Lay off Berba

For the disgruntled Spurs fans who rage at the prospect of losing Dimitar Berbatov read the small-town boy who watches with mixed emotions as his beautiful girlfriend seduces the country in some godforsaken talent contest, knowing all the while that her success would ultimately result in her removal from him. Berbatov is too good for Spurs. No amount of protestation from Juande Ramos can hide this. Ramos knows it, Berbatov himself knows it, his team mates know it, and, reluctantly, so do those same fans. It is, after all, a situation they are familiar with, echoing the painful departures of Hoddle, Waddle, Gascoigne and Sheringham.

Spurs’ enemies in the football world, as numerous as they are vociferous, have latched on to the plight of Berbatov with glee. Berbatov’s desire to depart, they say, proves that Spurs will never be a big club, that they are a selling club and a feeder club to the big boys. They miss the point. Berbatov’s situation highlights the impossible difficulties facing any club outside the top four. Clearly to reach this level Spurs must keep him, but such is the scale of the player’s ability that as he has acclimatised to the Premiership he has simply outgrown his stage. An unsettled player is never a positive influence and his departure has become inevitable. Blackburn will soon face a similar situation with David Bentley.

The gulf between the top four and the rest is more pronounced than ever. As Ian Wright inadvertently put it: “I reckon if you asked 10 Spurs players if they would like to join one of the top four clubs, eight or nine would say yes. You rarely hear Arsenal or Chelsea players saying they want to move because they already know they are at a big club. And unless Real Madrid or Barcelona come in for them there are not many bigger clubs they can go to.” What is so surprising about this? Surely no-one at Spurs, or Man City or Everton for that matter, would be foolish to claim that their club can compete with one of the top-four at the moment. If Alan Hutton has asked for time before joining Spurs in the hope that United will come in for him then so what? It is not an insult to Spurs as such, rather an acknowledgement of the state of the realm. United are a bigger club, as are Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. With the cash of Thaksin Shinawatra City may mount a serious challenge to the quartet but the point remains that it is entirely understandable for any player from these clubs approached by the ‘big-four’ to have their head turned. 

The only club from outside this clique to win the Premier League are Blackburn in its third season, while the same four teams have monopolised the FA Cup since Everton won it in 1995. As far as the Champions League goes, only Everton have broken through, and they were unlucky enough to run into an inspired Villarreal in 2005. When even Liverpool, runners-up in last season’s Champions League and the owners of £26m Fernando Torres, trail the leaders by 12 points in January the problems for those below them are clear. Spearheaded by Berbatov, Spurs had their chance to stake their claim this season but for many well-documented reasons the anticipated push has never materialised. Such is life. It is not the player’s fault that in-fighting, injuries and an over-reliance on youth have conspired against his team. Had everything gone according to plan they would have struggled to break the stranglehold, but as it happens not even the great Geoff Capes could have carried Spurs’ leaking ship to European contention this campaign. 

Berbatov has been castigated by the media and countless ex-pro’s for his body language as the team snowballed. Spurs ‘legend’ Paul Walsh, a player whose hair gave fans more pleasure than his ability on the ball, saw fit to describe him as a ‘disgrace’. Walsh is one of many with a short memory. It was less than a year ago when Berbatov first shot to prominence that these same critics eulogised over his languid countenance, his grace and casual air on the ball. Not that much has changed this year. Some weeks he is sublime, others peripheral. It is the nature of the beast. Just as the reckless abandon of George Best was translated so sublimely onto the pitch, Berbatov is an artisan, a rare breed. Why do we demand that he wears his heart on his sleeve in the style of a Lee Carsley?

Clearly an intelligent man, why should Berbatov not have been aggrieved by events at Tottenham this season? The behaviour surrounding the sacking of Martin Jol was shambolic, and a player of his ability would surely be inhuman if he were not led to question what he is doing at a club seemingly so determined to shoot themselves in the foot. As for his body-language, the gulf in ability between Berbatov and some of his team-mates is at times derisory. Berbatov plays a style of football befitting the finest traditions. He is a perfectionist, who cares enough to show his disapproval when his colleagues are playing a different game. He deserves the chance to display his talents alongside those of a similar mindset at Old Trafford or Highbury. After all he is no Paulo Di Canio. He has scrapped with the best of them for Spurs, been influential away at Middlesbrough, Man City and Wigan. He is human yet immortal, his four goals at Reading coming after a first-half when everything he touched turned to mud. To suggest that in such an case the player owes the club is dangerous. They have not developed his extraordinary ability, it is his own work. The player must look after number one, nobody else will.

The time has come for an amicable break, whether this January or in the summer. Berbatov is 27, the clock is ticking. The fate of a bruised Thierry Henry at Barcelona serves as a reminder of the consequences of misguided loyalty, and Henry had the benefit of Championship medals at Arsenal to sate his thirst for further success. Rather than cursing him for his ambition, Spurs fans should savour the fact that once again they have been lucky enough to bear witness to a player who was destined for a higher plain.

