Leaving the Past Behind (Repost)

[flipsix3]

| Pos   | Team           |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   | Tottenham      |       | 14    | 8     | 4     | 2     | 23    | 10    | +13   | 28    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   | Bristol C      |       | 14    | 8     | 4     | 2     | 19    | 8     | +11   | 28    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   | Stoke          |       | 14    | 8     | 2     | 4     | 17    | 11    | +6    | 26    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   | Coventry       |       | 14    | 7     | 4     | 3     | 26    | 10    | +16   | 25    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   | Plymouth       |       | 14    | 6     | 7     | 1     | 20    | 11    | +9    | 25    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   | Q.P.R.         |       | 14    | 6     | 6     | 2     | 20    | 14    | +6    | 24    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   | Portsmouth     |       | 14    | 6     | 6     | 2     | 14    | 8     | +6    | 24    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   | West Ham       |       | 14    | 5     | 6     | 3     | 16    | 13    | +3    | 21    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   | Watford        |       | 14    | 4     | 7     | 3     | 11    | 8     | +3    | 19    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  | Crystal Palace |       | 14    | 5     | 4     | 5     | 15    | 14    | +1    | 19    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  | Burnley        |       | 14    | 6     | 1     | 7     | 17    | 21    | -4    | 19    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  | Cardiff        |       | 14    | 5     | 3     | 6     | 16    | 13    | +3    | 18    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13th  | Hull           |       | 14    | 4     | 4     | 6     | 12    | 12    | 0     | 16    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  | Wigan          |       | 14    | 3     | 7     | 4     | 10    | 12    | -2    | 16    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  | Brighton       |       | 14    | 4     | 4     | 6     | 14    | 17    | -3    | 16    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  | Swindon        |       | 14    | 3     | 7     | 4     | 12    | 17    | -5    | 16    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  | Norwich        |       | 14    | 4     | 4     | 6     | 12    | 18    | -6    | 16    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th  | Swansea        |       | 14    | 4     | 4     | 6     | 12    | 18    | -6    | 16    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 19th  | Leeds          |       | 14    | 4     | 4     | 6     | 15    | 23    | -8    | 16    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 20th  | Bournemouth    |       | 14    | 4     | 3     | 7     | 10    | 19    | -9    | 15    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 21st  | Reading        |       | 14    | 3     | 5     | 6     | 11    | 18    | -7    | 14    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 22nd  | Bristol Rovers |       | 14    | 3     | 3     | 8     | 14    | 20    | -6    | 12    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 23rd  | Derby          |       | 14    | 2     | 6     | 6     | 15    | 25    | -10   | 12    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 24th  | Nottm Forest   |       | 14    | 0     | 7     | 7     | 8     | 19    | -11   | 7     | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

[flipsix3]

…was handed down this gun, from Grandpa’s hands, to carry on, the sky was blue the day I left, the casks…

Ed sat in the hotel room that had become his home, the CD player was on but his mind was focussed elsewhere. Following the draw at Plymouth he was left with a dilemma – or an opportunity, depending on how he looked at it.

With Davies still carrying an injury from training, and Downing hobbling off late in the Plymouth game, he was going to be without wingers for the visit of Leeds at the weekend. At first sight it was bad news, he had players that could do a job but he wanted to put out as strong a side as possible – then he’d looked at the other side of the coin and realised that it was the perfect opportunity to see how a wingback formation might operate.

He’d written out possible team sheets three or four times but he was sure he was getting close now, Ifil certainly could do the job on the right, and Alex Francis had already shown that he had the enthusiasm if not the experience to cover the left side.

Yep, that’s it I think, we’ll shake things up a bit and see how the lads cope. He thought to himself as he put the paperwork to one side and checked the clock.

It was still early so he decided to wander down to the bar and have a quiet beer before dinner. He probably ought to have moved in by now, he had a nice flat lined up but just hadn’t got around to sorting things out with regard to his stuff from Bordeaux. Besides, he was getting used to the life of luxury here in the hotel.

Following the Leeds game he’d have a fortnight before their next match though, and he knew that he’d have to get around to fetching what he needed. After the deal had been done to come to London he’d cancelled his lease on the apartment and shifted his effects down to the house in Pau – he fully intended to keep that, with the money that Spurs were paying he’d have no worries with financing the house alongside the rent for his new flat, and having somewhere to get away to was going to be a necessity he was sure.

[flipsix3]

Sitting on the plane Ed went over his notes from the Leeds game, all in all his plan had worked out but there were plenty of points that needed to be covered if they were going to adopt the same formation again in the future. Donachie had been playing 4-4-2 before Ed’s arrival, and he’d been doing the same ever since – it had been clear that the Leeds scouts had reported back on that basis, and the visitors took a while to adapt once they realised that their preparation was flawed.

The new formation had only been played in training games behind closed doors, and that had paid off as Spurs controlled most of the opening twenty minutes or so, his wingbacks had responded well to getting forward and then tracking back when called upon – but that had slipped later in the game, and very nearly proved costly.

Taking advantage of the early confusion Dirk Walther had given his side the lead, pouncing on a diagonal cross from Francis, and though Leeds had recovered well they went into the break two down as Pedro Mendes converted from the spot. It had looked like plain sailing for Ed and a pretty sizeable White Hart Lane crowd were in full song until Shola Ameobi grabbed a goal back with two minutes of normal time left.

Ed's home record was unblemished, but he’d seen the goal coming, for the last fifteen minutes the fullbacks had been struggling to get back quick enough to cover and it was the space left by Francis that Cristiano Zanetti had exploited to set up the late strike. Almost immediately the Spurs fans went from jubilant to tense, and then back again – from the kick-off Carlo Martini drove through the Leeds midfield and stunned the travelling fans with a long range drive that gave him his first Spurs goal – a vital goal as it turned out, because Zanetti went on to fire Leeds’ second deep in stoppage time.

Yes the points had been secured, and Ed’s home record maintained, but it had been close and he knew that he’d need to strengthen in a couple of areas if, at some future date, he wanted to change their play style more permanently. For now he settled back into his seat, happy in the knowledge that Downing and Davies would be back in the squad when they returned to action after the break for international matches.

[flipsix3]

Ed sat in the afternoon sunshine, trying to enjoy a cool beer as he looked out over the main town square in Pau. He’d spent the morning sorting through bits and pieces at the house before dropping in to see Catherine’s parents and joining them at the cemetery. He couldn’t pretend that it had been a comfortable occasion, her father still clearly held him totally responsible, and it was obvious that the couple knew that he wanted to move on with his life and leave his time in France behind. Although they remained civil, he was pretty sure that her mother was struggling to hold him in the same regard that she had a year ago, and with the animosity from her father eating away at her he knew that it would be a long time before they would be comfortable in his presence again - if, in fact, they ever would.

He was due to join Jacques Le Coadou as his guest for Pau’s game later in the evening but as he sat and sipping the beer, his mobile phone – the bane of modern life – chirped into life in his pocket.

“Ed Allen”

………

“Okay John, and just how quickly do you think we need to move on this?”

………

“Damn! Okay talk to Arnesen and get the bid in, I’ll head to the airport now and I should be in the office first thing, I can’t imagine anything will get sorted tonight”

………

“No you did the right thing, if he’s really that good then we’d be stupid not to make a move”

He snapped the phone off and took a minute to reflect, he had to applaud Moncur, most scouts might well have stayed quiet and feigned surprise when a hot young talent suddenly got sold but not John – he’d been on the phone admitting that he’d slipped up, and prepared to do whatever he needed to try and help out.

He made another phone call, checking on travel arrangements, and then spoke to Le Coadou to offer his apologies. Three hours later he was on the plane, waiting for it to take off and carry him back to London again.

>>

“Okay the bid’s accepted, we can talk to Lennon, you ought to know that he’s developed a bit of a reputation at Derby though”

“In what way?”

“Well he kept shouting about wanting to move here, move there, play first team football, then he said he was happy and then it started all over again. I expect Dave Penney just decided that he’s not worth the hassle any more”

“Hmm, and what do you think of him… as a player I mean?”

“Honestly? From what I’ve seen he could be the goalkeeping version of Michael Owen or Wayne Rooney. I mean the kid could be world class well before he hits twenty-five”

The appointment with Simon Lennon and his agent had been set up for mid-afternoon, that meant that Ed had time to sit down for a quick session with the squad. It seemed that the Lennon transfer hadn’t been the only breaking story during his three day absence, young Tommy Rose had just happened to mention his frustration at not breaking into the first team when he was talking to some local journalist.

“Okay lads, it seems I didn’t quite get my message across before so I’m going to say it nice and clear now. We need to be promoted this season, Spurs are too big to spend three years outside the top flight. What that means is that I’m going to play my strongest eleven whenever I can – until we start to build something of a cushion then I’m afraid the rest of you will have to take what opportunities you get, when you get them.

You will get them, I assure you of that, but don’t be expecting to dislodge the likes of Martin or Anthony in a hurry” Ed gestured to the senior defenders who were sat off to one side.

“Now get out there and get training, we’ve got Stoke on the twentieth, beat them and that gap might open a bit, if it does then you’ll get your chances”

-----

Four hours later Ed and Frank Arnesen were heading up the M1 when his mobile rang, it seemed Rose might get his chance sooner than expected – Martin Laursen had dislocated his jaw in a training match clash and was going to be sidelined for three weeks minimum.

[flipsix3]

The fans weren’t entirely impressed when news of Lennon’s signing was released, the 19-year-old had clearly rubbed people up the wrong way at Derby and there was a feeling that he might do the same once he got his feet under the table at Spurs. Ed couldn’t disagree with John Moncur’s assessment of Lennon as a player though, in his first training session he clearly showed why he’d been courted by so many teams.

There was a temptation to put him on the bench for the visit of Stoke but he resisted the urge and stuck with Saytaifa – although the Frenchman was clearly frustrated at his own lack of action. Unfortunately Ed was also juggling his starting line-up still, Downing’s injury had turned out to be more serious than originally thought, and with Gardner failing a late fitness test the back four would also be missing its two key men. Although the squad was still depleted he decided to revert to their more familiar formation, true the wingbacks had brought goals but they’d conceded too, and it would be hard to accommodate Simon Davies otherwise – and Davies was proving to be a key player in the success that they’d enjoyed so far.

