Adebayor - The Master Plan Continues

Back at the end of Last Year I asked if not playing Adebayor was actually a master tactic. My tongue in cheek question was basically around the facts that whilst Ade was often the star of the first four months of the season come January he was often a little absent from the Score Sheet.

Now whilst I wasn't 100% serious it would appear that I may be getting proved right. Ever since Sherwood came in Adebayor has scored 6 times in 8 games, Hopefully this will continue to the end of the season instead of running out of steam in January, essentially giving us Adebayor at his best at the perfect time in the season. I'm going to be generous and say this was AVB's plan all along. (I doubt it was, but he is a former Spurs manager so I am inclined to go easy on him!)

the match itself was reasonably comfortable and showed real signs of the summer signings all starting to come together in what has been missing in earlier games, I am actually starting to feel slightly optimistic for the future (Normally a sure sign that a big defeat is around the corner.) Which coincides with the visit of Man City to the lane. I guess we will know better if we are "over the hump" better this time next week.

Unfortunate Penalty Kick

Whilst searching youtube for the Penalty by Jason Puncheon I came across this video of open goal misses. I'm sure there will be sympathy from anyone who has missed an open goal.

Unfortunately Jason Puncheon's missed penalty isn't on here as it is from 2013, but I am pretty sure he will get a role on next years video.

Goodbye Jermain, Thanks for the Memories

So news has come out today that Jermain Defoe has agreed to join Toronto (And former Spurs player Ryan Nelson) at MLS side Toronto, He doesn't straight away so will still play out a few Spurs games (not often you get football players working their notice period) and I am sure will get a great send off at the Lane.

For me Defoe was the highlight of the Spurs team for many years, in recent years he was occasionally sidelined but was always there ready to be called upon, there has been talk of him joining other teams (And he did join Portsmouth for 1 year.) but he has never seemed to be getting stroppy if he was carrying the whole team or sat on the sidelines I always felt that when needed Defoe would be there and would give his all - funnily enough I remember speaking to a West Ham fan after we signed him who said that he had no Loyalty and he would be off if the going ever got tough, Looks like he proved them wrong.

So farewell Jermaine Defoe, good luck in Canada\America and know that you will always be a Spurs Legend.

Years	Club	Played	Goals
2004–2008	Tottenham Hotspur	139	(43)
2009–	Tottenham Hotspur	135	(47)

Will Adebayor's two goals bring some pride back to White Hart Lane

 

Well after a 6-0 defeat to Man City and a 5-0 Defeat to Liverpool AVB as sacked, I'm not going to say if I agree with the decision or not but as a Spurs fan I'm not surprised and I will say it distressed me less than seeing Harry or Jol going as those two sackings were hard to take, anyway as always on to the future and despite an initial set back to Tim Sherwood's Managerial caretakership, in losing 2-1 to West Ham to go out of the League Cup, we were back to winning ways this weekend thanks to two goals from Adebayor. Now for years I have been joking with mates that Adebayor would be the top striker in the premiership if the season ended at Christmas, year after year he seemed to blast out of the blocks in September only to disappear entirely come January so perhaps despite AVB losing his job maybe he had a master plan, leave Adebayor on the sidelines until December and hopefully he will still be knocking them in come May, seems to be working so far.

The match itself it has to be said was a little more nerve racking than I had hoped from Southampton but as they have Drawn with City and United so far this season (And beat Liverpool) it was never going to be a stroll in the park, Spurs showed several defensive weaknesses which have been evident for a few weeks now (Can't believe the defense was the tightest in the league at one point.) but at least they are now balancing that with some goals at the other end and although Soldardo again had a desperately bad game in front of goal wasting at least 3 chances in 10 second half minutes, he is at least getting into the right positions and linking well with the other players I think as long as we keep faith with him then once he gets a couple of goals he will probably not look back, all in all whilst I am not going to get excited about beating Southampton the future definitely looks a little brighter than it did.

Tottenham Hotspur, Title Contenders?

So far so good for Tottenham this year, after the highs of last year’s Champions League were followed by the lows of failure to qualify it looked like our progress of late may have run aground, this season however has seen Tottenham seriously mentioned as a title contender for the first time since I can remember (I Started to support them in 1991) and it is definitely the first time I can remember them being level with points with Man Utd the business side of Christmas.

