear the #WengerOut's anymore?

I'm talking like it's the end of the season. It's not. Not yet. But if you're pondering the big question 'How have we come to relying on Wigan and Norwich to beat Arsenal?' well I'm only trying to offer some clarity. And the pressure of the last few months is a factor we have yet to conquer at Spurs. If we had a few injured players at our disposal, things would be different, but then again, the possibilities are endless if we discuss the conditions.

Let me be brief. Come Sunday, I will smile at what we've accomplished this season. If this is a sign of things to come, I will be eager to go through all this shit again next season. May rupture a few blood vessels though.

TOTTENHAM TILL I DIE.

Keep the Faith

Last night, we drew against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Good result, eh? You know, considering what they're fighting for the same thing as us. Objective 1: Get into the Champions League. Objective 2: Stay there. But you know as well as I do that the draw was not good enough, that the draw leaves us one point behind Arsenal with two games to go, a difficult position to where we could've been given a victory.

Nothing in it

I can't say much about the match. Adebayor had a fucking amazing match by his standards, definitely the best he's played all season. The big Togolese striker still has only scored seven goals all season, but it's good he's finally putting in some performances at this time in the season. His goal made me laugh, so cheekily done. Great shot of the ball going straight at the camera behind the goal, perfectly placed up and over Megaman Cech. His backheel-flick into Gylfi 'The Iceman Cometh' Sigurdsson was godly (an adjective I really didn't think I'd describe Ade with this season). We showed solidity when we conceded, something I'd label AVB's Tottenham with this season: the willingness never to give up, right till the final minute.

I thought about the different circumstances Spurs could find themselves in at the end of the season. Here are a few of them.

1. Arsenal win all their remaining games and Chelsea get points from theirs, leaving Tottenham 5th and without Champions League this season, another Europa League campaign ahead of them. Disappointment.
2. Arsenal drop points in one of their games, whilst Tottenham win both and make Champions League, finishing above Arsenal, leaving them with a Europa League campaign. Elation.
3. Arsenal drop points, but Tottenham fail to capitalize on their chance to get one over L'Arse. Grief. 

The last circumstance is the one I fear the most. I don't want our season to end as it did last year with us listing all the "What if"s we can think of. I don't want us to feel like our dream was right in front of us, only to slip away at the last moment. We would grieve and slump into a corner as fans, resigned to another year of hurt. 

Think of Circumstance 2 though. It's still on the table. Perhaps it's not up to us to claim it, but it's there, tempting us in with our unheard prayers. What emotion could come from finishing above the nomads? What emotion could come from snatching it from them in the final games of the season? I called it 'elation' but I have no idea what it would feel like, what it would taste like. 

I will say this though. Come the end of the season, when the inevitable post-mortem is carried out, I ask you to consider as a whole what this season was, what we expected in the early parts, the quality we were competing with, the quality we have had compared to others, and the luck we have had to even still be in it in May. 

I cannot wholly define our season yet, sadly, but I still feel an air of positivity will come from whatever circumstance we have dealt to us. And as ever, keep the faith; it's never over till the final whistle is blown.

My Top 5 BPL Signings of the Season

Before I go through my top 5, I'm basing it on a combination of price and influence, not the club or level they play at or past reputation.

5 - Steven Pienaar

To many, this will be a surprising one, but I can quite easily justify this. After signing for Spurs for around £3million from Everton in January 2011, he spent the next year and a half on the bench, suffering under the un-rotational, un-pragmatic managing style of Harry Redknapp, making only 10 league appearances. He went back to Everton on loan last January and completely excelled. He later resigned for the Toffees in January and played like he was back at home. 

This season, Pienaar has been instrumental to Everton's successful season, playing 38 times and scoring 7 goals with 8 assists. But his influence, Everton fans tell me, goes beyond more than stats. The attacking creativity comes from Pienaar, combining with Baines and Fellaini in the buildup and often playing off the striker in the final third. 

He has wowed me this year, mainly because he never showed that flair in a Spurs shirt (of course, like so many under Redknapp, he was never given the opportunity). So for £4.5million, I'd say resigning Pienaar was a sensible decision by David Moyes. At the age of 31 though, Pienaar's influence may begin to decline. 

4 - Philippe Coutinho

As part of the Inter Milan cleanout, which saw Wesley Sneijder, Maicon and Sulley Muntari leave for cut-price deals, young prospect Philippe Coutinho was shown the door as well. Wanted by teams across Europe, he eventually signed for Liverpool for a relatively low fee of £8.5million in January. 

I was very curious about this transfer, Inter being a big team and the hype that surrounded this player, and I had a feeling he'd have a good impact. He's turned out to be a really tricky player, quick with the pass, energetic, useful in the final third and a talented supplier. He's not restricted to his positions, having the ability to play on the wings or in the middle of the park. His size does not influence his play, very common in technical midfielders nowadays (thoughts turn to Modric, Ozil, Gotze, Iniesta). 