His faith in Davies was duly repaid in what proved to be a one-way game that somehow resulted in Spurs only finding the net once, and it as the Welshman who pounced when Walther’s effort was parried late in the game. To say the goal came as a relief would be something of an understatement, Ed had watched as his side battered Stoke’s defences almost constantly and yet it had seemed that the game was destined for stalemate.

At the other end he’d been pleased with the efforts of his own makeshift back four, Rose had performed beyond his years and Barry Chandler had been respectable on the left. There were a couple of late scares, particularly when Rose was left one-on-one with Gifton Noel-Williams, but they came through with a clean sheet at the whistle. With Francis further enhancing his reputation on the wing the youngsters were once again showing that they were no slouches, and Ed hoped that they remembered the chances they’d been given when the time came to make way for their senior counterparts.

[flipsix3]

The sky was clear as the Ed took his place in the dugout at Swansea, not that he could see it through the glare of the floodlights, but the chill in the air was all the evidence he needed. It was approaching freezing and one or two of his youngsters looked decidedly unimpressed with the conditions. From what his scouts had said the Swans were unlikely to cause any problems for his defence, not having the quickest of front lines, so he decided to take a different approach – asking the lads to sit off their opponents and try to catch them on the break.

Early on he was tempted to change his mind, Rose broke down a Swansea attack but conceded a free-kick on the edge of the area, Richard Walker was on the end of a cleverly disguised pass into the box and his shot took a deflection off Ifil as it just crept inside the post. There were only seven minutes on the clock, it had been Swansea’s first real attack, and as such Ed decided to let things run according to plan for now. By half time he’d once again been vindicated for his patience.

A long pass from Mendes put Walther clear to level matters just minutes after Walker’s opener, and it wasn’t much longer before McGavin climbed above Chris King to head Morris’ cross home and give them the lead. Having gone behind Swansea decided that it was time to react and they played right into Ed’s hands – a devastating five minute spell saw King pull the ball out of his net three more times, a long range drive from Mendes being followed up by second goals for each of the strikers.

There was nothing to say at half time, it was a calm and quiet changing room as the players concentrated on making the most of the warmth and the hot tea. Swansea spent much of the second period playing short passes around and trying to find a chink in the Spurs defence, but even when it came things fell apart for them once more. David Cooper received a second booking and was sent packing, and shortly afterwards King rounded off an appalling performance – seemingly catching a header from Spurs’ substitute forward, Adam Hilton, before spilling it into his own net.

The trip back was jovial to say the least, Daniel Levy even opted to join the players on the coach, rather than travel back in his chauffeur driven car. Ed was beginning to get the feeling that his players had started to adopt the same winning mindset that he’d seen in his Bordeaux side at their best.

[flipsix3]

“I’ll have the prosciutto-wrapped salmon and cous cous, and what about you two?”

“I don’t know, it all looks so nice son,” his mother had been looking over the menu for fifteen minutes or so but was still undecided when the waiter arrived, to give him his dues he was extremely polite and patient, “well let’s just pick something eh? I’ll try the lamb thank you”

“Dad?”

“Cous cous? I don’t know what you’ve been eating these past few years but that sounds like rubbish to me,” Ed glanced sideways and caught the waiter’s knowing look, “have you got pie and chips son?” Dad closed his menu and waited for a response.

“Well sir, erm… we do have braised venison cooked in a pastry envelope… we could prepare that with some French fried potatoes, certainly”

“All sounds a bit lah-de-dah lad, but that’ll do for me”

Ed thanked the waiter and watched him leave, it was hardly Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons but he supposed that it had still been a bit optimistic to hope that Dad might appreciate it all the same.

The day had actually been his father’s idea, Ed had been on at them to come down to London and with Christmas approaching Dad had suggested that they could take his mother around the big shops and then have dinner. He’d gone one better, Mum had wanted to be able to shop out of their sight so he’d arranged for one of the PR girls from the club to spend the afternoon with her; taking her to Harvey Nich’s, Harrods, and down Oxford Street. Clearly she’d had the time of her life, especially as Ed had insisted on her taking some extra cash from him, meanwhile he’d taken Dad on a tour of White Hart Lane.

Afterwards they’d joined up for afternoon tea at the Ritz, Mum had almost been in tears by then – “They’ll never believe this at the bingo love!” she’d said, a broad smile on her face. After spending a couple of hours taking in the Christmas lights they’d finished up here at the restaurant.

“So you certainly seemed to have settled in nicely son, how’s the new flat?”

“It’s fine Mum, I don’t really spend a lot of time there but it’s very nice – the chap that they got to find it did a great job”

“Why don’t you buy yourself a nice house though? You’ve certainly got the money”

“I know, but it’s early days yet, and it’s not like I need the space or anything, there’s only me…” he knew right away what was coming

“I’m sorry Ed, I didn’t mean to drag that – ”

“Don’t be silly, I didn’t mean it like that”

“So how are you coping on that front anyway?” He hadn’t really spoken to his parents about what had happened with Catherine, not once he’d finished his recovery period and got back into the football. Dad had suddenly taken great interest in his food, bless him, he was well meaning of course but he’d never been a great one for discussing such things.

“I’m coping Mum, I just… after what happened with Sonja and the state I got into… look I just need to move on, I’m not old enough that my personal life is over, I can’t spend my life worrying over things I can’t change you know?”

“I know son, but you can’t go – ”

“Mum, before you say it, I’m not bottling anything up!”

They finished their dinner with the conversation focussed on more cheerful matters, what with Christmas coming there were plenty of recollections of his and Lynne’s childhoods, and of friends and family that he’d not heard from in years. In the end he’d had to promise to be home on Christmas morning, even though he’d have to be back down in London for the Boxing Day game.

-----

“Christ Mum I could bloody throttle you sometimes!” Ed spoke to the empty room. He was sat on the end of the bed, the curtains open and a large portion of London lit up in front of him – it was certainly a great view from up here on the ninth floor.

He really hadn’t been bottling things up, but when he’d found himself unable to sleep – tomorrow’s derby match against West Ham on his mind – Catherine’s face had started trying to push into his consciousness until he’d been unable to think about anything else. Now it was after 3am, an occasional tear slipped form his eyes, and he was still no nearer to sleep.

[flipsix3]

Still going brilliantly with this effort, flippers.

Thanks Spav, of course it did Ed's chances no harm that he picked up an already decent core of players, in a good league position - but the new signings are definitely going to be key.

[flipsix3]

The decision had been made to rest Mendes on the bench for the visit of West Ham, the midfielder had been pulling the strings all season so far and could use a match or two with a reduced workload. Having talked to Wilkins and Jimmy Neighbour he’d also decided to try Joey Barton out as a makeshift winger on the left.

Graham Rix’s Hammers weren’t having too bad a time in the league, although their fans would undoubtedly be expecting an improvement on their mid-table berth. From what Ed saw they could certainly deliver on that too, they created the chances but their finishing wasn’t great, and with Márton Fülöp on song it was difficult for them to find a way through. He was pretty sure they’d have done it all the same, but Martini’s twenty-yard effort seemed to kill off any real fight from the visitors.

The Chelsea youngster had been given the nod to replace Mendes and his curling drive found the bottom corner of the net just before the half-hour mark. In the second half he missed a golden opportunity to double his tally, finding himself in acres of space but firing right at Stephen Bywater, but it was a strong showing from the Italian and his goal proved to be the difference between the two sides.

Once again Rose had partnered Davenport extremely well, especially when Rix had forced his side into a loose 2-3-5 formation late on in a bid to force an equaliser. Ifil and Chandler had dropped back to support more and the midfield had sat deep to stifle the Hammers.

The win took them seven points clear with nineteen games played, it was the sort of position Ed was more accustomed to and, as promised, he let the lads know that he’d be working hard now to try and always have at least one or two of the youngsters involved in the action.

[flipsix3]

NOVEMBER 2010 SUMMARY

Plymouth 1 (McGlinchie 45)

Spurs 1 (McGavin 44)

Man of the Match: Stewart Downing

Spurs 3 (Walther 23, Mendes pen 43, Martini 89)

Leeds 2 (Ameobi 88, Zanetti 90+)

Man of the Match: Cristiano Zanetti (Leeds) [DM C]

Spurs 1 (Davies 81)

Stoke 0

Man of the Match: Simon Davies

News: Karl Henry (Stoke) sent off 82

Swansea 2 (Walker 7, Holmes 76)

Spurs 6 (Walther 10, 43, McGavin 21, 45, Mendes 41, King og 83)

Man of the Match: Paul Morris

News: David Cooper (Swansea) sent off 79

Spurs 1 (Martini 27)

West Ham 0

Man of the Match: Simon Davies

League Position: 1st

[flipsix3]

Simon Davies had been awarded ‘Player of the Month’ for November, and Paul Morris had just been edged out of the young player accolade by Derby’s Mark Russell. With Ed picking up the ‘Manager of the Month’ it was looking good for the run into Christmas and the papers were obviously feeling the same way.

ALLEN BRINGS WINNING WAYS TO WHITE HART LANE

Since his arrival at White Hart Lane the new Tottenham Hotspur boss, Edgar Allen, has carried on more or less where he left off in Bordeaux. After some early slips away from home the former Spurs player has taken his side to the top of the Championship table and opened up a small gap over the chasing pack.

Daniel Levy took his time appointing a new manager and it seems that he was waiting to make sure he got the right man. After successive league championships in France, Allen has returned to his old stomping grounds in style. Six wins at home, and only one league defeat, must have the Spurs’ faithful eyeing the Premiership already but their manager is a man of few words when it comes to the press and he refuses to be drawn to comment publicly.

Spurs have had a torrid time over the last two or three seasons and as a result Allen has inherited a squad that is in something of a state of flux, that he has steadied to ship and driven them forward speaks volumes although the real test will be how he copes when certain parties finally act on their desires to find new clubs. For the time being, with a trip to Watford lined up for the weekend, the manager of the month will no doubt be looking to just keep plugging away.

Meanwhile fans of Allen’s former club must be wondering what has happened to their side under the guidance of Albert Cartier, whilst the new manager has kept Bordeaux at the top of the league table an atrocious run in Europe has seen them crash out of the group stages of the Champions League with a single point from six games. It would seem that when he crossed the channel Edgar Allen brought a great deal of his magic with him.