Unfortunately I have still been a spurs team throughout the 90’s and the 00’s so I am still slightly reluctant to believe that it isn’t all going to go wrong (Just too many false dawns.) this may all change however in the next six weeks as we enter our “Hell” period:

22nd January Man City (A)
31st January Wigan (H)
6th February Liverpool (A)
11th February Newcastle (H)
26th February Arsenal (A)
3rd March Man Utd (H)

Yes in 6 weeks will meet 5 of the top seven including trips to the City of Manchester, Anfield and the Emirates, this next 6 weeks should tell us if we are title challengers or just a footnote on a future sky sports premier league years programme. If we can arrive at the evening of the 3rd March in the top four then I will feel quite confidant of a top 4 finish (as I think we have a very easy run in) If we can actually win 3 or 4 of those encounters then I see no reason why we should not be considered title contenders. Personally I will happy with a draw against Manchester City and Arsenal. Think we should be able to beat Man Utd and Newcastle at the lane and would hope we can get a result from Anfield, but no matter how good we have been this year part of me will still be suspecting that we may lose all of them and be faced at the start of March with a tough road to re-qualify for the Europa League, either way these next few weeks will decide our season.

Another Season Comes to an End

Well the Premiership is over for another year, Tottenham could not match last season by qualifying for the Champions League but their fifth place is only the 22nd time the club have finished in the top 5 in their history and the fourth since I started to support them so I am happy. It was always going to be a tough ask as although we have several players with Champions League experience they had never played at that level as a team, in the end I think we were simply suffering from a few injuries at the wrong points and in the end the team just ran out of steam. (Not to mention the Ref in the Chelsea game who cost us three points.)

Question is can Tottenham get back in the top four next season? I hope so but I think if it is to happen it will need to be at the expense of Arsenal and probably with a harder challenge from Liverpool. Obviously it would be slightly pointless to try and work out the strengths of the teams next year before we see the effect of the transfer window but I would fully expect the champions to come from one of Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea - And Chelsea are my least favoured team - This will leave Tottenham, Arsenal and Liverpool to fight over the final Champions League space and I think a lot of this will come down to how the teams strengthen and the effect that Arsenal and Tottenham competing in Europe will have.

When will Crawley be a league team?

Waiting for the Champions League Quarter Final Draw starring Tottenham I thought I would spend five minutes running some calculations on Crawley Town and their push for League Status. Crawley currently sit top of the Blue Square Premier with 77 pts ahead of AFC Wimbledon with 71 but having played 5 less games and facing them on Friday night at home so things are looking very good, what I have decided to look at however is when Crawley can have the title wrapped up. With Crawley, Wimbledon and Luton (Currently in 4th) having 12, 8 and 11 games remaining respectively they each have a maximum possible points score this season of:
Crawley Town 113 (Previous Highest is 101 Aldershot 07/08 Season)
Luton Town 102 (Hence why I have included them in analysis)
AFC Wimbledon 95

Obviously anything can happen in football and so far all Crawley are guaranteed is to finish above 9th but that would take not just a catastrophic loss of form but also an incredibly unlikely turn of events that would see the worst case scenario coming up for Crawley in every match. But onto more optimistic matters.
Going forward if things go Crawley’s way then the following scenario can see the title (and by extension promotion) being secured in two weeks time.
Crawley are playing 5 games in the next two weeks (Actually 2 weeks and 2 days)
Home – AFC Wimbledon
Away – Eastbourne
Away - Gateshead
Home – Mansfield
Home – Darlington
Obviously a very challenging schedule however if they win all the games they will sit on 92 Points with only AFC Wimbledon (92), Luton (102) and Wrexham (93) able to beat them and AFC only on GD.
Wrexham’s next game is away to Fleetwood Town which is not an easy fixture but all they need is one loss from their 4 games in the next two weeks and their maximum will be 91, If AFC Wimbledon drop a single point (Assuming they lose to Crawley Tomorrow Night ) they will also be mathematically prevented from beating Crawley.
The least likely turn of events however is that for Crawley to wrap up the title on the 2nd April Luton will need to lose all 4 of their matches between now and then which is more of a stretch than Wrexham and Wimbledon losing one, or for my money Crawley winning the next five.
If Luton and Crawley both continue to win however then the title could instead be clinched 10 days later on the 12th April when Crawley Host Luton, perhaps this would be a better turn of events as it would make that one hell of a match.

Updated Premier League Predictions

I have re-evaluated the stats on my league table prediction programme (Replaced the predicted values with the real values and increased the Co-Eff of the new values by .2 to weight reality over predictions)

There have been big changes at the top since last time, Mainly for a Tottenham point of view that Chelsea will swap places with Man City but that Tottenham will still qualify for the Champions League – perhaps more remarkable however is that Arsenal will win the League overtaking Man Utd on the 30^th April after victory at the Emirates stadium and not looking back from there.

Sunderland still sit in a highly likely Europa League place just needing either Arsenal to win the League Cup Final against Birmingham or Arsenal/Man Utd to play Man City in the FA Cup final and they will feature in the Europa League for the first time.

Liverpool's recent improvement in form is not enough to lift them above Sunderland, so if things go the way I predict then Liverpool will miss out on European Football next season unless both of the above come true.

