EPL Talk » Tottenham Hotspur

Panic Over Cudicini Motorbike Crash

Paul Bestall — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:19:51 +0000

It seems that the Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper, Carlo Cudicini, has been involved in a serious crash this morning after hitting a car whilst riding his BMW motorbike. It’s been confirmed that Cudicini has fractured both wrists and sustained serious pelvic injuries according to a statement by London’s Metropolitan Police.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “London Ambulance Service, HEMS [helicopter emergency medical service] and police attended and discovered the 36-year-old male motorcyclist suffering from injuries described by LAS as possibly life-changing and has been taken to an east London hospital for further assessment and treatment.”

Thankfully the driver and passenger of the car involved in the crash didn’t need medical assistance, but the extent of Cudicini’s injuries are yet to be ascertained. With most road traffic accidents, the time waiting between the initial diagnoses and the results of the x-rays and tests over the the next few hours can change. Yet the term “possibly life changing” is a strange and worrying term to be included in a statement.

It’s unusual for a detail like that to be released, I can’t think of another incident recently that would have included such language and already social networking sites are buzzing with the news and wishing Carlo a speedy and healthy recovery regardless of what team they support.

Cudicini has been a firm favourite for both Chelsea and since he joined Tottenham in January this year and has constantly given 100% wherever he has played. Only ousted at Chelsea by the arrival of Petr Cech, who was at that point the worlds best goalkeeper, that saw his run as Chelsea’s number one come to an end. Signed by Gianluca Vialli in 1999 for the bargain price of £160,000, Cudicini saw off Mark Bosnich to make the number one jersey his own at Stamford Bridge.

He even won the player of the year award in the 2001-02 season as Chelsea struggled to maintain a consistent level of performance, but as the side grew, Cudicini continued to grow as a player. In fact, when Chelsea stood on the threshold of the Champions League final, it was his absence in the semi-final against Monaco in 2004 that probably cost the Blues the chance to face to Porto.

He continued to deputise for Cech at Chelsea and give 100% when the opportunity arose to play. One of his most notable appearances under Mourinho was during the infamous game at Reading’s Madjeski Stadium in October 2006. After replacing Cech, injured by Steven Hunt’s wayward knee in the first minute, Cudicini was also carried off unconscious after a disgraceful challenge by Ibrahim Sonko and John Terry ended up going in goal for the last few minutes.

He’s certainly continued to impress be it at Chelsea or at Tottenham. where he has continued to put pressure on Heurelho Gomes, probably bring the best out of the Brazilian who is now showing his form that earned him his transfer to Tottenham in the summer of 2008. When he’s had the opportunity to play, he’s given his all.

I’m sure all football fans will wish Cudicini a swift and speedy recovery and be thankful that his injuries are not more serious.

Harry Redknapp Blazes A New Trail With Reserve League Rejection

Adam Serrano — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:14:54 +0000

Genius or Madness?

Recently, an article by ESPNSoccernet was brought to my attention by one of our faithful readers about the Reserve league in England. The Premier Reserve League is a valuable resource for clubs in the Premiership. Each club in the Premier League is able to play in the top league against the reserve clubs from other members of the top flight. It offers teams a chance to give fringe players a run out and give players returning from injury, a competitive environment in order to integrate them to game shape. However, this season, Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has thrown caution into the wind by removing his reserve team from the PRL and instead chosen to maintain a large squad with players most on the fringe being sent out on loan.

Redknapp believes that the move gives him a much greater mobility when it comes to his personnel.”You are restricted when you have reserve fixtures set in stone and it means some players are rushed back from injuries or played in games they could do without,” he states. “What we have now is a little bit more control over what we want to do with our players.” What this increased mobility means is that Redknapp is now in complete control of where his back up players are rather than being a slave to the fixture list.

In order to prevent his players on the periphery of his squad from losing their sharpness, Redknapp has decided to employ what could be called a “shadow squad” on loan to football league squads. “The lads we sent out on loan last year benefited greatly from their experiences and came back to Tottenham as better players. That’s the target we have for this season. Young boys need to get games to improve and playing in a competitive league is more beneficial for their development,” said the Tottenham manager.

Redknapp believes that sending Spurs players on loan at smaller teams will help improve the club’s prospect by giving them meaningful games in the Football League. Despite Spurs apparent success with this tactic, an important fabric of English football – the lore of the lower leagues is at stake. In England, lower division clubs are fiercely supported by fan bases who dream of having their team in the first division. This is a stark comparison to Spain in which “B” sides for La Liga clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona compete against up and coming teams on the second rung of Spanish football. These clubs are supported exclusively by the fans of their parent organizations which prevents the same type of romanticism that one sees in the lower divisions of England.

The danger of Redknapp’s actions are turning lower division clubs into feeder clubs for those in the top division. This move by Tottenham places the current football league system at risk by placing English football at a cross roads. If more clubs decide to take this route, England’s lower divisions could be stocked with fringe players of top division clubs rather than growing their own talent. Although these smaller teams would reap the immediate rewards of this exercise, their fans would be unable to create long lasting bonds with their own players. Gone are the day’s of a player rising through the ranks of his hometown club and staying there for the duration of his career and instead a troubling new dawn is on the horizon of British football.

What A Difference A Year Makes At White Hart Lane

Paul Bestall — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:01:34 +0000

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.

Can Ledley King Keep Going?

Paul Bestall — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:48:52 +0000

The sight of Ledley King pulling up when Didier Drogba was running towards the Tottenham goal in Sunday’s London derby left me with a resigned feeling of deja vu. Even on one leg, a training regime of swimming twice a week and the frailties of the midfield formation that wasn’t working, King was keeping Drogba quiet. That was the key turning point of the match for me, regardless of the legitimacy of the penalty claim.