It wasn’t something he particularly enjoyed hearing, he’d kept track of Bordeaux’s progress and watching the European games had been painful at times, but his attentions were firmly focussed on the English game now, and on the weekend’s trip to Watford.

[flipsix3]

Just finished reading Page 5 of 25 and it is compelling stuff.

Good Luck to Edgar Allen and Pau.

Cheers Gennaro - thanks for the support, and I won't give anything away for you as hopefully you'll be catching up in due course

(originally posted on page 25 of old forums)

[flipsix3]

James Wright was the latest of the Spurs second string wanting first team action, as far as Ed was concerned he’d left his outpouring too late – after a few such comments he’d reached the point where he just intended to ignore them now, there was simply nothing much he could say having already stated his position a couple of times. Wright, like the rest, would get his chance when it came.

Since he’d been back on home shores he’d regularly heard of the so-called ‘Curse of the Awards’ but he’d given the superstitious idea little credence… until he watched his side get turned over at Watford. As in most of their recent games they’d controlled the pace, passed the ball well, and created more chances than their opponents – but with Walther and McGavin drawing blanks it had been left to Adam Hilton to come off the bench and grab a late goal, nothing more than a consolation as it turned out.

Still, the lads were continuing to work hard and he was confident that they’d go into Christmas atop the table. The draw for the third round of the FA Cup – possibly one of the best days in the football calendar as far as Ed was concerned – saw them picked to travel to Walsall in the new year, but before that they still had half a dozen or so league games to concentrate on.

------

Martin Laursen was declared fit to make his return against Bristol City, another side that the media had tipped as promotion contenders, as such it was pretty much a full strength side that he sent out – the one exception being a start for Hilton ahead of McGavin, just to give the latter a bit of a rest. Looking to put the Watford defeat behind them Spurs got off to a decent start, Mendes taking them into the break in front, and Ed was looking for a comfortable win as the second half drew on. When Péter Bajzát stripped the ball from Laursen, with twenty-odd minutes to play it was a double blow. His challenge left the Dane on the floor, clearly in pain, and he proceeded to fire the ball home from the edge of the area, levelling the game against the run of play.

Ed watched as Laursen was helped off the pitch by Dean Keneally, having just recovered from his fractured jaw he looked set to be forced out of action again immediately. Ed sent Wright on for Laursen, granting him his wish for action, and introduced McGavin for Hilton. The second change turned out to be a stroke of genius, McGavin was a threat at any time but with fresh legs he carved the City defence up, hitting them twice in the space of three minutes and securing another home victory for Ed.

[flipsix3]

Finally through all 25 pages, Great story flip.

I've been writing my own, but lately I keep getting distracted and coming here. Now that im through, I can get back to mine.

Just curious but are you a fan of Starship Troopers, this in reference to your forum name?

Cheers Panpardus, thanks for taking the time to read and for offering your support.

As for the username, I'm always amazed by how many people pick up on that. Yeah, my mate had a band back in the late 90's and they were stuck for a name - we were watching Starship Troopers and picked it up from there. When his band split up I pinched it for my online tag

[flipsix3]

Bournemouth were finding it hard to cope with the pace of life in the Championship, having finally escaped from League One as runners up in the previous season. Battling hard to escape the relegation zone there was little on display to worry Ed too much. He’d gone over the scout reports and made a couple of adjustments to the standard Spurs game plan.

The home fans must have known they were going to be in for a tough time when Dirk Walther took just fifteen seconds to get the ball from the centre circle to the back of Iain Turner’s net, Ed hadn’t even taken his seat yet and Ray Wilkins had to describe the goal to him.

“Quality Ed, Dirk’s kicked off and gone on a run, Rosey’s put it out to Gardner, he’s fired it all the way into their area, and Dirk’s just knocked it home – one for the record books if you ask me!”

Ed didn’t have to wait too long to see a goal though, eighteen minutes in McGavin fired across Turner to make it two and in all honesty the game had been over there and then. Mendes was on fire, Davies was a constant threat, and the strike partnership could easily have run up double figures on the day. Ed was doubly pleased because he’d rotated a couple of players into unfamiliar positions – Martini had started on the left wing for one.

The problem was the age-old talking point, with Christmas approaching he’d have been happy that his players would be getting a break in France, but with nine games in a little over a month their English counterparts were going to be run ragged – and already some of them looked like the could use a rest before the chaotic spell even began.

With fitness in mind Ed sat down with Wilkins in the days following the game, the plan was to identify which matches – if any – they could weaken the squad for over Christmas When they’d sat and looked at the fixtures Ed found that fortune was on their side, of the five league games coming up their highest placed opponents were currently sitting fourteenth in the table.

[flipsix3]

With one eye on the forthcoming run of games Ed reacted quickly when John Moncur contacted him regarding a potential transfer target. Crystal Palace’s Nick Hughes, a 19-year-old winger with a natural left foot, had been the focus of Moncur’s attention for some weeks and came very highly recommended indeed. What Ed found incredible was that Hughes was listed for loan, with Palace really struggling in the league he would have expected the winger to be featuring – especially if his scout’s assessment was close to the truth.

With Downing the only real attacking left-footer on the books Ed moved quickly to try and pick Hughes up, and he breathed a huge sigh of relief when the deal was finalised four days before Christmas – not least because he arrived in time to take over from Downing.

The visit of a poor Burnley side had resulted in two short-term injuries and three points, Mendes’ thirty-yard swerving shot had stunned the Clarets and a ferocious McGavin strike – his fifteenth in exactly half a season – left them reeling before the break. The second half had been a more physical affair with Burnley throwing men into the tackle, and whilst there was nothing outright malicious about their play the confrontation had resulted in Downing’s chest injury as well as a sprained wrist for Anthony Gardner. That meant that the two key men on the left side would miss the Boxing Day visit of Derby County.

With Hughes in though, and the general mood in the Spurs camp threatening to burst through the stratosphere, Ed was sure that they’d all be enjoying the few days off that they had. Levy and Arnesen were impressed too, the win took them eight points clear and the Chairman made an unprecedented move by cancelling Christmas Day training. Usually the players in England would spend the morning with their families before skipping the turkey dinner to prepare for the traditional Boxing Day game, another good reason for a winter break in Ed’s opinion. Levy had asked him about this ritual, and his feelings regarding their likely fitness levels, and he’d fully endorsed the plans to switch to a light training session on the day.

[flipsix3]

Across the hallway he could hear his sister trying to be quiet as she opened the three or four presents that had been left by her door in the pillow case, it was no later than 4am but like him, she’d been awake for at lest an hour already. It was a clever trick that his parents had learned, a book and a cassette, maybe something to eat, it was usually enough to keep them occupied until a semi-respectable hour.

By six they’d be up though, and deliberately trying to make just enough noise to make sure Mum and Dad knew it without making so much as to get into trouble, then they’d head downstairs and insist that Gran and Grandad got up too – they couldn’t be allowed to sleep too late on the sofa, it would be interfering with valuable present opening time.

Ed reminisced as he lay on the sofa-bed in what had once been his bedroom, he could hear the neighbours’ kids moving around next door and it had brought back memories of how things used to be when he was nine or ten. Now Christmas seemed like any other Sunday but with a couple of presents thrown in for good measure. When they’d been kids it was hectic fun from before dawn until well after sunset, today he’d get up at eight and it would be done and dusted well before lunchtime.

There was one bonus to Christmas this year though, and being back in England, his sister and her husband were driving up from Derbyshire for the day – and he’d not seen them in what seemed like an age. It’s funny, as kids we went out of our way to be mean to each other yet we spent loads of time together, now we get on but I probably only see her once or twice a year at most, he thought as he stared at the ceiling.

They arrived just before ten and the ritual of the present opening was soon dealt with, whilst Ed wasn’t averse to talking about work he’d tried to avoid it but Colin – a Derby County fan through and through – couldn’t resist bringing up the subject of the Boxing Day match. The Rams were on an unbeaten run of seven games and his brother-in-law, always the optimist, was sure that they were going to carry on pushing up the table until they got into the play-off spots. They’d been to the Premiership twice in the last five or six years he reminded Ed, and he was expecting them to be there or thereabouts again by the end of this season. Throughout the discussion Dad had remained fairly quiet and, with Huddersfield bogged down in the mid-table pack in League Two, Ed could understand why.

At Mum’s insistence the conversation was moved away from football as they sat down to the traditional turkey dinner, with Lynne running through details of how things were going at the kennels. He was thankful that they hadn’t got around to talking about his personal life yet, maybe Mum had finally realised that there were some things he just didn’t want to talk about know matter how much she thought he ought to. After helping with the washing up, and enjoying an couple of hours sitting on the sofa talking about nothing in particular, Ed said his goodbyes and set off for London.

[flipsix3]

The traffic had been light coming down the M1, a few cars here and there and a decided lack of heavier vehicles. He’d been back at the flat at a decent hour and had allowed himself a beer as he went over the scouting reports for the game. Although Derby were in a rich vein of form, his man had suggested that their recent success was as a result of hard work over talent – with his side possessing both in abundance Ed was hopeful of bringing their run to an end and putting more points on the board. He liked Colin, always had done, but there was no room for personal friendships when promotion was at stake.

-----

After the game his brother-in-law called him to offer his congratulations in typical fashion, ‘You bástárd’ being the first words he heard when he answered his mobile.

Dirk Walther’s hat-trick had been enough to ensure the points and a very happy Christmas for the Spurs fan base. When he’d signed Walther on a season-long loan Ed had fully expected a solid return from the German teenager, but ten goals in fourteen games so far had exceeded anything he’d realistically hoped for and, added to McGavin’s strike rate, was probably the biggest reason for his side’s ever strengthening position at the top of the table.

Nick Hughes had put in a good showing for the Derby match too, especially considering he’d only trained with his Spurs colleagues twice, but a twisted knee late on meant that he would be out for a week just as Stewart Downing returned to match fitness – proving the need to have both men on the books.

Whilst Downing returned for the trip to Hull Ed rested both McGavin and Walther, he didn’t see that playing a game in freezing rain was going to benefit either man and so left them out in favour of Slabber and Dixon. It turned out to be a far from memorable game, Neil Ellis giving Hull an early lead before Morris and Davies put Spurs ahead at the break. Things were looking good for another away win when Fülöp took a knock in the second half.

