Sandro: My First, My Last, My Everything

When a player suffers a long term injury something peculiar happens amongst the fans. The longer they spend on the treatment table, the more their reputation swells.  They become a symbol of all that is great, their flaws slowly fade from consciousness and all that remains are their qualities.

Its like thinking back to your first girlfriend, you remember only the good times, the nagging, the untimely headaches and the annoying friends fade. The image you are left with is one of perfection, the answer to all your needs both carnally and mentally. These thoughts stay with you, until you meet by chance at a party and those long forgotten flaws come charging back.

At Spurs (and probably every other club) we suffer from this time induced amnesia. The longer a player spends in the treatment room, the better he becomes, cast an eye over Twitter or any forum and you will see how quickly we forget.

Aaron Lennon a gifted, yet flawed winger was being touted as the reviver of Roberto Soldado’s stuttering start at Spurs. Many said: “ When Lennon comes back, Bobby will finally get the service he needs.” How quickly we forgot that the major flaw in Lennon’s game is his final ball.

At the back we have been without Younes Kaboul for over a calendar year and the rate in which he has improved in our minds is remarkable. He remains a big strong centre-back who possess a great many qualities, but some people seem to think he has developed an unsurpassed range of passing and positioning whilst sat on the treatment table.

[linequote]How quickly we forgot that the major flaw in Lennon’s game is his final ball[/linequote]

Thankfully though, there is one player who breaks the mould, actually to be fair to him he doesn’t break it, he smashes it with a Kung-Fu kick, before whipping out his guitar and serenading us with a song.

That player is of course Sandro, who is fast becoming one of my favourite ever players to wear the Lillywhite.

The regular adjectives of any top holding midfielder apply to him, yet there is something more than this about the man. Whilst some footballers are at the mercy of their agent and marketing team Sandro through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram allows us took look directly into his life. Perhaps its this openness and his joy for life that makes us love him, but as he proved on Sunday, he is more than just a savvy user of social media.

No player at Spurs in my lifetime has been quite like the Brazilian. Whilst Lennon and Kaboul have seen their rep increase in their absence, I was concerned that perhaps the same was happening to Sandro, but in fact it has been the opposite. All you need to do is look back over the end of last season and you realise his hype hasn’t grown, in fact we had forgotten how good he is.

Last season our now departed Welshman quite rightly garnered all the plaudits. As the season came to a close it was his goals that kept us in the hunt for a failed top four bid, but up until that moment at Loftus Park when Sandro’s knee gave way, the Welsham was second to the Brazilian.

[linequote]Perhaps its this openness and his joy for life that makes us love him, but as he proved on Sunday, he is more than just a savvy user of social media[/linequote]

The influence of Sandro can be easily traced in the performances of Mousa Dembele. For the first half of the season the Belgian was our dynamo, racing forward, creating havoc, but what many of us failed to notice was Sandro alongside him. The Brazilian’s presence brought the best out of Dembele, alongside weaker midfielders such as Scott Parker and Tom Huddlestone, the Belgian’s influence waned.

On Sunday against Villa, with the Hammer Horror show still fresh in my mind, it was a huge relief to see Sandro back. After his first slide-tackle, I felt confident even though Spurs had yet to start playing. His scurrying, hassling, and imperious slide-tackling were the furnace from where our victory was wrought.

At our last home game I questioned some of AVB’s decisions, but at Villa Park he made the right call. Against a limited team who have a tremendous work ethic, the deployment of Sandro as a shield was spot on. His presence combined with Lewis Holtby’s enthusiastic chasing down, gave Paulinho the license to play in his preferred Box-to-Box role.

The only disappointing thing to emerge from a strong second-half showing was the decision of Gary Neville to award Andros Townsend the man of the match award. The winger’s remarkable rise in performance did contribute to our three points, but it was Sandro who I felt truly deserved the trophy.

[linequote]His scurrying, hassling, and imperious slide-tackling were the furnace from where our victory was wrought[/linequote]

However, I get the impression that plaudits and awards don’t matter to him. Once again this may be part of my Sandro fantasy, but I can imagine the Brazilian practising his Karate chop on the Barclays statue before finding Heurlho Gomes and heading out for a spot of sightseeing.

In an age where footballers are galaxies away from their fans, it’s comforting to have a player who throws darts at a dart board, converses with his fans and isn’t afraid to make a grammatical error or two on live TV.

Welcome back Sandro, we’ve missed you.

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