For me, there is only one English goalkeeper that can be England’s number one for South Africa next summer and that man is Paul Robinson. After being so badly treated at Tottenham under Juande Ramos and unfairly blamed for giving away a soft goal for England against Croatia, Robinson has finally got back to his best. He was hung out to dry by Steve Mclaren after Gary Neville’s wayward back pass bobbled over his foot.

Everyone conveniently forgot the string of saves Robinson had made to keep England in a game they were a poor second best in that night. Right now, he is playing better than any of his counterparts, with probably the exception of Steve Harper at Newcastle United and Joe Hart at Birmingham City. Forget the Robert Green argument, he’s nowhere near good enough.

Of the goalkeepers available to Capello, Robinson is head and shoulders above all others and has been for the best part of a year. David James is injured and playing for a team in free-fall, both on and off the pitch. Robert Green is bang out of form and consistently makes mistake after mistake. He also has a tendency to try and deliberately foul players whenever possible.For all his bravado and wearing “England’s number 6″ on his gloves, he’s not good enough. He’s always been poor coming off his line and his aerial ability is not the best.

Poor old Ben Foster has suffered from some rather unnecessary criticism but still can’t shift the dreadful Thomas Kuszczak from between the sticks at Old Trafford.There is no doubt that the lad can go a long way in the game, but he’s suffering from a crisis in confidence at the moment, but he’s still a better goalkeeper than Kuszczak.

Scott Carson still suffers from a lack of concentration at West Bromwich Albion and still seems to bear the scars from the defeat to Croatia in November 2007 at Wembley. For all his shot stopping ability, Carson can still make some all mighty howlers from out of nowhere and seems to have fallen away from anywhere near the England team.

Poor old Chris Kirkland simply can’t keep fit, whenever he gets on a great run of form, his long standing back injury seems to flare up and take out of the side. Despite the 9 goal mauling Wigan Athletic suffered at White Hart Lane, it’s no exaggeration to say it could have been twenty if it wasn’t for Kirkland. He showed such promise at Coventry but injuries blighted his time at Anfield and he’s never been able to shake the tag of being injury prone.

Other than Robinson and Hart, the other stand out candidate for the three places in South Africa for me is Steve Harper at Newcastle. He’s now getting the opportunity to show just how good a goalkeeper he actually is week in week out after Shay Given left last January for Manchester City. Whilst most people would have been itching for a move, Harper has shown incredible loyalty to Newcastle over the years.

After 16 years service, with 12 of those as Given’s back up, he’s incredibly only played 151 games for Newcastle, with 86 of those appearances coming in the last four seasons. He has constantly served the club with pride and is now in the form of his life. Whilst others may have viewed Given’s depature as a real blow, having a player of the ability of Harper would certainly soften the blow.

Whilst some people seem to point out that you need a great goalkeeper to win the World Cup, with the exception of Buffon in 2006, you have to go all the way back to 1982 to find a team with a world class goalkeeper that won the World Cup. Every other winner since then has had good, and in some cases distinctly average custodians between the sticks. Paul Robinson is far better than average and Capello would do well to welcome him back into the fold.  With Harper and Hart, that would be a dependable and quality set of goalkeepers to choose from.

With the season starting slightly earlier this year due to the World Cup, most teams in the Premiership have played 8 league games already. Last season, the 8th round of matches was played two weeks later, on the weekend of October 18th/19th. By the end of it, Tottenham were staring up at every other team in the league with a lowly 2 points. A 2-1 loss against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium had left Spurs trailing Newcastle by 4 points and Stoke and Fulham by 5.

A club in disarray, the fans in despair, the players lacking leadership on or off the pitch, things were not looking good. Not since 1988* had Tottenham propped up the table, ironically on Halloween. That season was to shadow a remarkable turn around in events at White Hart Lane as the week continued to get worse as Udinese beat Spurs on the Thursday 2-0 with a implosion in the last 15 minutes. Juande Ramos cut a depressed figure on the touchline in Udine, a man completely at a loss to explain what was happening or it seemed able to arrest the decline.