Fülöp had established himself as the number one choice during the 2008-09 campaign, after Paul Robinson had been sold to FC Köln, but Ed remembered him from before that – he recalled sitting at home in Pau and seeing the then young keeper pick up a League Cup winner’s medal after injury had forced Robinson out of contention for the tie.

By way of comparison he had to admit that he didn’t rate Missada Saytaifa as a backup, hence to deal to bring Simon Lennon on board, but he decided to give the Frenchman a run rather than risk aggravating Fülöp’s apparent problems. Whilst he couldn’t really blame Saytaifa for Hull’s equaliser it did make him think, and he realised that it was unfair to keep the 23-year-old hanging on for a chance he would most probably never get. Following the game, and going to great lengths to explain that one had no bearing on the other, Lennon was brought into the senior squad whilst an agreement was reached to try and find a new club for the Saytaifa.

[flipsix3]

DECEMBER 2010 SUMMARY

Watford 2 (de Lange 17, Morgan 71)

Spurs 1 (Hilton 87)

Man of the Match: Simon Davies

Spurs 3 (Mendes 29, McGavin 83, 86)

Bristol C 1 (Bajzát 78)

Man of the Match: Simon Davies

Bournemouth 0

Spurs 2 (Walther 1, McGavin 18)

Man of the Match: Pedro Mendes

Spurs 2 (Mendes 15, McGavin 45)

Burnley 0

Man of the Match: Stewart Downing

Spurs 3 (Walther 22, 26, 63)

Derby 0

Man of the Match: Dirk Walther

Hull 2 (Ellis 16, Best 83)

Spurs 2 (Morris 38, Davies 45)

Man of the Match: Paul Morris

[flipsix3]

| Pos   | Team           |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   | Tottenham      |       | 25    | 16    | 6     | 3     | 48    | 20    | +28   | 54    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   | Coventry       |       | 25    | 13    | 6     | 6     | 41    | 20    | +21   | 45    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   | Portsmouth     |       | 25    | 12    | 9     | 4     | 32    | 14    | +18   | 45    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   | Bristol C      |       | 25    | 12    | 8     | 5     | 36    | 21    | +15   | 44    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   | Watford        |       | 25    | 11    | 9     | 5     | 25    | 14    | +11   | 42    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   | Norwich        |       | 25    | 12    | 5     | 8     | 32    | 28    | +4    | 41    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   | Stoke          |       | 25    | 12    | 4     | 9     | 33    | 25    | +8    | 40    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   | Plymouth       |       | 25    | 9     | 12    | 4     | 29    | 20    | +9    | 39    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   | Q.P.R.         |       | 25    | 10    | 9     | 6     | 37    | 29    | +8    | 39    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  | West Ham       |       | 25    | 9     | 9     | 7     | 27    | 23    | +4    | 36    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  | Wigan          |       | 25    | 8     | 9     | 8     | 20    | 19    | +1    | 33    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  | Cardiff        |       | 25    | 8     | 8     | 9     | 31    | 28    | +3    | 32    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13th  | Crystal Palace |       | 25    | 7     | 11    | 7     | 22    | 23    | -1    | 32    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  | Derby          |       | 25    | 8     | 8     | 9     | 34    | 42    | -8    | 32    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  | Brighton       |       | 25    | 8     | 5     | 12    | 26    | 36    | -10   | 29    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  | Swindon        |       | 25    | 7     | 8     | 10    | 22    | 38    | -16   | 29    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  | Hull           |       | 25    | 6     | 9     | 10    | 24    | 25    | -1    | 27    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th  | Reading        |       | 25    | 5     | 12    | 8     | 25    | 31    | -6    | 27    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 19th  | Burnley        |       | 25    | 8     | 3     | 14    | 25    | 39    | -14   | 27    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 20th  | Swansea        |       | 25    | 6     | 8     | 11    | 25    | 37    | -12   | 26    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 21st  | Leeds          |       | 25    | 5     | 10    | 10    | 26    | 37    | -11   | 25    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 22nd  | Nottm Forest   |       | 25    | 2     | 14    | 9     | 18    | 28    | -10   | 20    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 23rd  | Bristol Rovers |       | 25    | 5     | 5     | 15    | 24    | 39    | -15   | 20    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 24th  | Bournemouth    |       | 25    | 5     | 5     | 15    | 17    | 43    | -26   | 20    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

[flipsix3]

Ed was grateful for the fact that Daniel Levy had seen fit to allow him so much room for expansion in his side’s wage structure, as the New Year came in it was time to start looking at extension offers for those players whose deals were coming to a close and that included a handful of key names. However, when he got down into the meat of the budget he found a stumbling block – since relegation from the Premiership the Board had reduced the individual wage cap for players, whilst it was still generous it would mean serious difficulties in trying to renew the contract of players like Simon Davies.

Davies had been earning a healthy amount for some time now, but to get him to extend Ed was going to have to convince him to take a thirty percent cut, and the general feeling was that it wouldn’t happen. Ed tracked Levy down and tried to reason with him, but whilst he was prepared to sanction greater spending for a bigger squad, he was adamant that they weren’t going to pay Premiership wages to any one player – even though, as Ed pointed out, they were surely going to be playing Premiership football next season.

“It’s impossible Ray,” he said as he and Wilkins tried to work out a strategy, “all we can do is offer the maximum and hope, either that or we wait until his deal expires in the summer”

“I hate to say it Ed, I think we’re going to lose him. Him, Downing, and maybe a couple of others too, perhaps you should be looking at using some of that transfer budget?”

It made sense he supposed, rather than spend time trying to force extensions that were unlikely, at best, he ought to try and pick up some new blood – giving any arrivals plenty of time to settle in to the squad before the end of the season.

---------

With all of the contract activity, and the need to look at the market, Ed barely had time to register the results of the awards season. Besides, players like Bierofka, Ronaldo and Berbatov were on such a different level these days that he didn’t pay much attention to their activities at the best of times. On their own level December had been a good month for Spurs though, not only did Ed pick up his second ‘Manager of the Month’ award, but Walther was named as the hottest young player in the division – and Pedro Mendes saw two of his goals named as the best two in the league.

He’d spent a day or two going over his shortlists, unfortunately it didn’t seem to offer a great deal of hope – certainly for the two wing roles. The chances of picking up a Robben or a Jenas were beyond nil but he liked to dream, and the bulk of the talent he had been keeping tabs on were centrally focussed players. In the end he’d given orders to John Moncur to get out, get his ear to the ground, and find out if there was anyone of note being touted around the market – ideally he’d normally prefer to bring in youth, but a bit of experience would do wonders and it was experience they were likely to lose in Davies and Downing.

Several offers were fired off, established wingers in their twilight years, hot new prospects, and a couple of in-betweens who were making a decent living at their current sides. All he could do was sit back and wait for his enquiries to be received, but he’d put tight deadlines on them – the news was that his own players were starting to attract interest from bigger fish, if he could get new blood in quickly it might be worth trying to force a cash deal for someone like Downing.

[flipsix3]

“Giel, welcome to White Hart Lane” Ed was waiting at the reception area when Giel Neervoort reported for duty following his pre-arranged transfer, “glad you decided to join us, I hope you’ll fit right in, and I certainly expect you’ll see more action over here than you have recently”

“Thanks Mister Allen, I’m looking forward to playing regularly again”

With Davenport and Gardner both looking for moves Ed had little doubt that his former Bordeaux signing would become a regular fixture in the side, in fact he’d decided to use the Dutchman’s arrival as an excuse to test the waters – offering Davenport to a select few clubs to see if he could force a cash offer. He’d had no comeback on his other enquiries as yet, but it had only been a couple of days or so, as for Neervoort – Ed would see how he looked in training before making a decision on the first game of 2011.

“So how are things back at Bordeaux anyway? It seems like Europe was a bit of a disaster?”

“Yes, things are good there but the Champions League was… I don’t know, something just wasn’t right. In the league though, everything is good there, it would be a surprise if they don’t make it three titles”

“Well don’t you worry about that my boy, you concentrate on getting your first one here”

-----

Neervoort was obviously lacking in match fitness, a fact that Ed had quickly picked up on at the training ground, but he decided to give him a spot on the bench for the trip to struggling Brighton. At half time he brought the 24-year-old on for Laursen and he settled in well, helping to keep a pacey front line at arm’s reach, and when Davenport picked up a second booking Ed was pleased to see his new man take charge of the three-man defence for the final ten minutes or so.

The sending-off hadn’t slowed Spurs’ momentum, another Walther goal had put them ahead before the break – the German’s eleventh in fifteen games – and McGavin increased his tally with a quality strike after the interval. Whilst it would be harsh to claim that Brighton were never in the game the scoreline certainly reflected the superiority that his Spurs side had exhibited throughout.

[flipsix3]

“Morning boss, hope you don’t mind me dropping in unannounced, I just wondered if you had that contract extension handy so I can get it signed… are you okay boss?”

Ed realised that he must look pretty stupid, sitting at his desk staring at Davies like he’d grown a second head. It was just that the Welshman had caught him somewhat unawares.

“You want to sign? You read the figures, right?”

“Of course I did, it’s a cut I know, but it’s only one year and it’s not like I’m desperate for the cash. Besides, when we’re back up there I can hit you for a raise”

Ed still wasn’t sure that he wasn’t the victim of some elaborate wind-up by his players, but it seemed genuine enough – Davies was prepared to take a fifteen grand pay cut to sign up for one more season with the team that had plucked him from the books at Peterborough ten years earlier. He didn’t need asking twice, digging through the pile of files on his desk he pulled out the extension offer and watched with a smile as it was signed.

“Cheers Simon, I appreciate this… maybe you could have a word with a few of the lads for me” he winked.

It was one less name to worry about over the coming months, though there were still more doubts than he would have liked. But with the game against Crystal Palace kicking off in a matter of hours he didn’t have time to worry about them just now. What he did have time for was to send out a couple of illustration offers to players whose clubs had accepted his approaches, of course he’d need to meet with them to discuss in more detail but this way he could at least filter out those who he was never going to get close to agreeing a deal with first.

-----

After a morning negotiating and brokering deals it was a relief to get down onto the sidelines for the Palace match, the visitors had only lost one of their previous five away games and it would be a good test of Spurs’ ambition if they could produce a result. Part of the secret to Palace’s strong record was a midfield-heavy formation that was going to make creating chances difficult.

