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Tuesday 28 April 2009

Darren Bent: What more could we ask for?

DARREN BENT, at times a hero at others a villain.. I needn't remind anyone the-then-relegation-battle-Pompey home game not so long ago where 'Arry claimed 'his missus' couldv scored the chance given to Bent, at the time. But then again, everyone has their off day, don't they? Bent is our top scorer with 17 goals, 12 in the Premier league; that makes him the top English premiership scorer and is only a premiership goal behind Fernando Torres, arguably one of the worlds' greatest strikers. Now, I'm not here to highlight the typical arrogance of a Spurs fan and argue how Bent is even in the same league as Torres- let's be honest, he's not. But on the other hand, what more can Spurs fans ask for.


In reality, Spurs are a decent club that do show signs of making a real push for the Champions League, during pre-season that is. Although, this optimism usually returns to the usual moans and groans of start of season and soon enough any optimism is soon enough pessimism and reality outside of 'silly season' hits us like a rocket. Ok so we make a fair push for European football; in the last 3 seasons we have finished fifth twice, and to be honest under BMJ, we over-achieved. Now in the summer of 2007 we purchased Darren Bent- formally of Charlton Athletic after they fell into the fizzy pop league. His first season proved a frustrating one as he remained fourth choice behind the arrogant Berbatov, club captain Robbie Keane and the favourite Jermaine Defoe. He only managed to bag 8 goals in all competitions.


This season with the departure of both Berba and, disappointingly, club captain Robbie Keane, Bent was given the chance to shine. Now, even through our losing streak, Darren still scored 4 goals in 9 games, including the equaliser against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, now, anyone that scores against that horrible lot have got to be given recognition, surely? From when Redknapp took over in late October and, up until January, Darren scored 5 goals including one against Arsenal in the epic North London Draw at the Emirates, by now he'd scored in both of Spurs' biggest and most important games of the season.


Now I could go on about another 4 months bragging about how many goals Bent has scored, but to be honest, strikers are usually mainly judged on goals and Bent has a fair few of them. Since January, he has scored more goals than both Keane and Pav, and ok, Keane's passion and footballing knowledge has enabled a formidable partnership with Bent and has helped contribute with his impressive performances since arriving from Liverpool. To be fair, Darren does have his fair share of horror shows- but don't all strikers. He's managed to bag goals against United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Villa- all away from home, now, can any of our other strikers brag they have scored against ALL of these teams? In fact, have many other strikers in the league achieved this? No. They've had their moments, Pav's winner against the pool and Keane's equaliser at the Emirates, but neither have scored as frequently against the top four as has Darren Bent.


So as I come to a close, need I ask, what is wrong with Darren Bent.. are Spurs really going to be able to get their hands on a real champions league winner that will bag us 30 goals a season every season, NO! So why complain with what we've got!!


Off the point slightly but might i add that Spurs have only conceded nine league goals at White Hart Lane this season in the league, two less than any other Premier League side!! STUFF THAT IN YOUR FACT BOOK


Regards, Ben


(Picture copyright of tottenhamhotspur.com)

Monday 27 April 2009

Are we really surprised?







ONCE AGAIN the scoreline told what many other fans expected to see, a Spurs loss at United; to be fair we haven't won up there for 17 odd years or so. Although, I still believed my beloved Spurs would play fine football without the pressure that hung on us for much of this season, we'd beaten the drop- in my opinion a place in the Europa league and a 7th finishing spot would be pushing it a bit. But still I watched the game with the same rush of optimism that had hit me ever since i returned from Villa Park not to long ago.

After Darren Bent had become the top English scorer in the premiership and then our little croatian had put us two ahead I still felt as though, as I'm sure many of us did, that United would score and 'normal service' would be resumed. Although at half time i felt we'd played like winners against the best team in Europe. We'd passed the ball around calmly, played our own game and looked ever so dangerous when attacking the Stretford end, I'm sure many of the United 'fans' had regretted their long trip up from London and i'm sure many had turned to City, after getting their first away win yesterday. I felt proud to be a Spurs fan, 2-0 up at Old Trafford adding to our unbeaten run against the teams in the top four and having done the double over the hammers, that's bragging rights for us this season!Then reality hit us, it felt worse than being kicked in the bollocks by the powerful boot of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink back in the day..


The premiership's 'top' referee buckles under the pressure of 70,000 moaning fans as their team has looked to bottle it again against a Spurs team that had taken just 2 points from their first 8 games as-once our very own- Micheal Carrick goes down like his legs have been cut off. Now, as a referee myself I can understand that if Webb had felt the ball wasn't played and the linesman agreed with the decision, fair enough, penalty. The fact that Webb had a clear view of the brilliant goalkeeping by our very own Heurelho Gomes- who, despite conceding five goals, had one of his better games- plus the fact that the linesman also shared the view of Spurs fans across the country, shows that Webb has plain and simply bottled it, 'crumbled' under the pressure AGAIN and since that point, with the referee showing his true colours (the red of united) we didn't stand a chance of gaining anything at the 'Theatre of dreams'. We were then rapidly brought down to Earth as united scored their first, the 2nd, the 3rd and so on.. you know how the rest goes. I could also mention the foul on our little croatian left winger during the build up to the second United goal and the fact that Lennon was kicked by Ronaldo who was later booked for removing his shirt, but I could go on forever.


The fact is that once again we were robbed at Old Trafford; but are we really surprised? I seem to remember a certain Pedro Mendes scoring from Half way a few seasons back, but that's seems to all have been forgiven and forgotten, each season we talk about introducing technology but how long do we have to wait until the FA actually help the nation recover some pride and introduce video technology; but then again I can't imagine the FA acting upon this, I mean they thought Steve McClaren was best suited for the England job.. that's got to say something!

I read some suggestions such as bans for poor refereeing and this and that but this is always going to happen to the 'smaller' clubs in England, on the 58th minute the title was kept in Manchester and with referees giving the benefit of the doubt to the 'bigger' clubs in the country can we really be surprised that it is the same teams challenging the same top four places every season?

N.B Regards to all the 3000 die hard Spurs fans that travelled up to the theatre of dreams to see a nightmare of refereeing.



Regards, Ben