The other big changes are at the bottom where Fulham are no longer predicted in the drop zone and West Ham end up getting relegated along with Blackpool and Wigan.

So here's the latest table

I must again preface this with the acknowledgement that I know that this is all rubbish and will still quite likely bear no resemblance to the final league position – especially as I have so far managed just 46% of correct results.

Crawley Vs Manchester United

I tend to follow lots of teams usually due to geographical location, obviously Tottenham are my first team as I support them over any other team but I also keenly follow Crawley (My closet club), Brighton (The closest league side – until next year), Uxbridge (Home Town Team after Ruislip Manor Folded), Hayes and Yeading (From Working at Hayes), Reading (Just always liked the club), Sutton United (My Old Bosses favourite team), Brentford (Because it means a lot to my friends Dad) and Arsenal (Shocking to admit as a Spurs fan but as my Dad, Brother, Sister, Brothers in Law, Sister In Law and Nephews – Except Archie who is a Spurs fan!!! – Are all Arsenal fans it is hard to not like success that will bring happiness to so many people who matter to me, although I still love it when we beat them.)

But this year apart from Spurs it has all been about Crawley and their visit this Saturday to Old Trafford to face Manchester United, now the Manchester United message boards are full of talk of Alex Fergusson resting players and putting out a reserve side which I am sure will happen but I am sure you can expect to see the United bench full of Talent who can be brought on in case of the shock goal by Tubbs. Personally I hope that United do start with a weakened side as although I am sure for the Crawley Town players the dream is to meet Berbatov and Rooney on the field but if they are underestimated by United there is a real chance of an upset, well maybe real chance is a bit of a stretch but in the FA cup you never know. Win or lose this is Crawley’s year, the FA Cup tends to throw up one of these teams every couple of years who go on a cup run much further than their league position suggests and although Wembley is a long way off the effect that this tie has had on the club financially (This one game could easily make the club more money than it has made in some previous seasons.) and on the Town in general, suddenly everyone is proud to be from Crawley and come Saturday at 17:15 the entire town will be either in Manchester or Inside watching the game – Obviously this will not be true I know for a fact my Wife has no interest in watching it but it feels like it at the moment.

Sunday there is a very real chance that we will be waking up to just see the reality that although Crawley are favourites to end the year as a League Team even the most optimistic fan knows there is a massive gulf between the countries best League and Non-League team but that will not stop us dreaming.

Champions League Dream Continues

This has been a great time for football in the last few weeks; well it has for me anyway. Obviously if this is not your first visit to this blog then you know that my first footballing love are Tottenham Hotspur, And The fact that this year I have seen Tottenham triumph over both Milan giants makes this the best season since I started to support Spurs back in the early 90’s. Obviously the AC Milan vs Spurs match is only half over but we must be favourites to go through and even if we crash out at this stage I think we have proved that we deserved our place in the European Elite competition, there is every chance that we will be muscled out by the Money men at Man City and Chelsea but at least we proved that a club built on sound financial management and slow improvement can operate at the highest level, and unlike when Leeds gatecrashed the party built on speculation that it would be a recurring invite Tottenham can survive not playing in next years Champions League (Although if we can keep Bale and Van Der Vaart is another question.) And unlike Everton’s brief soirée a few years later we have also proven that we can match some of the best that Europe has to offer – Although in fairness with our recent records against Arsenal and Chelsea I think we already knew that.

It is a great bit of justification for Spurs fans, when Tottenham qualified last season I was told by many fans of Champions League teams (Mostly Chelsea but this is because I was working in South London and they were everywhere.) that we would not make it through qualification, Then after the draw for the groups was announced it was exclaimed happily that We were doomed and could never beat Inter Milan, then after the last draw I was confidently told, albeit at a lesser volume than the start, that AC Milan would humiliate us at the San Siro. I am happy to report that they are wrong once more, despite this and possibly due to the immense disappointment I have had over the years I am still cautious about declaring Tottenham the victors as it is only a one goal lead and anything can happen however we are in control of our own destiny and the Lane has been an intimidating fortress over the last few years so things are looking very bright.

The match itself was notable for the Attack of Gattuso on Joe Jordan our 60 year old first team coach (And voted number 34 in the list of 100 hardest footballers) This really was a game of two halves, in the first half Tottenham dominated, had most of the good attacks and looked set to dominate the AC Milan team who simply couldn’t find any rhythm the second half however Milan came out in a different move and seemed determined that if they could not out play Tottenham they would try and out muscle them, this also proved problematic however as Milan’s five footers struggled to muscle 6ft 7In Peter Crouch, they decided instead to rely on Cheating and unsportsmanlike behaviour. The main talking points (Other than the diminutive Hair Ball (Gattuso) attacking the Bald Giant (Jordon)) were the tackle by Flamini on Corluka which will hopefully not cause any serious injuries but shockingly did not result in a Red Card and the Tottenham Goal where Spurs particularly Aaron Lennon, Luka Modric and Crouch demonstrated that along with the flair and patient build up play we demonstrated in the first half there is also a killer counter attacking element to the team, one they must be fearful off when they visit the Lane

Another Record Transfer Window

Well the Transfer Window slams shut for another January and for the first time I can remember Spurs failed to buy anyone on the last day, The big news was the Chelsea – Liverpool – Newcastle switch around in which Liverpool swapped one of Europe’s best strikers for an injured Geordie, not that I think that Andy Carroll is a particularly bad signing, it is simply that he is no Torres.