He looks the exact type of player Brendan Rodgers would cherish, a manager who's strict passing-possessional play is very well known in the Premier League. For his age (twenty years old, TWENTY) and ability, Coutinho definitely has the potential to be a brilliant player.

3 - Christian Benteke

Benteke apparently went on strike to get his transfer to join Aston Villa this season for £7million, and I'm sure he's glad he forced that move through. He has had a fantastic debut season for the midlands club.

After replacing the on-and-off England striker Darren Bent at the start of the season, Benteke has proven himself to be one of the Premier League's hottest prospects. He looks like a model Number 9 in today's lone striker formations. Tall. Strong. Good with his feet. Great positioning. With attributes like that, there is no limit to what he can accomplish. Well... as long as he keeps getting the supply. 

Villa fans tell me Benteke's form is very much attributed to his combination with Andreas Weimann, who looks like a proper second striker every time I see him play. I feel these two will keep Villa in the Premier League, and, if they can keep both of them, can get them back into mid-table comfort. 

Benteke will move to a better club soon, but probably not this summer. Young players need time to mature in a team and in a league, to develop consistency. Potential buyers will need to consider this before thrusting their millions into Villa's pockets. 

I feel Benteke will become one of the best strikers in the world if he can continue to show the form he has produced for Villa this year. Belgium are certainly blessed with some fantastic players.

2 - Michu

Who the hell is this? was my first reaction to Michu's brace in his first Premier League game in August for Swansea. He didn't mess around with transitioning or easing into the league; he scored 7 goals in his first 9 games! Michu looked like the buy of the season at only £2million from Rayo Vallecano.

He fits perfectly into the Swansea style of play, and it wasn't just goals and assists. Michu understands that he must drop back and let others into the game, hold up the ball for Swansea's pacy attackers to press the attacking third, and keep the possession and flow of passing in tact.

Striker wise, Michu looks the part, especially in today's passing-possesional tippy tappy game, you know, how the game should be played. Not every passing team can have a Messi or Messi-like player, so the other option is to have a big guy up front. And Michu is that guy. Any team could benefit from Michu.

I'm fully aware that Michu's second half of the season has been average, but his early season form led Swansea to their first ever major competition win in the League Cup. He stunned us all; everything he did looked so simple. If he was discovered earlier in his career, I think he could've been a top class player. I hope Swansea keep a hold of him and allow him to prove into a really good footballer.

1 - Robin van Persie

Robin van Persie was easily the best player of last season. 30 league goals for Arsenal established him as one of the best strikers in the world. After giving Arsenal the middle finger, he became hot property in Europe, wanted by all the top teams from all the top leagues. Eventually though, he signed for Man United for £25million.

I worried that they overpaid for van Persie, known for being extremely injury prone, and combine that with his age, you're looking at a potential disappointment.

I could not have been more wrong.

Like Michu, RVP did not mess around, scoring for United like he's been there for years. He looked every bit of the player he did for Arsenal. Ferguson didn't build around RVP, but Ex-Gooner still dominated the team and stole every headline. When you have a player as good as that in your team, it's hard not to become dependent on his goals.

You must be wondering though: how can a £25million transfer be a signing of the season? Surely you expect a player of that worth to play well? Well normally I'd agree with you. Everyone knew who United were signing, and that was the best striker in the league. But the implications of the signing is more than just goals.

Signing Robin van Persie won them the league.

The two Manchester clubs finished on the same points last season over 38 games, separated only by goal difference and an Aguero goal. Both teams had to strengthen their squads in the summer if they were to win this season. Whilst City bought Javi Garcia and sold Balotelli, United bought van Persie and Shinji Kagawa. The modern game is dominated by money and transfers, with an obvious correlation between money spent and league positions (unless you're QPR). Fergie realised that and spent top dollar for the best player in the league.

The whole season hinged on this transfer, making it obvious to me why it should top of the list.

Honourable mentions

• Julio Cesar - For a free transfer, QPR bought one of the best keepers in Europe. He brought QPR many of their 25 points this season, but sadly, similar performances hasn't been produced by the rest of the QPR mercenaries. 
• Mohamed Diame - On a free transfer, West Ham looked like they signed a solid holding midfielder, skillful, quick, not afraid of a tackle. 
• Matija Nastasic - Nastasic has shown what a composed and intelligent centre-back he can be, and at only 20 years old, he will go on to be a top defender. Swap deal with Stefan Savic. 
• Jan Vertonghen - Money well spent for Spurs. Vertonghen has proven to be a great signing for Villas-Boas. Has had a fantastic debut season for the Lilywhites.