Daniel Levy’s reign as chairman had seen plenty of ups and downs during the course of the 7 years that had led to this point. Ramos was supposed to be the marquee managerial signing to move Spurs onwards from the work of the underrated and under appreciated Martin Jol. It was fast becoming a disaster of epic proportions as the club lurched from crisis to crisis. After 5 managers in that time, Levy was under enormous pressure to finally deliver, yet here they were, bottom of the league, winless, shapeless and facing relegation.

After the defeat in Italy, Ramos made the usual “We can play our way out of trouble” statements, but they rang hollow in the ears of the Spurs fans. Other than a well deserved point at Stamford Bridge, there had been nothing to cling to in the way of optimism. No-one else could see where the win was going to come from, the team looked beyond help. On Saturday, October 25th as the fans prepared for another inevitable defeat the next day against Bolton, things couldn’t get much worse.

As Match of the Day finished, I flicked over to Sky Sports News, just to see if perhaps anything at all had happened. As the image flicked on, the newsfeed at the bottom of the screen suddenly went in to to overdrive. “Tottenham have sacked Juande Ramos, Gus Poyet and Daniel Comolli with immediate effect…..Harry Redknapp has been confirmed as the new manager of Spurs …. Discussion with Redknapp next on Sky Sports News.” Then the adverts kicked in. Damn it!

I’d had a drink, who wouldn’t when you’re team was bottom of the league and playing like Worksop Town. I rewound the pictures and watched it again. Yep, still said the same. I shot to the PC, went on the BBC football site. It was the top story, Breaking News. The I checked the Guardian, yep, same there. It was true. I ran to the bedroom and woke my better half up, she told me to stop winding her up. I insisted it was true, and probably to simply placate me, she got up and went downstairs with me to see for herself.

Chelsea fans don’t believe a lot, though living with a Spurs fan means you get used to false dawns on a seasonal basis. Sitting down, SSN burst in to life once more, BOOOOOOOOOM went the special effects, WHOOOOOOOOOOSH went the graphics and then it was confirmed by the presenters clearly excited that people would actually be watching for once late on a Saturday night. Redknapp was indeed the new manager of Spurs. I let out a hearty cheer! My other half wasn’t impressed at all, ” Oh no, I’ve always really liked Harry. What has he done that for!” Time for another drink I decided, my despair transformed in minutes to optimism! Ah the joy’s of football eh!

As managerial announcements go, for me, its quite possibly one of the oddest I’ve ever come across, late on a Saturday night, less than 24 hours before a team is due to play a match. I bet every newspaper editor was cursing Levy throughout the United Kingdom. Yet, in the 38 League games Redknapp has managed Spurs in now, his record reads Played 38, Won 19, Drawn 8 Lost 11.With this season’s excellent start, Redknapp has assured that for the first time in 4 seasons, Spurs are not playing catch up after a slow start. 16 points from 8 games is Tottenham’s best ever start to a Premiership season.

No Spurs fan thinks that we’ll win the League, or finish in the top 4, but after the year of hell that was the Ramos era, it’s a whole lot better. The oddity of Ramos’ tenure, Spurs won the League Cup, their first trophy in 9 seasons and a 5-1 victory against Arsenal, yet it will always be viewed as a dreadful year.  Two shots of sunlight do not make a summer, but at least Harry’s got Spurs fans smiling again.

There is still plenty of work to do at Tottenham, the centre half issue needs resolving due the injuries King and Woodgate now have. The midfield have to learn to be able to play without Modric against big teams and not let Palacios do all the running, Keane needs to keep performing as he did against Burnley and Hull City. Defoe needs keep running and not get downhearted and the players outside the first 11 need to knuckle down and try and force themselves into Redknapps plans rather than whining to the media. Then maybe a top six place wouldn’t be out of the question, anything else would be a bonus.

*Spurs became the first team to be bottom of the First Division on Halloween in 1988 and not be relegated, actually finishing 6th as Gascoigne and Waddle combined to drag them up the table. The following season saw Spurs finish 3rd with Lineker joining the team as Waddle went to Marseille.