Contrary to his scouting reports Palace actually lined up in a pretty standard 4-4-2 and it soon became clear that they were in trouble. It was difficult to tell whether they were struggling from the strain of the Christmas schedule, or if morale was just at a real low ebb, certainly David Platt was giving nothing away as he sat expressionless in the dugout – but he couldn’t have been happy at what he was seeing.

Spurs pushed up early on and, as Ed had instructed, passed the ball through midfield well. The results were good as the visitors retreated into the last third of the pitch, but still frustrating until McGavin made the breakthrough, a corner coming out to Laursen who flicked the ball up to the Irishman on the far post – the striker turned and hit it on the volley, bringing the north stand to their feet. Soon after Mendes tried to find Walther in the box only to see Paul Reid turn the ball into his own net. At the break they were two up and Palace were yet to get a shot off, Laursen and Neervoort were playing an immense game in defence cutting out every high ball that was pumped up for Scott Dobie to chase.

“It’s not meant to be this easy lads, don’t get complacent” was all he had to say during the interval as the players tried their best to dry off a little after forty-five minutes of icy drizzle. Maybe it was the conditions that were putting Palace off, whatever it was Ed was grateful.

The second half was much like the first, a typical Mendes drive from distance took the margin to three goals and by the time the whistle blew, with the majority of the two thousand or so away fans having already headed for the tube station, Palace had still not found a single opening with which to threaten Spurs – Fülöp looked like he was freezing cold and desperately bored as the Ref called time.

The lead was up to eleven points and the way they’d played today Ed was ready to put money on them stretching it even further. There was no doubt that it was time to start showing more of the youngsters to the home crowd.

[flipsix3]

Finally up to date with it all and a fantastic read as well. Oh and Congratulations on the Spurs job, being a fan myself it would be good to see, read, you take them back to some form of glory like with Pau and Bordeaux.

Best of luck to young Dave Solomon on his move.

Flipsix3: Nice to see Ed settling well into the Spurs job...would tough to hold on to players like Downing if the wages are not adjusted...KUTGW mate...always love to read your updates; looking forward to the next update.

Cheers as ever fellas

[flipsix3]

Still the success on the pitch was being offset by frustration off it, offers to Luis Boa Morte and Diego Gavilán were snubbed with both players opting to stay with their Premiership sides rather than step down a league in return for more action. Stéphane Labat once again turned down his approach, and Paris winger Christoffer Andersson also preferred a bit-part role with a top-flight team over a move to the Championship.

Attempts to find a buyer for Missada Saytaifa also fell flat when the Frenchman accepted a summer free-transfer to Valence, despite several English teams making immediate cash bids. In addition Calum Davenport signed up for a summer move to Birmingham City, although Ed did find himself hoping that, with the deal done, his young defender might decide to knuckle down for the remainder of the season.

At least the FA Cup would offer him something different to occupy his mind for a few days, and after much consideration he decided to bring some of the younger players in for the trip to Walsall. Simon Lennon was given a debut in goal, and Neervoort made his second starting appearance along with James Wright, Martini, and Karl Dixon – who partnered McGavin up front.

His record in domestic cup competitions was hardly stellar, a quarter-final with Pau was actually more of an achievement than winning with Bordeaux in his opinion – and the win had come in the season when he’d joined the club mid way through the run. Under his total control they’d never got to the last eight. Add the factor that the FA Cup alwaysthrows up surprises, and Walsall suddenly looked like they might be the sort of side that could spoil his day.

The next morning the headlines said it all, it had been a dazzling performance from everyone in a white shirt but the day had belonged to one man.

’SHOOTER’ McGAVIN FIRES SPURS THROUGH

McGavin’s five goals set a new record for the club, as did the six-nil away scoreline, there had been simply no stopping the Irishman once Spurs had encouraged Walsall to attack and then caught them on the counter. It had been a pre-conceived plan that hadn’t looked like working for a while, but once they were ahead they sprung the trap every time Walsall tried to find a reply.

There had been shocks of course, struggling Huddersfield had held Burnley to a draw despite a gulf of two divisions between them, and Rotherham had achieved a similar feat against a deflated Palace side, but there had been none of the good old-fashioned giant killings that Ed was so fond of – and no Ronnie Radfords, that was for sure. When the fourth round draw was made Ed was looking at causing upsets of his own though, Spurs came out of the hat for a trip to St Andrews to face a Birmingham side in the midst of an indifferent spell.

[flipsix3]

“He said what?”

“Well according to a bunch of the lads, he said he was upset by your comments in the press”

Ed couldn’t believe what he was hearing from Wilkins, everyone had noticed that Stewart Downing had been a bit quiet for the last few days but his assistant had needed to snoop around to find out why.

“Well what the hell was I supposed to say? The guy asked me if I thought we were going to be able to keep him here, I said the chances didn’t look great… I mean Stewart’s turned down every offer we’ve made, it’s pretty clear that he’s not going to get what he wants to the point that he’s stopped listening to offers”

“I’m just telling you what the boys said boss”

“Yeah, I know, and I appreciate it but you know what? It’s tough, he’ll just have to deal with it himself because I’m not gong to bloody bottle feed him”

Just to make his position perfectly clear Ed decided it was time to make a stand, he found the number for Downing’s agent and called him up.

“Okay here’s the deal, there’s a contract offer coming through on your fax as we speak. Now you tell Stewart it’s all we’ve got, that’s his lot, he can either sign it or get used to the fact that he’s not going to be here after the summer. We’ve got to deal with that, he needs to as well”

The next day Ed received confirmation that Downing wasn’t going to sign anything, he went and found the player on the training ground.

“Look Stewart, I’m going to let you into a secret – I was tracking you for three years at Bordeaux and the only reason I never made a move was because you never seemed happy with anything the people here offered you”

“But boss I - ”

“Not buts, and don’t interrupt me. I understand that you’re probably worth more than I’m offering, I accept that and if you don’t want to sign an extension like Simon did then don’t, but don’t start mouthing off about me treating you unfairly when I state the obvious in the press okay?”

He didn’t wait for an answer, instead he turned on his heel and made his way back to the offices to let Downing think it over.

[flipsix3]

Still as excellent as always but the lack of updates after reading 25 odd pages is driving me insane

I was so happy when i finally read all of the pages that i didnt have to sit here and go through lots of pages anymore but now that i have to wait for an update every day or second day it just makes me sad

Yeah there's always a down side eh?

[flipsix3]

After his side’s recent performances it was something of a jolt when they looked completely ordinary during a one-all draw with Wigan. Coming into the game they’d won their eleven previous home ties, ten under Ed’s guidance, but Andy Hessenthaler had obviously instilled a real fighting spirit in his side.

Walther had bundled a loose ball over the line for the opener, but for once his partnership with McGavin had looked largely ineffective to the point that a late equaliser from Richard Jeffries was probably no more than the visitors deserved.

With the fourth round of the FA Cup scheduled as their next tie it was hardly the best time for their form to dip, but his concerns were about to get a whole lot bigger than that. After weeks of uncertainty Everton came in with a hard cash bid for Paul Morris, the young midfield man was playing well and looked an excellent prospect but he’d made no secret of the fact that he very definitely wanted to leave and so Ed decided to give him his chance – central midfield being the one place they had the depth they needed.

Morris signed papers a few days later, on the same day that Nicolas Anelka arranged a summer move to Old Trafford from Arsenal in fact, and when the news broke the Spurs support were furious! The switchboard at the club received dozens of calls, and the forums on the official website were full of messages of concern and, in some cases, outright hostility. Ed could understand the fans’ viewpoint, but when you can see the other side of the picture it’s difficult to hold someone back when they have no interest in staying around.

A small group of fans made their opinions known, shortly before kick-off in the Cup game at Birmingham, which took the edge off the occasion. Not only because he considered their methods likely to disrupt his side, but also because he was waiting on news following the offer he’d accepted from Newcastle United in relation to Downing. The game had largely passed him by because his mind was now focussed elsewhere, but he noted the strong showing from Lennon in goal and the fact that his defence held off the Birmingham three-man front line well. He also noted the fifth minute penalty that Pedro Mendes blazed over the bar, much to the derision of the home support, and he hoped that it wasn’t something that would come back to haunt the midfielder.

It was interesting to see his side face up to Premiership opposition, and even more interesting to note that they handled it very well, not only were the defence solid but the midfield battled hard against the likes of Savage and Bystron, and his main strike partnership looked lively when they slipped their markers. As time ticked away it was looking every inch the draw and Ed felt for Mendes, but taking Birmingham back to White Hart Lane certainly looked like it would give them short odds on a victory… until Alan Hutton popped up three minutes into stoppage time to head home Savage’s corner.

After the game he’d had to sympathise with his side, to lose so late in the day was not what their play had deserved but such things happen, both for and against a side, and he urged his lads to put it behind them and come back firing on all cylinders in the league.

[flipsix3]

Monday morning, he thought to himself as he made his way to the ground, never bothered me in the past but today feels like it might be a bad day. Transfer deadline day was approaching and things had suddenly got very busy, as well as the Downing situation he had a couple of other bids to respond to and he was also trying desperately to put to bed a deal he’d been working for some weeks.

The first bit of news he had was at the same time great and disappointing, George Burley had opened with an offer of just under £9million for Downing – in truth it was a decent figure but Ed had decided to push the Scot just a little further, after considering it for the weekend Burley had withdrawn. Unless someone came in with a sizeable figure in the next day or two Downing was going nowhere it seemed.

Having put that one to bed he contacted the other clubs on his list for the day, several had approached with a view to loaning Simon Lennon in. From what Ed had already seen he was excited about Lennon’s future but he wasn’t sure that he wanted to entrust Spurs’ promotion hopes to him just yet, with Fülöp set to return for the league he made calls and accepted offers from anyone who was prepared to meet the young keeper’s wages for the duration.

His final act, at least in terms of outgoing players, was to accept a modest bid for Karl Dixon – with Walther and McGavin running the show, Hilton his first choice backup, and Slabber throwing his toys from the pram due to his lack of first team chances, the chances of Dixon breaking through were pretty much nil and he didn’t want to hold the lad back.

After three or four hours he and Arnesen finally finished the last conference call, but Ed was disappointed that he’d not heard anything on his target – of course, after being knocked back three or four times he’d been far from optimistic but he’d never totally given up.

“Let’s go get a coffee Frank,” he said, standing up and stretching, “I could use the walk”

As they left his office Ed’s PA was talking away on her headset, she looked up and made a gesture as if to stop him.

