The Tottenham rumour that doesn’t seem to go away
Football FanCast columnist ‘The New Voice of Football’ cannot understand why the media continues to point the finger of blame at Heurelho Gomes and link the club with David James.
Apparently Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp is to show evidence of mistakes made by Heurelho Gomes in the Arsenal game to push forward his claims to sign David James from former club Portsmouth in January, according to certain enlightened sections of our beloved media.
So can we also understand based on Saturday’s performance by Spurs, that Harry will be producing evidence of mistakes made by Ledley King, Wilson Palacios, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, David Bentley and anyone else, who didn’t turn up at the Emirates at the weekend in a bid to bring an entirely new team into White Hart Lane? Hardly, however, the press needs a scapegoat for the Gunners debacle, and ‘The Octopus’ is on the menu in some quarters, which is harsh to say the least.
The North London derby was a painful experience for me. I watched all bar the last five minutes or so, when the fear of more humiliation became too much and I had to walk away, my weekend already in tatters. Left to reflect on some novelty defending by Tottenham and a second half performance, which was utterly woeful and this in a clash I had more than average expectations of before kick-off.
However, the defeat was not down to Gomes. Yes he and Ledley did get into a bit of a tizz for Arsenal’s third following the rest of the Spurs defence committing the cardinal sin of not playing to the whistle. Perhaps this is what Redknapp intends to show as his case to try and persuade Daniel Levy to lure a 39-year-old James away from Fratton Park in the winter? I sincerely doubt this as any deal for the England keeper makes no sense now and just smacks of the press picking out an easy target in the Brazilian for what was a very dire day collectively for Tottenham.
Firstly is James really better than Gomes? Who is to say the former Liverpool player would be any more comfortable than Heurelho behind a central defensive pairing that changes every week. He would also be 40 by the time the next Premier League season kicks-off and how much longer he will continue playing is a matter of concern. So not a buy for the long-term and more of a kneejerk reaction purchase, should he miraculously arrive in January.
If James was ever going to come to Tottenham, surely he would have arrived by now and certainly won’t be replacing Gomes in January, with just a season and a half or so left to run on his meter. After all Harry apparently seems to have first dibs on all Portsmouth players and would have factored the keeper into one of his one way away days from the South coast to North London. But it’s a much easier picture to paint, than Redknapp highlighting the comedy tackling by King and Palacios in a bid to oust them from White Hart Lane.
The fact is Spurs had a very bad day at the office and missed Defoe and Lennon badly, while the continued absence of Luka Modric also weakened Tottenham against a very good Arsenal side. Would the game have been different if any of them had played? Who knows, but for the media to speculate that Gomes will carry the can in favour of bringing an ageing and near retirement James from Pompey as a solution is ludicrous at best.
He shouldn’t carry the can, but he was badly at fault for the opener – letting it slip through his fingers on the near post. It’s the team’s fault for allowing their heads to drop so dramatically after that though.
It made me chuckle when the ‘un-biased’ commentator on the radio suggested that missing Defoe, Lennon and Modric was in some way equal to Arsenal missing Walcott and Rosicky, who have hardly played much between them anyway, so how could they be missed that much?!
Arsenal caught us at the best possible time, and took full advantage. At the lane it will be a very different story I hope.
buying James would be a backwards step – he is not better than Gomes and Gomes has age on his side – can nobody remember Calamity was the nickname !!!
Go away, go away, go away – it should go away.
The simple truth is that Spurs fans are a hyper-critical lot, fickle, even, and yet by far the majority concensus is that aside from the decidedly dodgy start, from a ‘keeper new to the country and stepping up a level, playing in front of a struggling team, he has done little wrong other than a ratio of mistakes that any pretty decent keeper would make – on the basis that ALL keepers make the occasional error.
The main genesis for this is that ‘Arry was Pompey manager and journos just can’t see beyond that dodgy start.
It won’t go away while lemming write articles perpetuating unattributable media rumours whilst ignoring interviews with the manager. Redknapp gave an interview to the Evening Standard published TODAY. In this interview the manager clearly staed his support for Gomes and how impressed he is with him and that there will be no BID for James. He gave th areas where he needed to strengthen, specifically excluding goalkeping.It won’t go away while articles are written fiving credence to rumours. perhaps if the writer thought before writing he might see that people like him Are the problem.