Real Madrid manager Juande Ramos, formerly of Tottenham, criticized Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez for giving up on Robbie Keane after half a season.

“You can’t tell me Robbie will not score goals at a top club,” Ramos is quoted as saying in The Sun.

“He is a top player and I don’t think he did badly at Liverpool.

“He scored goals and showed he’s a team player.

“He’s definitely a matchwinner for any club and if he were still at Liverpool, I would be telling my defenders to watch for him,” he added in reference to next week’s meeting between Real and Liverpool in the Champions League.

Ramos is right that Keane can be a match-winner.  He’s a tremendous instinctive player.  Flourishing in a free role, he’s unpredictable and can create havoc for opposing defenders.

Keane, however, could not have done that at Liverpool.  Benitez’ team plays a considered, deliberate brand of football.  For all of Keane’s fantastic instincts, he’s not a thinker.  

He intuitively reacts to what’s in front of him, sometimes brilliantly.  He’s not one to set out with a task and impose on the opposition.  When forced to do so, he befuddles himself into ineffectiveness.

There is a role in Liverpool’s system for a spontaneous, freewheeling and instinctive player.  Steven Gerrard fills it, and far better than Keane ever would.

Rafa Benitez should be censured over Keane, but for wasting club’s limited transfer funds on him, not for being decisive once the story was clear.

Liverpool’s problem up front, now, is not Robby Keane being gone.  It’s that the Keane deal did not go through quickly enough to buy a replacement.

Tottenham started the season as serious contenders to break into the top four, but as we all know this was not to be. The joke “What’s the difference between Spurs and a triangle?…A triangle has more points” was going on into late October, and until the last few weeks Tottenham looked like the favorites to be relegated.

Tottenham’s losses at the both of the newly promoted clubs they faced compounded their failure and made, now former Tottenham manager, Juande Ramos’ future look increasingly more uncertain. The departure of Ramos from White Hart Lane signaled a huge change in this attitude; whilst Ramos was at the helm Jonathan Woodgate came out to the press and admitted that there was a good chance that Spurs would be relegated. Woodgate’s pessimism showed the negative attitude around the Tottenham camp and around Ramos.

When Harry ‘Houdini’ Redknapp was brought in to stop the rot this defeatist attitude was immediately arrested and the performances instantaneously picked up; he seemed to inspire the players into working for him. Darren Bent had been Ramos’ top goal scorer and had scored four by late October, since Redknapp’s arrival Bent has had the purple patch of his Tottenham career and has scored seven goals in five games and Pavlyuchenko seems to have come a lot closer to realising his potential, scoring four goals in the same period.Tottenham have recovered from their early losses to win twice over Liverpool, and came close to beating Arsenal in a four goal apiece thriller. Who knows; if they keep on beating the big names they may yet reach the top four.

The BBC is reporting that the house cleaning at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club has begun. Manager Juande Ramos, Sporting Director Damien Comolli, and first team coaches Gus Poyet and Marcos Alvarez are all looking for work after being sacked Saturday night ahead of their tie with Bolton Wanderers on Sunday. Clive Allen (Development Squad Coach) and Alex Inglethorpe (Youth Team Manager) will be in place for Tottenham for Sunday’s tie.

It’s a toss up over what Ramos will be most remembered for. Back in February, Tottenham won the Carling Cup with an extra time defeat of Chelsea 2-1, their first since the League Cup back in 1999. It could also be argued that he’ll be most remembered for the poor start to this season that ultimately saw him sacked.

The partnership between Ramos and Comolli never seemed to take off. It didn’t help either that Tottenham sold Robbie Keane and Berbatov in the last transfer window, without adequate replacement up front. It’s going to be difficult to judge Roman Pavlyuchenko this season as he’s played a full season in Russia and will probably fatigue before the whole season is over. Luka Modric hasn’t exactly fit into the system Ramos had at Tottenham.