“Yes he is, one moment sir,” she tapped the privacy button on the phone console, “Mister Allen, there’s a Mister Bowyer on the phone from Nottingham Forest for you, shall I ask him to call back?”

“God no, put him through” Ed dived back into his office.

He wasn’t entirely sure what was going on at Forest, they’d sacked Dave Parnaby a couple of days earlier and that was why he’d really expected to hear nothing, on top of that they seemed to be operating without the guidance of a Chairman at present as well, but Bowyer seemed to have responsibility for what was going on in Nottingham and as the conversation unfolded Ed was hopeful that he was going to get his man after all. Thanking Bowyer he made another call, this time to Michael Dawson’s agent, and within half an hour a deal had been agreed to in principal, and Dawson was on his way south to sort out the paperwork.

[flipsix3]

Michael Dawson wasn’t in the stands as Spurs travelled to Cardiff, Ed had agreed to sign the defender a couple of days later, allowing him to captain Forest in their crunch relegation match with Leeds.

Stewart Downing got things underway in Wales with only his second league goal of the season, but his celebrations were greeted in equal parts with applause and jeers, the tabloids having revealed - on the morning of the match - that the winger was apparently in discussions with Lazio about a possible summer move. Their second goal, a typical Walther run and shot, was better received and though Jonathan Kift pulled one back it was Spurs who held the upper hand at the break.

Ed had given McGavin a rest and introduced him at half time, bringing young Mark Hughes on for a tired looking Simon Davies too, as it turned out he played his cards too early and when Walther went down in agony after just four minutes he only had one change left to make. Nick Hughes was installed as a makeshift partner for McGavin whilst Ed sweated on news from the Physio’s room. It didn’t take long to come, Walther had a suspected broken shoulder. The injury took the shine off the win for Ed, whilst Nick Hughes’ free-kick was a bright point in the second half Downing was also clearly struggling by full time.

Following the game Geoff Scott’s physio team revealed the full extent of the damage, Walther would miss all training for a fortnight, and probably be out of the matchday squad for longer, whilst Downing would be unavailable for a couple of days. The injury was the least of Downing’s concerns though, and after the reception his goal had received his advisors decided the best thing to do was to get everything out in the open as soon as possible – he released a statement that evening to confirm that he would be moving to the Olimpico in the summer. Ed was left to rue the decision he’d made to try and push Newcastle’s price, and to start the search to find Downing’s long-term replacement.

-----

Michael Dawson made his Spurs debut at home to Coventry in what was a very physical game, Ed wasn’t surprised by the way that Warnock sent his team out to play – he’d always considered the man to be confrontational and his scout reports expected his tactics to be the same. With Nick Hughes in for Downing and Francis back on the bench he’d made sure that the rest of his side was as strong as possible bearing in mind injuries.

Ed was amused to see that Laursen was as eccentric as Mikael Antonsson used to be at Bordeaux when he handed the ball to Hughes for an early penalty, maybe it was a Scandinavian thing, but his mood took a dip when Hughes fired the ball straight at Alan Combe. He didn’t have to wait long for matters to be put straight however, and it was Ryan McGavin’s twenty-fifth goal of the season – his eighteenth in the league – that fired his side ahead. When Isaac Osbourne went in two-footed on Hughes the referee was left no choice and, with half an hour played, it was already looking bad for Warnock’s side.

Hughes was causing all sorts of problems for Coventry, the Palace winger became a target for strong tackles and unfair play as he charged up and down the left wing, and it was the throw-in that he won that brought the second-biggest cheer of the day as the ball came to Dawson on the edge of the box and, showing some nifty footwork, the new man stepped past Stephen Caldwell and fired a shot into the back of the net for a debut goal.

The biggest cheer came half way through the second half when Laursen was left to choose a penalty taker for the second time, and handed the ball to 17-year-old Alex Francis. There was something of a comedy moment when Francis appeared to ask if the Dane was sure, but he then coolly fired the ball low and into the corner for Spurs’ third of the match.

[flipsix3]

JANUARY 2011 SUMMARY

Brighton 0

Spurs 2 (Walther 39, McGavin 54)

Man of the Match: Stewart Downing

News: Davenport (Spurs) sent off 78

Spurs 3 (McGavin 22, Reid og 33, Mendes 68)

Crystal Palace 0

Man of the Match: Stewart Downing

Walsall 0

Spurs 6 (McGavin 44, 45, 48, 58, 82, Morris 56)

FA Cup 3rd Round

Man of the Match: Go on… have a guess!!

Spurs 1 (Walther 40)

Wigan 1 (Jeffries 71)

Man of the Match: Jay McEveley (Wigan) [D LC]

Birmingham 1 (Hutton 90+)

Spurs 0

FA Cup 4th Round

Man of the Match: Rob Earnshaw (Birmingham) [FC]

News: Pedro Mendes missed pen (5 mins) over the bar.

Cardiff 1 (Kift 43)

Spurs 3 (Downing 24, Walther 37, N.Hughes 74)

Man of the Match: Stewart Downing

Spurs 3 (McGavin 20, Dawson 45, Francis pen 73)

Coventry 0

Man of the Match: Anthony Gardner

News: Nick Hughes missed pen (10 mins) saved. Osbourne (Coventry) sent off 32

League Position: 1st

[flipsix3]

As the transfer window closed Ed decided it was time to regroup and look at their position. Paul Morris and Karl Dixon had gone, bringing in a total of around five million, and both Downing and Davenport had signed pre-contract agreements to move in the summer. Meanwhile Simon Lennon had agreed a three month loan at Walsall.

The money earned had been spent on Dawson, along with a small amount on Neervoort, to add to his signings earlier in the season. He saw this pairing as being the spine of his defence going forward, with Davenport heading out and Laursen starting to show his age he wanted to give the two new men time to gel before the end of the season, even if it meant upsetting the Dane and keeping young Tommy Rose on the backburner.

He’d finally conceded defeat in his attempts to prise Robin van Persie away from Newcastle, despite his offer being accepted the former Arsenal man seemingly wanted nothing to do with Spurs – a fact that Ed could appreciate – and wasn’t interested in dropping down a division for a few months either.

With Gardner looking at the possibility of a Bosman move Ed knew that he was going to have work to do on the whole of the left flank and he was pretty sure that his front line would need strengthening in the summer unless he could convince Walther into a permanent deal.

Elsewhere the transfer window had seen interesting moves, not least being the Anelka deal, but the one that brought a smile to Ed’s face was Kieron Dyer. There was something genuinely ‘romantic’ about going back to an old club in your twilight years for Ed, it was what he was doing himself of course, but to do it as a player was something he’d always dreamed of. Dyer was set to make that dream a reality with a summer move to Ipswich from a Bristol City side that had dropped off the promotion pace.

[flipsix3]

“It’s funny how these things can work out Mike, but don’t get to worked up about it. You just do the job, don’t do anything silly, and they’ll respect you for it”

Ed knew he was over-simplifying matters, and he wasn’t entirely convinced that the Notts Forest fans would respect Dawson. It was a hell of a way for the fixture list to work out, Dawson facing his former club for only his second game with his new one, but hopefully his knowledge of the Forest setup might give him an edge – and at least he was only facing a small travelling contingent of former fans.

Any worries Dawson had soon evaporated as he imposed his control over the back four that proceeded to lock Forest out completely. Pedro Mendes marked his return to fitness with a surprisingly gentle – by his standards – shot from the edge of the area, and Jamie Slabber came off the bench to register his first goal of the season.

The win took Spurs twelve points clear of Roy Keane’s Portsmouth at the top of the table. It was still early days, fifteen games yet to be played, but the London press were starting to make very positive noises about the title.

After the game Ed dropped by his office, half a dozen emails sat in his inbox but none looked particularly important… but then one caught his eye from his man in France.

Scott Bridges: Take a look at Santini

Just the sight of the name put him of the defensive, but when he read the email he relaxed, Bridges had spotted a young winger playing for Caen and suggested that there was real promise, Ed fired the email back asking the scout to prepare a more detailed report… and then he decided to take a look at something on the net.

It had been a while since his path had crossed that of Jacques Santini, after doing the damage that had eventually seen Spurs relegated the Frenchman had been an almost constant thorn in Ed’s side both as an opposing manager, and later as a poacher signing one of his best players from Bordeaux. Now he’d been relegated to assistant manager at Strasbourg, and seemed to be doing his best to help get Michel Pavon’s side relegated from Le Championnat.

Ed leaned back in his leather office chair, put his hands behind his head, and allowed himself a quiet smile.

[flipsix3]

It was going to be a long and quiet coach-ride home from Bristol. With Ryan McGavin suffering an injury in Ireland’s match against Latvia, and Walther still sidelined, Ed hadn’t been expecting a great deal in terms of goals from his side but he would have put good money on them keeping the bottom side at bay.

As it turned out Bristol Rovers put on what was probably their best display of the season to run out winners by two goals, and they’d looked like they would have been value for money for a couple more into the bargain. Maybe they’d just caught Rovers on a particularly good day, maybe their hosts were playing in fear of their lives – with the sides above them edging away, whatever the reason his side had slipped up badly and conceded what had to be seen as a shock defeat.

It hadn’t helped matters that Slabber and Gardner were both crocked in the first half, forcing Nick Hughes into the striker role once more with Francis taking the left of defence, and the officials had been a huge problem too – on at least two occasions Slabber had been given offside when he was clearly not, in one case there were two defenders playing him on by at least five yards! All excuses aside though, the goals that Rovers scored both came from set pieces and his side should have coped better.

-----

Thankfully there were no repercussions, no-one at the club was so short-sighted as to make a knee-jerk reaction to the Rovers result, but Ed was piling plenty of pressure on himself by the time they walked away from the game at QPR with ‘only’ a two-all draw to show for it. Twice they’d taken the lead and twice they’d been pegged back, but the result wasn’t his major concern. After the problems at Rovers, the QPR game saw Downing and Fülöp bother suffering injuries. Whilst Downing’s was nothing to keep him sidelined, Fülöp’s groin strain would keep him out for a fortnight.

His gut reaction was to recall Lennon from Walsall, but the kid was still just that – a kid, and with two games against struggling opposition to come Ed decided to gamble with Saytaifa between the sticks and 18-year-old Richard Hall on the bench.