For me as a Spurs fan the transfer window was for the main a disappointment, we purchased Steven Pienaar and failed to buy Charlie Adam on the last day of the window, personally I am very glad that we failed to buy Adam, again I think he is a quality player and I understand why Blackpool are so keen to keep him, but again he is not what is needed. If you look at Tottenham this season one thing you would not say is that we have looked lacking in midfield, I see a fully fit Tottenham squad as consisting of Lennon – Modric – Van Der Vaart – Bale so I am not really sure the part that Pienaar can play and I definitely do not see a place for the Blackpool skipper. Apparently we also spent our time looking for a striker, this I do agree with a little bit more as Peter Crouch and Roman Pavleychenko still do not seem to have what it takes when the chips are down and I don’t think it would be unfair to say that Jermaine Defoe is not firing at his best.

If I was to name all of the players that I believed Tottenham had that were of a Champions League standard i.e. Able to play consistently at the highest level. I would have to say we have Defoe (When fully fit again) Van Der Vaart, Modric, Bale, Lennon (Again when at peak performance) and finally I would include Woodgate although with his injuries he can’t really be counted. We then have several of what I would call Europa League level players who would be at home at any second level European Club – Huddlestone, Dawson, Bassong, Corluka, Gomes, Gallas (Although he has obviously been a first tier player previously.) King, Benoit and Hutton. As you can see from this list what I am trying to get at is that it is our defence that needs the work, all of our defensive players are either highly injury prone, or struggle to keep up a “Champions League” level of performance. I was very disappointed therefore to not see a decent stabilising defender coming into the squad over this window. Still it could be worse, we could be Liverpool!

This Weeks Premier League Predictions

22/01/11

Wolves – Liverpool = Wolves Win
Arsenal – Wigan = Arsenal Win
Blackpool – Sunderland = Draw
Everton – West Ham = Everton Win
Newcastle – Tottenham = Draw
Aston Villa – Man City = Man City Win
Fulham – Stoke = Fulham Win
Man Utd – Birmingham = Man Utd Win

23/01/11

Blackburn – West Brom = Blackburn Win

24/01/11

Bolton – Chelsea = Bolton Win

25/01/11

Blackpool – Man Utd = Man Utd Win
Wigan – Aston Villa = Wigan Win

26/01/11

Liverpool – Fulham = Liverpool Win

Well Done Crawley Town & Premier League Predictions

Before I publish my Predictions for the next round of Premiership Games I need to reflect briefly on Crawley Town quite sensationally getting into the fourth round of the FA Cup for the first time in the clubs 114 year history. A feat made all the more remarkable for those of us who remember the repeated High Court appearances of 2006 – 2008 a period where it very much looked like the club would be wound up. I even remember the council having to look at options for the Broadfield Stadium as it appeared that HMRC would force Crawley out of business. Now under a new owner and with the Best team in Non-League football they first knocked out League 1 Swindon and then Championship Derby to set up a fourth round tie with Torquay the lowest ranked side since the first round – Already fans are talking of Crawley in the Last 16 and surely a real glamour tie if they can pull it off. It won’t be easy but even if they don’t make it then Crawley Town can be proud of what they have achieved just as the Town is sure to be proud of them.

Anyway, onto the predictions

Chelsea – Blackburn = Chelsea Win
Man City – Wolves = Man City Win
Stoke – Bolton = Stoke Win
West Brom – Blackpool = Draw
Wigan – Fulham = Draw
Liverpool – Everton = Liverpool Win
Birmingham – Aston Villa = Birmingham Win
Sunderland – Newcastle = Sunderland Win
Tottenham – Man Utd = Tottenham Win

Few strange stats, firstly very few of them have close Co-Effecients so not really a lot different than you would probably have picked if you were just guessing. The most risky one is Tottenham V Man Utd which I have down as a Tottenham Win which the figures back up but so far my calculations have proven particularly useless at picking the correct Spurs results so either my predictions are skewed by my personal bias and I have somehow coded in the particular way to give erroneous results – or Spurs just keep losing games they should really win.

Can I predict the rest of the Premier League Season?

Of cause I can't, however I have been messing around over the Christmas break and I have come up with a Prediction model for the premier league. As I like to put my neck on the line I am going to publish my prediction of the final league table now.