In the same report, it has been reveiled that Portsmouth have agreed compensaion so that Harry Redknapp can take over as Tottenham’s manager. While it surprises me, I can understand why Redknapp would want to leave. If all the media reports are to be belived of late, Portsmouth are facing debts beyond their control and won’t be able to build their new ground. And in all fairness to Portsmouth, Redknapp has taken the team as far as he can go.

For Redknapp, it’s also another bottom of the table challenge. When Redknapp took over Portsmouth back in December 2005, Portsmouth were in the same situation Tottenham are in now. Can he keep Tottenham up?  Only time will tell.

What’s unfortunate for Tottenham and Portsmouth is that this happened so close to their Sunday fixture. However when changes need to be made, it’s best to go ahead and get them done and out of the way.

Thanks to Bishopville Red for tipping me off to this breaking piece of news.

Harry Redknapp is set to become the new manager of Tottenham Hotspur after the club sensationally sacked Spanish Head Coach Juande Ramos late on Saturday night. Tottenham will pay Portsmouth a £5m compensation fee for Redknapp and the deal is set to be concluded before Spurs take on Bolton tomorrow.

Redknapp told Sky Sports News: “It’s going to be done tonight [Saturday], it will all be sorted out and by tomorrow [Sunday] morning I should be in place.”
“It’s a great opportunity for me. It’s a big club, Tottenham. I love Portsmouth and I loved my time there, we had some fantastic success and I’d never been happier. But it’s a great deal for Portsmouth, £5million for me, and it’s a chance for me to get on and see what I can do.”

After an horrendous start to the season it looked as though chairman Daniel Levy was going to give the ex-Sevilla boss time to turn things round. But after another defeat in the Uefa Cup at Udinese on Thursday and players David Bentley and Jonathan Woodgate’s outspoken remarks at the state of the club, Levy has decided to act. Assistant coach Gus Poyet and Sporting Director Damien Comolli have also been shown the door.

A statement from the club said: “The club can announce that Damien Comolli, sporting director, Juande Ramos, head coach and first team coaches, Marcos Alvarez and Gus Poyet, have left the club, with immediate effect. We wish them well.”

While this is a blow to Portsmouth and their fans, this is the move that Redknapp has been waiting for his entire managerial career. He may have wished he was taking the job under better circumstances but at least he has now got the chance to prove just how good a manager he can be.

As we arrive at the quarter mark for the current Premier League season the standings are starting to take shape, although who would have ever thought we would see Tottenham rock bottom or Hull City in the Champions League places. As such it is another big weekend of fixtures coming up and about time players started to perform. Here we will have a quick look at those who might be expected to up their game.

• Robbie Keane – With Fernando Torres set to miss this weekend top of the table clash against Chelsea a lot will be riding on the former Spurs striker. Having scored in midweek against Atletico Madrid Keane finally looks to be settling down at Anfield and perhaps the game at Stamford Bridge may be the place where the Irish forward can stake a claim to the second strikers position alongside Torres. Keane has yet to score for Liverpool in the Premier League and Chelsea will be a difficult place to break his duck. However Keane has a decent recent record against the Blues, having scored in two of their last five meetings. The 28-year-olds goalscoring odds maybe be worth a look this weekend.

• Joey Barton – With Newcastle short of players jailbird Joey maybe in with a shout of getting his first start against Sunderland since completing his six match suspension. Barton failed to make friends (surprisingly) in last seasons Tyne-Wear derby when he was guilty of a horrific challenge on Dickson Etuhu but managed to escape any punishment. The former Man City midfielder has this week said he would like to become a role model and knows he has done wrong with this Saturday’s match giving him the perfect opportunity to show he has mended his ways.

• Jo – Since arriving for a then club record fee of £18m the Brazilian striker has failed to set Eastlands alight with some of the samba magic we might have been expecting. Having missed a number of games through injury at the start of the season Jo has begun to get a decent run in the City side but despite a goal against Portsmouth more has been expected of the 22-year-old. With the visit of Stoke this weekend Jo might be expected to shine against a mediocre defence and try to step out of the shadow cast by a certain other record breaking Brazilian. However Jo is low on confidence and I don’t expect him to boost Manchester City’s Premier League odds any time soon.