[flipsix3]

“Yeah he’s a good lad, he’ll certainly do a job for the Terriers Dad”

Dad had been straight on the phone when he’d read that Huddersfield had done a deal to sign Spurs’ Tommy Rose on loan. Stuck in mid-table, the chances of automatic promotion had long gone, and it would take a phenomenal turnaround to achieve anything of worth in the last few months.

“No I guess not, although a few wins and you might just make it, I suppose Miller’s going to have to work on strengthening and going for it next season”

………

“Me? I’m okay, it’s not been an easy couple of weeks. I think I got used to the comfort of having a big squad at Bordeaux”

………

“I know, and they’ll keep plugging away – I can’t believe we’ve still got ten points on Cov’ to be honest, I mean one win in four isn’t title winning form you know”

………

“Well if we’re going to, now’s the time to do it, we’ve got a couple of big games coming up”

………

“Is she? Well I’d better let you go then, give her my love and I’ll see you both soon”

………

“Yeah, you too. Bye Dad”

It was true enough that fate had been dealing him rough hands of late, without the kind off depth that he’d enjoyed at Bordeaux things were getting tough. After the defeat in Bristol, and the draw at QPR, they’d managed to grind out a one goal victory at home to Reading thanks to an early goal from Walther. All well and good, but the German’s booking meant that he’d been suspended for the trip to Swindon and Downing had been pulled too, out for two weeks with an injury.

Swindon had been struggling recently but facing a Spurs side without; McGavin, Walther, Downing or Davies – they’d put on a strong showing for their home fans. Jamie Adams’ opener had been nothing less than they deserved and Ed had felt fortunate to go into the break level, Mendes tucking away a spot kick after Adam Hilton was tripped in the box.

His partnership of Hilton and Slabber had looked toothless, just one more reminder – as if he needed it, that they were going to need a couple of quality signings in the summer. Neither looked particularly effective and it took a simply stunning overlap run from Anthony Gardner to create Hilton’s goal in the second half – the defender had come almost to the goal line and his presence had caught the Swindon defence cold, creating space for Hilton to finally get a shot on target.

In the end Phil Stamp, who Ed remembered playing against several times in his Boro days, had given the County Ground crowd the equaliser that they wanted, and deserved, and Ed had been left to try and pick his team up on the coach ride back to the city. They were about to face two fellow promotion contenders, Downing was probably still out of the picture but Fülöp and McGavin should both be fit in time – March was going to be the crunch month in their bid for top-flight status.

[flipsix3]

FEBRUARY 2011 SUMMARY

Spurs 2 (Mendes 68, Slabber 77)

Nottm Forest 0

Man of the Match: Pedro Mendes

Bristol Rovers 2 (Agogo 5, 45)

Spurs 0

Man of the Match: Kamil Kosowski (Rovers) [AM L]

QPR 2 (Lagerblom 37, Bermingham 76)

Spurs 2 (Downing 19, Walther 49)

Man of the Match: Simon Davies

Spurs 1 (Walther 8)

Reading 0

Man of the Match: Stewart Downing

Swindon 2 (Adams 17, Stamp 76)

Spurs 2 (Mendes pen 45, Hilton 66)

Man of the Match: Matthew Heywood (Swindon) [DC]

[flipsix3]

| Pos   | Team           |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   | Tottenham      |       | 35    | 22    | 9     | 4     | 67    | 28    | +39   | 75    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   | Coventry       |       | 35    | 19    | 8     | 8     | 57    | 27    | +30   | 65    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   | Norwich        |       | 35    | 18    | 9     | 8     | 50    | 36    | +14   | 63    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   | Portsmouth     |       | 35    | 17    | 11    | 7     | 49    | 25    | +24   | 62    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   | Watford        |       | 35    | 16    | 11    | 8     | 37    | 23    | +14   | 59    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   | Stoke          |       | 35    | 17    | 5     | 13    | 47    | 34    | +13   | 56    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   | Bristol C      |       | 35    | 15    | 8     | 12    | 46    | 40    | +6    | 53    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   | Derby          |       | 35    | 14    | 11    | 10    | 48    | 49    | -1    | 53    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   | West Ham       |       | 35    | 13    | 13    | 9     | 41    | 34    | +7    | 52    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  | Plymouth       |       | 35    | 12    | 15    | 8     | 40    | 31    | +9    | 51    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  | Q.P.R.         |       | 35    | 13    | 11    | 11    | 50    | 43    | +7    | 50    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  | Burnley        |       | 35    | 13    | 6     | 16    | 38    | 48    | -10   | 45    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13th  | Cardiff        |       | 35    | 11    | 11    | 13    | 42    | 39    | +3    | 44    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  | Wigan          |       | 35    | 11    | 11    | 13    | 26    | 29    | -3    | 44    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  | Hull           |       | 35    | 9     | 15    | 11    | 40    | 36    | +4    | 42    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  | Leeds          |       | 35    | 10    | 12    | 13    | 40    | 47    | -7    | 42    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  | Crystal Palace |       | 35    | 9     | 13    | 13    | 28    | 38    | -10   | 40    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th  | Brighton       |       | 35    | 11    | 7     | 17    | 35    | 48    | -13   | 40    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 19th  | Swindon        |       | 35    | 9     | 12    | 14    | 30    | 53    | -23   | 39    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 20th  | Swansea        |       | 35    | 10    | 8     | 17    | 38    | 54    | -16   | 38    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 21st  | Bournemouth    |       | 35    | 8     | 9     | 18    | 27    | 55    | -28   | 33    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 22nd  | Nottm Forest   |       | 35    | 4     | 19    | 12    | 28    | 42    | -14   | 31    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 23rd  | Reading        |       | 35    | 5     | 15    | 15    | 32    | 46    | -14   | 30    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 24th  | Bristol Rovers |       | 35    | 6     | 7     | 22    | 31    | 62    | -31   | 25    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

[flipsix3]

flipsix3: With 11 more games to go, chances of going up seen quite good...looking forward to see how you fare in the premiership...KUGW

Hi Flipsix, just read all 26 pages - great read and an inspiration to all budding story writers. I look forward to the next installments

Cheers Damien, it is looking good (barring a slump) but I expect the Prem will be a tough prospect with such a small squad.

Welcome aboard Marky, and thanks

[flipsix3]

In the end Ed had a full strength squad to call on for the Norwich game, thanks to the excellent work of Geoff Scott’s Physio team, and there was a notable improvement in the overall feeling from his players as they cruised to victory. Dirk Walther’s sixteenth goal got them off and running and, despite an quick response from Andy Barcham – a former Spurs trainee, Ed’s side controlled the game and eventually took the points through Ryan McGavin.

It had been tough late in the Norwich match, Leroy Rosenior had ordered his side to play 2-3-5 for the last five minutes and the pairing of Neervoort and Dawson had been stretched at the heart of the defence, but the win was certainly the right result to any neutral watching and Ed was optimistic that things were back on track.

-----

With the trip to Portsmouth looming he was particularly surprised that he’d heard nothing through the press from Roy Keane. The Irishman had proved to be a very vocal manager so far, and barely a fortnight went by where Ed didn’t see some comment or other from him in the papers, but there was nothing leading up to Spurs’ trip to the coast.

What surprised him even more was the way that Pompey played the game, sitting deep at the back, and throwing men forward, to leave the midfield almost empty. With space to work in Davies, Downing and Barton had the run of the pitch and controlled the game throughout, but Keane’s well organised defensive unit, partnered with a great display from Roy Carroll, saw Spurs unable to find a goal. It wasn’t for the want of trying of course, unlike a strangely quiet Portsmouth front line, and there was a hint of frustration for Ed in the knowledge that a single strike would undoubtedly have secured the points.

With nine games to go their lead was down to eight points, but the gap to third was up to fifteen, and in the streets all around their north London home Spurs badges and flags were going up in windows and shop-fronts.

[flipsix3]

Ed had been sat in a room with Frank Arnesen for the best part of two hours, and they were still no closer to getting anywhere. The plan had been to start putting bids out for summer signings, but both men wanted to have a team capable of playing for a top-half finish in the Premiership and finding suitable targets who would talk to them had been an impossible task so far. The end of season was already looming close, a fact brought home to Ed when Sunderland’s promotion from League One was confirmed, and with things not going quite according to plan on the pitch he was finding the work frustrating to say the least.

After the Portsmouth result he’d needed to reorganise for the visit of Plymouth, who had arrived with the intention of packing the midfield. The effect had been to stifle the creativity of Downing and Davies, despite Mendes finding the net Spurs had gone on to record their first home defeat of the league campaign.

“What about Richards, from Derby?” Arnesen asked, tossing the file across the table to Ed.

“Now that is a player I think we could do something with,” Ed agreed, “If Anthony’s

going to go – and we have to assume that he is – then Richards looks like he’d fit right in”

“Okay I’ll put some feelers out, rumour has it he’s not too happy up there so we might get a lead on this one”

-----

Although they’d struggled with their attempts to bring in any real household names, Matt Richards quickly penned a deal to secure his move to White Hart Lane in the summer. So when Anthony Gardner knocked on the office door and said that he was prepared to look at a possible extension, Ed was left wondering what to do about it.

Ordinarily he’d have told Gardner that he’d missed his chance, but the defender was too well liked within the club, and he was certainly too good a player to let go of if there was no need to. Ed told Gardner that he’d need time to draw up an offer, and he sat down to work out how they could best accommodate both players.

The answer came as he looked over the player roster for the forthcoming trip to Leeds, with Downing leaving they were going to lack balanced strength on both wings, and Davies could player into a more central role if necessary. Employing Gardner alongside Neervoort and Dawson would give them three strong defenders to face Premiership strikers, Richards and Ifil were custom-made wingbacks, and they had the makings of a respectable three-man midfield.

He set the wheels in motion, putting together a rough idea of how he saw things working out and passing it out to the coaching staff. For now there was no need to make any drastic changes, they could maybe mix things up a bit for the occasional training match, but once the season was wrapped up he wanted them working full-time on the new formation – and he would sit down again with Arnesen to try and build some depth into the squad, appropriate to the new look.

[flipsix3]

Gardner signed his new deal the morning before Ed took his team to Leeds, and the 30-year-old was part of a back four that played out of their skins to hold the Elland Road side to a single goal from Shola Ameobi.