Wise words from the old man may yet win Bale

Alex Ferguson's well-timed and equally well-chosen words in the Gareth Bale transfer saga showed that while he might not be as sharp tactically as in the past, his skills of media manipulation are as strong as ever.
Just when it seemed like Spurs had stolen a march in the race to capture the highly-rated Bale, having tabled a higher offer than United and promised him regular first team football, in stepped Fergie.

''Southampton said no to us because they are looking for more money, which they have every right to do,'' he said.
''The bid we made for Gareth reflected his potential. There were a series of build-ups in it because we have to protect our own club's assets too.
''We offered an initial fee with add-ons depending on how many games he plays, international caps and so on.
''I am not exactly sure what Tottenham have offered more but they have offered more and that has put them in pole position at the moment".
''Anyone who guarantees a player first-team football every week is wrong,'' he said.
''There are so many examples of young players being given a chance at this club, no-one could dispute the fact they will get opportunities.
"Maybe the boy himself would need to assess that.
''The fees don't frighten me, although it can sometimes frustrate me a little bit.
''When you are talking about signing young players with potential, you hope your decision-making and your assessment of the player is correct.
''You hope he won't be there for just one contract but for two or three. Then you get the longevity from that player, as we have done in the past with the likes of Roy Keane, Gary Pallister, Steve Bruce and Denis Irwin.
''That is the only way you can assess it".

This is classic Ferguson, challenging Bale to back his judgement of how best to treat a young player, and pointing to the success experienced by those who have done so in the past. His words are made more persuasive by his immense reputation and the signs that United are finally re-establishing themselves as a dominant Premiership force once more. If Bale does snub Spurs for United, then Fergie will also have saved United a few million pounds, as Southampton have been guilty of driving up Bale's price and would surely not turn their nose up at 8 million pounds for a 17-year-old.

Of course there is no law that says Bale need join anyone in this transfer window, and even if he does not move to United, if he does not join Tottenham either then Ferguson will have achieved his objective. There is always the summer after all, and it would be no great surprise if Bale is wearing red in 2008.

Jol fails tactical test

Another day and another top manager fails the tactical test against Arsene Wenger. Spurs were winning 1-0 after 20 minutes, and in truth it could have been four, yet Martin Jol reacted to an injury to Dimitar Berbatov by switching his formation to 4-5-1, putting Robbie Keane into what deserves to be dubbed the 'black hole' somewhere behind Jermain Defoe. Defoe was left horribly isolated, Spurs stopped playing football, and despite a second goal the excellence of their early football with Berbatov on the pitch was emphasised by the poverty of their attacking intent forthwith. Arsenal took full advantage of the space afforded them, with the unfairly talented substitute Hleb to the fore, and deservedly levelled the tie. Spurs and Jol have suffered from their lack of ambition in the same way that Alex Ferguson did at the Emirates on Sunday. Get amongst Arsenal. attack them, and they are vulnerable. Give them space and the will kill you. Jol may come to regret his timidity in a week's time.

Newcastle show story-book can be reality....

Yesterday's match at White Hart Lane between Tottenham and Newcastle served as a welcome reminder of football's occasional ability to rise above the hum-drum and produce a genuine story-book ending.

Newcastle simply had no right to win the game. Missing a whole team, and a bloody good one at that, through injuries, they were most decimated in defence - reduced to fielding a back four of a right-winger and three raw, if talented, youngsters.

Early on a rout seemed on the cards, as Spurs poured forward with pace and verve and could have had four inside ten minutes. Surely Newcastle couldn't hold on? They didn't, Defoe had the ball in the net on 13, his third good chance, ironically this one was offside. Yet however inexperienced Newcastle's defence may have been, they had Given, and he was all that mattered. Captain in Parker's absence, he was as acrobatic in the early stages as Robinson was static when the ball drilled through his legs to make it 1-1. Spurs had led for just two minutes, and the scorer was the 19-year old left-back Huntingdon, in just his eighth appearance for the club. Boys-own stuff indeed. His other fullback wasn't doing badly either- Solano was everywhere, coming up with several goal-saving blocks as Spurs laid siege again. One such lunge to deny Tainio met with rough-justice as the rebound fell to Berbatov, who volleyed down into the ground and in. It looked like game over. Surely Tottenham, boasting a home record bettered only by Manchester United and Liverpool, would go on and win comfortably.

Thankfully football takes no notice of statistics. After Martins had smashed the equaliser Spurs looked stunned. So stunned, in fact, that they neglected to track Butt's midfield run and the game was lost. Butt, the match-winner, had of course spent all-week in bed with flu, losing 9lb's in the process. To add to the irony, he could easily have been sent off at half-time after an unsightly fracas first with Chimbonda and then his own team-mates. But that would have ruined the story.

Spurs will hang their heads, 24 shots and just two goals tells the tale, but they should take comfort from this when they next find themselves in trouble, and remember that occasionally the story-book comes true.