• Tottenham – Having said I would only single out players this whole page could have been filled with under performing Spurs players. Another week, another bout of misery for Tottenham fans as they were first humbled by Stoke before suffering defeat to Udinese.  Heurelho Gomes hasn’t been the goalkeeper many were expecting and his display in the Uefa Cup won’t have inspired any confidence. The likes of Johnathan Woodgate and Michael Dawson have hardly held things together at the back to be fair whilst Luka Modric and David Bentley are still finding their feet at White Hart Lane. Finally we come to major problem, the strikers, Darren Bent seems low on confidence whilst Roman Pavlyuchenko is still adjusting to the Premier League. With a shocking record of five Premier league goals scored in nine games it is hard to see how Tottenham are going to turn it around. This Sunday presents a glorious opportunity to boost confidence at the club before the north London derby with Arsenal when they face Bolton at home. The Trotters themselves are struggling for goals and were fairly poor last time out against Blackburn. Juande Ramos must get his tactics right this weekend because Spurs fans patience is wearing thin and they will expect a result on Sunday.

What’s most revealing about the demise of Tottenham Hotspur is not how Juande Ramos appears so dispassionate and out of his depth on the touchline, but how Spurs fans are blaming the downfall of their club on Damien Comolli and not Ramos.

In two separate polls conducted by EPL Talk, fans appear to more upset about Daniel Levy and Damien Comolli than they are about the former Sevilla manager. When asked which Spurs manager should have the job of managing the club if Tottenham would lose against Stoke, 58% of the respondents sided with Juande Ramos instead of people like Terry Venables, Harry Redknapp and Gus Poyet.

And when asked who is to blame for the disaster at Spurs, only 17% of the respondents blamed Ramos (at the time of writing this article).

To me, this is astonishing. Take any manager in the Premier League other than Juande Ramos and he would be able to do a better job at Tottenham that Ramos. Spurs have a team of world-class players at White Hart Lane with people such as Roman Pavlyuchenko, Luka Modric, David Bentley, Vedran Corluka, Jonathan Woodgate and Aaron Lennon. Managers like Phil Brown, Roy Hodgson, Steve Bruce and Gary Megson would kill to have players of that calibre available for selection each week.

While Damien Comolli is the recipient of most of the venom from Tottenham fans, it’s simply masking the true incompetence at the club which is Juande Ramos. The club is bottom of the league yet he’s unable to get his team playing with the passion necessary to pull themselves out of the hole.

The dark cloud hanging over White Hart Lane would be removed if and when Juande Ramos gets the sack, and a new manager steps in to give the players a kick up the backside and start playing with a plan in mind. Jermaine Jenas should not be the captain of this club. Instead, he should be moved to the bench based on his pitiful performances and lack of leadership. The list of changes goes on and on, but as long as Ramos is in charge, the future looks extremely bleak for Spurs.

The reality is that if Spurs fans got their wish and Comolli was ousted, the next to go would be Daniel Levy, then the players and then Ramos. Other than help Spurs win the Carling Cup, what has Ramos achieved? The team looks worse than it was one year when he took charge. To be honest, I have no idea why Spurs fans are so reluctant to let Ramos go. He’s dragging the team down so much that Championship football is becoming more of a reality as each week passes.

It’s no wonder that Tottenham Hotspur are playing so abysmally this season. Have you heard Juande Ramos’s English? Seriously, if you were a player on the Spurs squad and you listened to Ramos speak, would you understand him, respect him and be motivated by him?

Listen to his Friday press conference below and you tell me.

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The first voice is the journalist asking the question. The second person speaking is the translator, and the third voice is Spurs manager Juande Ramos.

How can Ramos effectively communicate with his Tottenham players when his English is so poor and, to be frank, he sounds effeminate? Sure, Gus Poyet is able to bridge the gap and is bilingual, but my concern is that Ramos’s poor English skills must be having an impact on the poor form of his side.

This Sunday at 4pm UK time, Stoke City plays at home against Spurs. If Spurs lose this match, what should happen? Vote now.