At the other end Ryan McGavin was on fire, finally having put his injury behind him, as he notched a hat-trick. It was the perfect counter-attacking display from Spurs, Leeds had consistently pushed forward only to be punished and McGavin’s eye for goal had taken his tally to twenty-nine for the season – twenty-two of them in the league.

With international matches giving them two weeks before a visit from Swansea City, Ed set about hitting the scout reports and shortlists once more.

His main concern was for a new striker or two, McGavin was still adamant that he was going to get his dream move to a bigger club and with Walther’s loan up at the end of the season they could well find themselves in deep trouble at the front.

His first instinct was to try another bid for Labat, the Bordeaux management had been receptive to his enquiries before but a quick look at their website revealed that the youngster had played his way into the first team when Milan Baros broke his leg. With Baros due to join Lille in the summer he knew his chances would be a lot slimmer than before.

His scouts hadn’t really uncovered anyone that he considered to be a rough diamond yet, and what he really needed was someone with some experience anyway – but his attempts to find such names had already been knocked back several times, whether by the players themselves, or their clubs. The main sticking point when it came to players seemed to be their unwillingness to accept that they would be signing for a Premiership side - Ed just couldn't understand how the mind worked at times.

[flipsix3]

MARCH 2011 SUMMARY

Spurs 2 (Walther 8, McGavin 43)

Norwich 1 (Barcham 12)

Man of the Match: Michael Reid (Norwich) [GK]

Portsmouth 0

Spurs 0

Man of the Match: Roy Carroll (Portsmouth) [GK]

Spurs 1 (Mendes 41)

Plymouth 2 (McGlinchie 36, Wotton 82)

Man of the Match: Stewart Downing

Leeds 1 (Ameobi 35)

Spurs 3 (McGavin 6, 24, 52)

Man of the Match: Ryan McGavin

League Position: 1st – seven clear with seven to play, and a play-off spot assured.

[flipsix3]

OK, 26 down, 14 to go. I'm confident that I can get this all reposted by tomorrow sometime - so if you can hold off on any comments 'til then it'd be appreciated.

Big thanks to my g/f who got home 4 hours ago, and hasn't pestered me too much yet :o

flip July 2008

[flipsix3]

KUTGW

Cheers Plumb

[flipsix3]

“I think I can safely say I’ve never seen anything like that in a league game Ray, certainly not in the years I’ve been managing”

“Frustrating wasn’t it?” His assistant replied, gathering up his notes and heading for the tunnel.

Ed remained in the dugout for a few moments, watching as the home fans started to file out – they were still in a positive mood, but a little more muted than they had been of late. The fans would have had every reason to expect an easy win over Swansea but Ian Holloway’s side were battling for every point and had clearly set out to frustrate Spurs.

Ed could understand Holloway’s approach, and if they’d had a stronger defence he would have felt less hard done by, but the ball had spent nearly half of the game at the feet of Spurs players in the last third of the pitch. By the end of the game the Spurs fans had been joining their Swansea counterparts in sending up a huge cheer whenever the ball got over the halfway line, but at the same time their disbelief as chance after chance went begging must have been stretching their patience. In the last ten minutes alone the woodwork came to Swansea’s rescue on three occasions.

Eventually Ed made his way to the changing room, the players were in good spirits – especially as news came through that second placed Coventry had lost on the road – but he could see the occasional nervous glance from one or two of them. What they needed to do was put together two or three victories again, but with four games against top ten sides coming up he wasn’t sure they were going to get that luxury.

[flipsix3]

flipsix3: Should be exciting run in to end of the season for you...

Cheers Damien, yeah from looking a nice relaxed run-in it seemed to turn into a bit more of a tight affair

[flipsix3]

You really need something to do to take your mind off football now and then, Ed looked in the bathroom mirror at the dark bags that were starting to appear under his eyes. He’d come to realise that, since his arrival in London, Spurs had been the one and only focus of his attention. He supposed that it was understandable, getting them back into the top flight was a big thing and it had helped in taking his mind off the past. That’s exactly it, he thought, you told Catherine that you had to let her go and move on but you’ve not done that, at least you’ve not moved on.

He went over the thought again and again as he drove into work, whilst he had finally put his recent relationships behind him he’d found nothing to replace them with and that was why he spent all of his spare time worrying over what was going on at Spurs. A win today could guarantee promotion, but still he’d spent the last two days thinking about everything that might go wrong, all the players he needed to try and sign for next season, what the Board were going to expect – all well and good, but he realised that everyone else at the club, even the normally sober business types, had started to show another side of themselves as promotion started to look assured.

-----

The opponents for game forty-one of the campaign were Watford, a side looking to cement their place in the play-off spots, and though Ed was making a conscious effort to try and enjoy himself things hadn’t got off to the best of starts.

He’d taken a couple of minutes before the match to walk around the pitch, there were more than a few banners already proclaiming their return to the top-flight – several amusing warnings directed at a 'struggling' Arsenal side who were sitting fifth in the Premiership – and Ed had stopped to talk to a few groups of fans, even signing some autographs which was something he’d always found quite an absurd idea.

Once the game had kicked off the old doubts had eased back in though, Spurs were dominant but they had been so often of late and he failed to register any surprise when Michael Ball drove home a free-kick from the edge of the area to give Watford an unlikely lead.

McGavin had already been taken off, nursing an injury to his right arm that he picked up in a challenge with his marker, and with Walther not showing quite the form he had earlier in the season Ed wondered where their goals were likely to come from. The answer was Pedro Mendes, the only other player in double figures for the season, and the midfielder made it twelve in the league when he matched Ball’s free-kick.

It was looking like another draw was on the cards, the second half got bogged down in midfield and Watford made sure that they had at least six men behind the ball whenever Spurs managed to break out of it. With the news that Brighton were holding Portsmouth it became clear that a win would see Spurs go up, the home fans redoubled their vocal efforts in an attempt to urge their side on but the chances weren’t coming.

A long range effort from Barton was tipped around the post by David Preece and Ed saw the opportunity – his players did too and the defensive line piled into the box for Nick Hughes’ corner. The ball came in and confusion reined, at least fifteen men in the penalty area, Ed saw two or three hit the floor in pile and then the referee’s whistle cut through the yells from the north stand. Confused, Ed waited to see what was going on, Dawson was claiming that he’d been man-handled and Mister Mathieson jogged over to the sideline to speak to his assistant. A brief conversation followed and then the Ref turned and pointed to the spot, Mendes placed the ball and fired it past Preece into the top corner.

In front for the first time Ed made changes, taking off Walther and adding a man to midfield to make sure that they held on to the points this time – he needn’t have worried, Watford looked done for and the last twenty minutes were played out with barely a chance at either end. The announcer ran through the other scores from around the league but there was little point, various fans had already got the results by phone and the news was in, Spurs were going to be facing Arsenal next season.

[flipsix3]

Congrats on the promotion. COYS

Thanks Al..

[flipsix3]

For the first time since he’d come back home Ed allowed himself a couple of days to relax, after the initial celebrations things had gone back to strictly business behind the scenes at White Hart Lane – the one thing that he really missed about his Pau days was the family feeling that he’d enjoyed when working with Le Coadou’s team.

Leaving Wilkins to take care of training he’d driven up to see his parents and, on a whim, invited his father to play a round of golf. It had been a long time since Ed had played, in fact the last time had been when Catherine had asked him to teach her – and he hadn’t wanted to think about that – but Dad enjoyed the occasional round and he thought that it might be something he could get back into to help him relax.

It hadn’t been the total escape from football that he would have liked, but with Huddersfield having played themselves to within a win or two of a play-off spot at least Dad had been talking about them and not his Spurs side. He was full of praise for Tommy Rose though, and Ed wondered for the first time if Paul Miller might make an approach for a permanent deal.

As for the golf itself, whilst it might work in the long term it certainly didn’t relax him on the day, his father played the kind of game that he’d hated as a youngster – straight down the middle, no real distance but always on line, he was rarely more than a single shot over par on any given hole thanks to his short game. Ed, on the other hand, had always been an aggressive golfer, and with his swing suffering from years of neglect he’d lost half a dozen balls and carded the worst score that he could remember.

“But you did enjoy it, admit that much” Dad had said as they drove back home, and he had to admit that he had, and he could well imagine taking the game up again now that he’d got settled.

-----

Any illusions that the players might have been under, that it was going to be an easy run in to the end of the season, were blown away on the brief trip to West Ham. The Hammers were desperately trying to break into the top six and they gave as good as they got against Ed’s newly promoted side who might, if he was honest, have been suffering from some kind of hangover after the Watford game.

With Barton and McGavin unavailable Ed had made a couple of changes in personnel, but nothing that should really have accounted for the casual approach that his side had seemed to take into the game. At half time they were lucky to be level, Walther had squandered a couple of good chances and it was only Fülöp keeping them in it at the other end. By five minutes after half time they’d been punished.

Graham Rix had obviously fired his side up during the interval, from the kick-off they ran the ball up the pitch and Darren Bent headed in Zamora’s cross after just eighteen seconds. As his side tried to instantly react they left themselves open, less than three minutes after their opener, Zamora fired in West Ham’s second and the home crowd were going crazy.

Admittedly Stephen Bywater had a lot of say in the final result, the Hammers’ keeper made a couple of good saves in the second period, but all in all it had been a poor attempt from Ed’s men and he let them know it as they made for the coach and the short drive back home.

[flipsix3]

Hey Flip, great story. It's been the only thing keeping me sane over the last few weeks, although one thing has niggled me.

I don't know if i read it wrong or it was a mistake but in the Chelsea game, the stupid penalty. If Cech had handled outside the box, wouldn't it have been a free kick instead of a pentalty? Either i misread it or that dude from "The Hills Have Eye's" replaced Collina and decided being a referee was more high profile than a crazy hairless maniac..

Anyway, great story, gave me inspiration to write my own and keep it up son. Suggestions what i should now do with my spare time on a postcard...

Sorry no update yet, away from home for a couple of days, but thanks - Matt - for the support.

To be honest the whole Cech thing was bizarre, in reality he was only just outside the six-yard box and the referee blew for handball - the only thing I can imagne is that the game "temporarily forgot" that he was a Keeper!?

Of course, outside the box, it would have been a free-kick - for the purposes of the story I could have been a little more creative I guess, but I wanted to retain some element of the most strange decision/glitch I've ever seen in CM/FM