Since King fractured his metatarsal in a Premier League back in April 2006, missing the World Cup, he has had no luck with injuries at all. Yet it’s nothing new, in the 9 seasons since he became a first team mainstay, King has played in over 30 league games in only two seasons, 2001-02 and 2004-05. Tottenham fans still regard him as one of the best of the last 20 years to play at the Lane and his staus as club captain from 2005 to 2009 recognises his contribution, on and off the field of play.

The chronic knee injury which now plagues him was caused ironically, in a training ground clash during the summer of 2006. Since then King has managed to play in only 52 League games from a possible 120 matches. It seems a cruel twist of fate that King could have been a consistently recognised player for his country, as the spat between Capello and Redknapp earlier this year showed.

As much as his injury problems have affected his playing career, Capello rightly recognises King as one of England’s best 3 centre halves and a fantastic defensive midfielder at both club and international level. What makes King’s continued appearances more astounding is the fact that his knee is inoperable. His problem is he has no cartilage in the affected knee, so he plays games with bone rubbing on bone.

At 28, it’s an incredible risk to put himself through so much on a weekly basis simply to play football. Why does he do it? After each game the knee swells up, making it impossible for him to play more than once every 6 or 7 days. The stress that must be putting on his body must be incredible. The trouble is, because he now can’t train, other area’s of his body are beginning to show signs of wear and tear. The injury to his right hamstring on Sunday seemed to just happen. He wasn’t in full flow, he wasn’t stretching, it simply went on him.

I can honestly say that King is one of my favorite players and one of the best centre halves that we’ve had at Tottenham since I actually knew anything about the game. Yes, I still rate Campbell and yet King perhaps harks back to early time in what drives him to keep going. I see so much of Gary Mabbutt’s attitude in the way King puts his health on the line for the shirt, the fans and the club.I find it astounding, I really do that he cares enough to keep going like he does.

Mabbutt, if you were unaware, is a diabetic and had to inject himself four times a day, check his blood sugar levels before, during and after games and always keep his insulin kit with him at all times. To think he played over 600 professional matches and appeared 16 times for England gives you some idea of the spirit that drove Mabbutt onward.Despite being diagnosed at 17, he continued to play, train and work diabetes in to his football routine and got to the top level of his sport regardless of how easy it could have been to give up.

Whilst King’s condition is nowhere near as serious, it gives some idea of the mental strength that he must summon every time he steps out on a pitch for Spurs. I just hope that he can keep going without causing himself permanent injury in later life. At the end of the day, it’s only football and Ledley already has a place in the hearts of the Tottenham faithful.

Defoe Continues To Shine For Club And Country

Paul Bestall — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:25:46 +0000

Jermain Defoe has had a fantastic start to the new season, with goals for England and Spurs; including his 50th for the club in the 2-1 win at West Ham. His hat trick and all round performance against Hull City was clearly his best performance in a Spurs shirt in either spell. When he rejoined Spurs in January this year, he was welcomed back with open arms as a disastrous season began to show the green shoots of recovery under Harry Redknapp.To be reunited with his mentor at a club that could finally match his talent was a win-win situation for all concerned.

Whilst I appreciate Defoe had already been at Tottenham prior to Redknapp’s appointment, he was always considered a luxury player. Under Santini and Jol, the Defoe and Keane partnership didn’t really seem to pay off. This saw Berbatov and Mido brought in 2006 and to this end, either Defoe or Keane would then partner the bigger man upfront. As time went by, the starting pair was consistently Keane and Berbatov and Defoe became 3rd choice.

Under the hellish reign of Juande Ramos, Defoe felt completely unloved, under rated and unwanted. Strikers, like the lead singers of a band, are in general, very precious, needing to be loved and told as much for them to perform. The chance to leave Spurs to link up with Redknapp at Portsmouth was too good a chance to turn down. In January 2008, Defoe moved to Fratton Park for £7.5 million.

17 goals in his 36 appearance for Pompey is some return, but with the financial difficulties beginning to bite on the South Coast last Christmas, Defoe made no secret of the chance to once again be reunited with Redknapp and return to White Hart Lane after 340 days away. Around the corner however, fate had a cruel twist awaiting Defoe.

After breaking his foot in a training ground accident, Defoe was laid up until April and had just returned to the squad on April 19th when his half brother, Jade was murdered. Defoe was devastated, he was close to Jade and his death hit him hard and given compassionate leave for two weeks by the club, on his return to playing, the Spurs fans gave him a rapturous welcome. He was clearly moved by the fans support that day.

Still finding his way back, fitness wise, Defoe managed to get a goal in the win over Manchester City and a brace for England against Andorra. It was a precursor of what this season had in store for him.

He has continued to find strength in the adversity that has happened to him in the last 6 months and along with his team mate, Wilson Palacios; whose brother was found murdered in May, 19 months after being kidnapped, the pitch is allowing them a place they can get away from it all. It has been to England and Tottenham’s benefit that Defoe is showing such character and feeding of the inspiring humilty of Palacios to deal with life correctly.

Defoe has spent the summer working on every aspect of his game, working on increasing his strength and changing his diet. He now realises he has a club manager that has always had faith in him and an international manager who now has a selection issue.For Tottenham and England fans, Defoe is showing signs of finally realising the potential that Redknapp spotted in him when he was at West Ham.

After Eriksson’s ludicrous decision not to take him to the 2006 World Cup, Defoe should be a shoe-in for South Africa and the only question for Fabio Capello is should he start him Wednesday night, his place in the World Cup Squad already assured. After all that’s happened to him this year, it’s the least he deserves.