So I am showing that Manchester United will win the Premier League with Arsenal Second, Man City Third and Spurs retaining forth place at the expense of Chelsea. Other points of note are that LFC finish 9th and so do not qualify for European Football and West Ham avoid relegation at the expense of London Rivals Fulham in the last week of the season.

So how did I come up with these predictions? Basically I built three values based on Home/Away and Combined performance.

I then applied a sliding prioritising to these values based on the time between the game and the current date so that the previous games ratio was 1, the game before applied at 0.9 down to all games over ten weeks ago based at 0.1 these then combined to give a rating for the home and away teams, Then combining the Home/Away score with .25 score from the total combined score I applied these to the results of the last match between the two teams to come to the predictive final score.

So for example tonight’s game against Stoke I have Man Utd with a score of 0.95 and Stoke with an Away score of 0.39 these values are applied to the reverse fixture a 1-2 victory for Man Utd and so the model predicts a 2-0 win for Man Utd.

Now before I head down to William Hill to make my fortune I should say that the model has a predictive accuracy of 53% (On Correct results rather than direct scores) which may sound like a wide margin of error (And it is) but it is considerably better than the first instance of the model which ran at 14% accuracy.

The main limitations of the model are that it will always produce a very low amount of draws preferring to predict direct Home and Away wins (Mostly Home) and the scores predicted are usually low as it can not correctly predict when a team will collapse to a 6-0 defeat.

Finally due to the ratings that I calculate the rating will evolve and change with each week so even after one game the prediction model will adjust all future games and therefore the weekly predictions I am planning to publish (If I get the time and remember) will be highly unlikely to reflect the current predictions as this is based on if the teams play the rest of the season in their current form. For example when I built the model last week it predicted Arsenal Third, Chelsea Forth but now predicts Tottenham Fourth and Chelsea fifth based on the change in Chelsea’s rating after the Aston Villa game.

So in short all of this means basically that there is no point me listing the league table as it has come from the model but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I will however be publishing my predictions each week so that you can see how I am doing over all, just the results though as the scores are seldom actually correct.

So here goes for this weeks

Blackpool V Birmingham – Blackpool Win
Fulham V West Brom – Fulham Win
Man Utd V Stoke City – Man Utd Win
Everton V Tottenham Hotspur – Tottenham Win
Arsenal V Man City – Draw
Aston Villa V Sunderland – Aston Villa Win
Newcastle V West Ham – Newcastle Win
Wolves V Chelsea – Draw
Blackburn V Liverpool – Blackburn Win
Bolton V Wigan – Bolton Win

My 2010 Awards of the Year

Well with 2010 done and 2011 ahead I have decided that I may join in with everyone else and provide a list of “Awards” (In Name only don’t be expecting any money) and Predictions for the year ahead.

Working in chronological order I will start with the Awards for 2010 first and then deal with 2011 in a subsequent post.

So here are my Awards for 2010.

SPORTS

SPORTS TEAM OF THE YEAR
My sports team of the year is the England Cricket Team, whilst cricket is not my main sport I think that the team who have long been seen as underachievers (Aren’t all England Teams viewed in this way.) but this year they have quite literally taken the world by storm, Winning the third instalment of the 20:20 World Cup before days before the end of the year producing a great performance to retain the ashes – So what if most of them seem to be South African!

SPORTS HERO OF THE YEAR
My Sports Heroes of the year (Joint Heroes) are unsurprisingly from Tottenham had you asked me last year I would have hoped they would have been from England’s World Cup Winning squad (Football not Cricket.) but we all know how that turned out. So instead of an Englishman my picks are a Welshman and a Dutchman. Between Gareth Bale and Rafael Van Der Vaart Tottenham have started to not just deliver some good football – even during the last 20 cold years we have played some great football – but they have actually changed the way Tottenham feel, no longer do we have to look at the list of upcoming fixtures and dread meeting Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool or even Newcastle we now know that when we are on form we can beat anyone and that has come from these two figure heads for the change that has come about in the last five years.

SPORTS TRAVESTY OF THE YEAR
This has to go to FIFA for their Awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar. Now I have no issue with these two countries being made hosts of the tournaments, obviously I would have loved England to get the World Cup in 2018 but if FIFA wanted it to go to Russia and they believe that Russia can put on a great World Cup then that is good enough for me. What I consider the Travesty is the process by which they were awarded the competitions. If FIFA had already decided (As seems to be the case) that they wanted to send the World Cup to areas where it had not previously been held then why make previous host countries go to the expense and trouble of preparing bids and sending delegates when they really had no chance whatsoever.