It wont go to bed if you keep giving it air time ,There is only one rumour and that is teams using energy drugs to run run chase chase pass pass . Don’t feel down because if i keep bringing this rumour up it has a dramatic effect on teams form because this is one rumour that is true and wont go away hold your head high because up to now Spurs are clean.Take a good look at these players they havent got worms and lost weight its all the running .drogba massive weight loss and loads of speed fletcher the same alexander whithouse jones irland bellamy van persie all have the tell tale sunken face some of these will be ill shortly and go missing like flecther he is back tonight looking anorexic. have a good look at these players and ther is plenty more
Pompey fan here: I wouldn’t be surprised to see Redknapp come back for James. However, I think Gomes is at least as good as James is now, (although he was in a sublime peak of form when we won the cup), and the future is on Gomes side. Gomes had a sensational game at Fratton Park. Redknapp though does tend to be a bit limited in this way and will keep going back for former players or players he has coveted and finds it very hard to rate any player he inherits.
Whilst he IS a very good manager, your performance on Saturday was so similar to many of ours under him at top sides, two goals in a 5 minute spell, goals/chances conceded from the kick off, going to sleep from set pieces. In fact, the defeat we suffered at Arsenal 2 years back was almost identical to yours even down to the third coming from a free kick where our players were standing round looking confused. This is the reason Redknapp won’t breach the top 4, these performances keep happening to him at the other top sides and the mistakes are always the same ones.
Good manager at what he does though.
gomes is the best keeper weve had in YEARS who saw the save he pulled off which should of been arsenals 1st goal? No way would james of kept that out!
I`d feel a lot safer with Sid James RIP between the sticks.
OI! ARRY, NOOOOO!
i really do not think gomes was at fault for the 2nd goal and dont blame him entirely for the 1st which was bit of a fluke in all honesty. and whatever gomes’s bl;ame might be it deosnt hide our deficieny in midfield when we play huddlestone and jenas together agianst the tops sides. huddlestone oin particular just doesnt have the pace opr the bottle or the hunger to match the premierships top midfielders. jenas has alll the abilkity and can run all day but he also seems to hide sand shirk repsonibility when it really matters and he is not developing into the top international midfielder that his potential warrants. i certasinly cant see him making the england squad again. as for pavluchenko. wake up and smell the coffee and sell him asap and replace him with someone quicker with a better first touch and work ethic
Good article.
daz, you´re mad to say it slipped through his fingers! The balls travelling at 50mph and it went in low. Not his fault in the slightest. 3rd goal sure, some blame. But the real blame is with our choppy back four. BAE falling asleep in recent weeks. And Harrys inability to conjure up a decent plan against the big boys.
To blame Gomes is retarded.
He´s the best keeper we´ve had since?!?! Anyone I can remember.
What he needs it a solid, consistent back four infront of him.
Let James stay at Pompey. He’s a nightmare. Gomes is a better keeper. Guus Hiddink rates hime highly and he just needs to settle.
Tottenham 3 losses against the best 3 in the country are as a result of Redknapps lack of tactical nouse. Yes is a good motivator and the match of most managers in the coutry but found wanting against the best. We need to play a tighter brand and frustrate these teams. There are 16 other teams we can play the tottenham way against.
These statments are a bit harsh and we havent had our best team out all season you need all your players fit and match fit pavlyuchenko has not played three games in a row so how can you expect him to even bother .Bentley the same and Bale is only just recovering from a nightmare couple of years injury .We have a good Sqaud but not a match fit squad and to many game breakers are missing Moderic Lennon Defoe and Dosantos who i belive will be a sensation if he gets back to were he was just before he got crocked .EPOCHERY. Take fabregas van persie arshavin out of the arsenal team and they would struggle Hudds paying without defoe and lennon and mods is no good for toms passing skill and it showed there full backs would have bean less adventures if they had to watch mods and lennon .We lost with a less sharp king because he missed two games not one and Bale should have bean on instead of the unfit Ekotto who has helped to give the opposion more goals than he scored .