HONERABLE MENTION IN THE WORLD OF SPORT
An honourable mention in the world of sport this year goes to not an athlete but rather an administrator, Again using my personal bias I have gone for Daniel Levy the CEO of Tottenham Hotspur PLC, The reason I have selected him is that over successive years since Levy and ENIC have run Tottenham they have moved forwards time and again and have improved right up to last seasons achievement of finally competing in the Champions League, for me what makes this all the more remarkable is that it has been achieved not through a big money donor (Although I have never thought that they have limited the money Spurs managers could spend.) but by building year on year and making very astute transfer dealings. There is a very good chance that we may not qualify for next years competition and that Manchester City could spend their way into the top four but at least Daniel Levy has shown that in this big money world there is still the ability for a club to be well managed and still make an impact on the European stage.

TECHNOLOGY

PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Again for people who know me, very little surprise here as my choice for Technology Product of the year which goes to the HTC Desire HD, I have had the HTC Desire for just under a year now and the phone is as near to perfect as I could find, and the HD version is even better, I think that the Apple IOS and Google Android battle will run throughout 2011 and beyond (With Windows Mobile 7 a really unknown quantity at this point.) however for me the freedom represented by Android as well as HTC’s integrated apps (Friend Stream, HTC Sense etc…) really make the HTC Android handhelds stand out above Apple, and while I know there have been many people pointing at lower specs handhelds such as the Wildfire to show Apples dominance this is unfair as the Wildfire should be compared instead with Apple’s entry level smart phones (Which they haven’t got) so it is the two top products the Desire and the iPhone 4 who should be compared and for me the HTC comes out on top.

INNOVATION OF THE YEAR
The innovation that has blown my mind this year was the revelation that Google had completed thousands of miles in a self driven car, my blog post on this subject took me on a variety of emotions from being awestruck that the realty was this close to completion to worries that this could be one change to many for the world and that there was a chance that the economy could not handle the amount of jobs that may well be lost from this new technology (From Taxi Drivers and Driving Instructors to Parking Attendants and Street Cleaners) however for giving me a quick glimpse as to what I have always imagined being the future then this is my Innovation of the Year.

NOT INTERESTED OF THE YEAR
This award might actually be a surprise to some who know me as I am obviously a massive cinema fan and a big technohead but the big invention (Well proliferation anyway.) that I have had no interest in this year is 3D. The enhanced dimension cinemas and televisions that we are all being told we have to get just holds no interest for me at all. Whilst I appreciate that it gives you a greater depth of vision into the movies I really do not find myself forgetting that I am watching a film in the cinema, so what’s the point? I can follow a storyline on a 2D screen just as well so if it is not to give you a greater sense of “being part of the action” it adds nothing, and if it is to make you part of the action then it is simply not good enough to make you forget that it is on a screen. I have pledged that 2011 I will be viewing all films in 2D where possible as this is one giant leap sideways I will gladly see dropped.

CINEMA

FILM OF THE YEAR
For me the film of the year was most probably Inception, Now if you have read my review of the film you will know that it was not actually my favourite film and the ending was quite frankly laughable but in a year in which Hollywood has struggled to produce even a rudimentary amount of originality the concept of this film was as refreshing as watching The Matrix for the first time. It made you realise that there may actually still be one or two people in the movie industry who were capable of independent thought, and hopefully it will not be another 10 years before they have another one.

PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
Obviously I understand that if you want to be taken seriously as a film fan then when Hollywood makes a new version of a non-english speaking movie, you are required to always speak about how much better the original is. However the performance of Chloe Moretz in Let me In, the US remake (Sorry Re-Imagining) of the Swedish Vampire Love Story Let the Right One in, was really a first class performance from the 13 year old which deserves recognition.

WORST FILM OF THE YEAR
This has to go to the Other Guys only the second movie I have not managed to get to the end of, From the very beginning to the point where I left (As they are caught up in an explosion) I do not remember laughing or even understanding what they thought was funny, the main characters were losers whose personalities were such that in fact you wanted them to lose with the supporting characters being equally as cringe worthy that the very idea of any of them coming good would insult every ounce of fairness in the universe.

POLITICS

STORY OF THE YEAR
There was only really one story that dominated this year politically and that is the coming together of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to form a peace time coalition. Back before May there looked to be a wide spread fear that we may get a hung parliament and therefore have to hold another election before the end of the year, on the 5th May it looked as though in fact it would be a Conservative Government followed later on in the night with the realisation that it would be a Hung Government. Most people I think at the time were expecting a Conservative minority government but instead after a couple of weeks of negotiations we were presented with a solution. There rest of the year seemed to consist of the really not news revelations that 1) The Coalition members are not all of the same ideology (Obviously as if they were they would have all been in the same party in the first place) and 2) that the public are not going to enjoy the necessary cuts.

PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR
It may seem like a bit of a cop out here but my Political Personality of the Year goes to David Cameron, aside from obviously securing his position as Prime Minister, brokering an extraordinary coalition agreement and starting to steer the economy away from the financial melt down that Gordon Brown was heading for, This has been quite a year (and a bit) for the PM. Starting last year with the death of his Son Ivan, through the closest fought election battle in memory, including presidential style TV debates (A flop in my opinion.) and then into Number 10 followed closely by the birth of his second daughter and another personal tragedy with the death of his father. So whatever your views are on his politics or even his background (never quite sure why that matters.) you can’t disagree that this has been a very interesting year.

FALSE HERO OF THE YEAR
The False Hero of the Year Award is created especially for Julian Assange, the founder and spokesman of Wikileaks. The reason that I have selected this particular award to be presented to Mr. Assange is that he seems to being held up as a messiah of digital freedoms and whilst I really have no strong feelings of wikileaks one way of the other – I am mostly of the philosophy that the information released is not very interesting, the fact that the US ambassador thinks that a chancellor who has never been in power is inexperienced really isn’t a great shock – the simple fact is that Assange is accused of not one but two counts of molestation, something that makes him a very unlikely hero. He has claimed that if he returned to Sweden to face the allegations he will be quickly smuggled to the US to be incarcerated. Surely the attention that Wikileaks have received over the last year would make any silent transfer an impossibility and therefore the only thing it appears to me that Assange is trying to hide from is the full effect of Swedish law – Sweden which according to the corruption index is the second least corrupt country in the world (After New Zealand) – This leads me to think that therefore the only thing that Assange is scared of is that he will be found guilty in court and have to serve the sentences fitting the crimes he has been accused of.

EMBARRASMENT OF THE YEAR
My final Award is actually the hardest as politically there have been many who could well fit the bill, from the Students who think that attempting to injure Police is not a serious matter, the Train Drivers who think that they should receive quadruple pay for Boxing day as many Londoners were forced to walk to work for basic Sunday payment. Or even Ed Miliband who looks set to be the least electable Labour Leader since Neil Kinnock stood grinning like his Spitting Image doll on the stage at the Labour Party Conference so many years ago. But in the end my Political Zero of the year is Liam Byrne, former Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the cluless individual who left the note “Dear Chief Secretary, Sorry we’ve spent all the money, there’s nothing left.” And in one note of attempted comedy summed up not just the problems facing the coalition but was also to show the disregard that the Labour leaders had for the economy and the public which caused the problem in the first place.

Champions league draw, again

Well I was told that Spurs would never make it to the champions league, then I was told that we would be lucky to qualify, next came the certain fact that we would not qualify from our "group of death."
You can imagine how happy I am then to be waiting for the draw for the knock out stage of the competition, there are not a lot of easy teams left at this stage so anyone we get will of cause be tough, our opponents will be out of the second placed teams - not including Arsenal or Inter Milan - so it will be out of: Roma, AC Milan, Lyon, Copenhagen or Marseille. Of these I guess I would like Copenhagen and dislike AC Milan - although our last visit to Milan was definitely an interesting event.
I am very glad we finished top of our group however as things look a lot worse for Arsenal who will be travelling to Germany or Spain to face one of: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or FC Schalke. So I guess they will be hoping for Schalke but they are by no means an easy team, and I do not really understand Arsene Wenger's assertion that they don't fear Barcelona as they were beaten so badly last year, but I guess that's his job.

Anyway onto the draw:

We got AC Milan in what I am sure is the game of the round, at least no one can say we did it the easy way, the strategy should be to try and keep 11 men on the pitch there and then destroy them at home, it has worked so far.
Other games
Roma vs Shakhtar
Valencia vs Schalke
Inter vs Munich (so arsenal are going to Spain.)
Man Utd vs Marseille
Barcelona vs Arsenal - repeat of last year
Chelsea vs Copenhagen
Real Madrid vs Lyon
So not a great draw for spurs, but at least it is worse for Arsenal.

A night of good results

As if Tottenham topping the group was not good enough Last night was also the night that Crawley Town booked their place in the Third Round thanks to two goals by Smith and an Own goal seeing off ten man Swindon in the Second round replay.

Crawley went 1-0 up thanks to Smith before finding themselves pegged back to 2-1 by the League opposition who were then reduced to ten men before an unfortunate own goal forced Extra Time, it was not until 28 minutes into the extra half hour that Smith struck again sending the Blue Square premier outfit through for the first time in their history.

So now they march onwards, however Championship Derby who will be visiting the Broadfield on the 8th January will be a different prospect altogether, but now is a time for celebration.

Tottenham top group of death

The group stage of Tottenham's first champions league campaign ended last night and, despite what I was assured by a Chelsea fan after the draw, Tottenham did not get shown just how out of their depth they are but ended up winning the group and in the process beating the German, Dutch and European champions - not a bad little run.

Whilst it is true that it was not an easy run - 4-0 down against Inter, losing 2 goal lead against Breman - in the end most pundits agree we were the best in the group.

The game last night really summed up our away campaign with letting the lead slip 3 times, the game started in comical fashion with the Twente keeper having a nightmare to watch a simple back pass bounce past his foot for Spurs' opener.

Twente were soon back in it however after the Referee gave a penalty, now I would obviously disagree with the decision whatever it was but this was a very soft decision with the spurs defender punished simply for the human instinct for protection, however as the next goal was the result of an even worse decision by the Referee there is not too much point in dwelling on it.

Tottenham re-took the lead through a quite sublime piece of link up play between Defoe and Lennon which showed a little of what we have missed in his absence before the ref struck again to level the game, this time a free kick outside the box to penalize Lennon for laying a hand on the shoulder of a man around 2 foot taller than himself.
Bad refereeing aside however the free kick was top class so no complaints there.

The Twente keeper who, apart from the first goal, had a pretty good game was unfortunate again for the third spurs goal as he produced a wonderful save from Palacios which fell into the path of the ever alert Defoe to do what he does best. However Twente struck back again with their first goal not directly from a bad refereeing decision (there was a touch in between the free kick and the goal) this was again a greatly taken goal and really showed how good a team Twente are,

Obviously I do feel slightly annoyed at the part the Referee played in the goals but he was not finished yet, after a Twente player went down in the box (which to be fair he should have been booked for as he went down for a tackle that never came.) The Referee, correctly told Tottenham to play on, only to bring play to a stop as Lennon was running in full stride towards the Twente goal. But the fact that the Ref seems to think that his role is to shape the game, should not be held against Twente who did well to capitalize on his vanity. so it ended 3-3 but with Inter losing to Bremen Spurs still top their group, so mixed feelings on the result but the achievements are still massive for a Champions League debut, as an aside spurs became the first team to score two goals in every game in the group stage, now if we can stop letting them in then the future looks very bright indeed.

Tottenham beat Inter Milan

I have refrained from too much football talk since the world cup as the early part of the season is rarely any guide to future performance, and as a Spurs fan, I am always slow to get excited.

Last night however was simply amazing, when the draw for the Champions League was made I thought that simply to see a team of the quality of Inter playing at White Hart Lane would be a great experience, but I never imagined we would, not just win, but make it look easy.

There were hints of what may happen when the ten men spurs team, well Bale and 9 support players, fought back from 4 down to come back to 4-3. Still after that however I had heard people saying we were out of our depth and would get hammered, suspiciously the same people who are strangely quiet today!

Anyway, in case you missed it the most shocking thing was that Bale was not involved in the 1st goal, and that he didn't score any himself, he set up two though so I'll let him off, spurs won 3-1 to go top of the group and within one win of reaching the next stage.

So what of the rest of the season? I would be blinded by my love of the team if I suggested that Spurs were not having a few more struggles this year than I would have liked but clearly the potential is there, we just need to unleash it.

Bale is clearly loving his football at the moment, Van Der Vaart has settled in quickly and last night we saw flashes of Modric at his best, however if we are to see off Man City's challenge for our 4th spot we need to improve.

Lennon needs to step up, with Lennon and Bale on the wings we can run any defence ragged, but he is not quite up to his best at the moment. Also our strikers need to find their form, we have really missed Defoe and the sooner he is back the better. Finally our defence needs to start to look capable of a clean sheet, obviously this is easier said than done with Woodgate, King and Dawson all with prolonged injuries.

My best Spurs 11 (assuming full fitness)

GK Gomes
RB Corluka
CB King
CB Woodgate
LB Ekotto
DM Huddlestone
LM Bale
CM Modric
RM Lennon
AM Van Der Vaart
FW Defoe

Champions League Draw Round 1

With one day down in the Champions League it has been a very mixed bag for British Clubs,

Arsenal and Chelsea both won comfortably, Arsenal hammering Braga by 6 goals to 0(Which is becoming quite a common scoreline this season.) and Chelsea beating Zilina 4-1. To be honest the Chelsea result is probably the best as although the Slovakian champions are hardly Champions League contenders it is a difficult away match out of the way.

Tuesday night there were draws for Tottenham and Man Utd vs Rangers, if I had been asked before the kick off I would have happily taken an away draw for our first game but after powering to 2-0 after 20 minutes I felt a little disappointed by the final 2-2 result, it isn't a complete disaster however as Inter Milan also drew with FC Twente 2-2 so the group is still together but we have one less away game. Man Utd were probably the biggest British Losers of the round with Rangers getting a great 0-0 result against them, this 0-0 at old trafford is definitely a point won for Rangers and 2 dropped for United as the top seeds really shouldn't be dropping points at home, although I still feel that come the end of the group stage you will find United going through and Rangers will still probably struggle to join them.