Learning at the Lane

When the Big Ben rang out across London on New Year’s eve, my resolution came into force. I promised to learn something new every day of 2014, on Saturday at White Hart Lane I filled my quota for the rest of the month.

From the moment I opened my eyes to bright sunshine bursting through the blinds I knew it would be a different, supporting Spurs very rarely follows the normal course.

This is a selection I learnt at White Hart Lane.

Erik Lamela

The sun was a sign. The weather was glorious. It was the weather to “always take Lamela with you,” or it would have been if he was around, and not injured/out of favour/MIA.

When the Argentine signed for Spurs I was excited. It came pretty close to Jurgen Klinsmann style excitement, I loved Lamela before he even joined. He along with Gigi Buffon, Andrea Pirlo and Guti was one of my “I would go crazy if he joined Spurs” fantasies.

What was there not to like? Hailing South America, capable of moments of footballing beauty, surprisingly strong, elegant on the ball and schooled for two years by “Il Gladiatore” Francesco Totti, a hero of mine, all the boxes were double ticked. Unfortunately, since he arrived I have seen very little of him in the flesh.

A cameo against Norwich and two appearances in the Capital One Cup and the Europa League. I spend my afternoons stalking @SpursOfficial’s training pics searching for a glimpse of him, I signed him in my FM2013 game, even though I didnt really need him and in FIFA13 when I am Roma, he is always on the ball.

I need more, I want more. The less he plays the more I want to see him. Staring across White Hart Lane trying to spot movement in the VIP boxes, I realised then and there, I am obsessed with Lamela.

Danny Rose

There was a school of thought out there last summer that suggested that Rose was a decent left-back. The former England under-21 had shone at a poor Sunderland team and with the departure of Beniot Assou-Ekotto, the chance for regular football arrived.

I remained doubtful, but against all odds, he he started the season well and Spurs looked pretty good down the left. I started to think perhaps I had been to rash in my judgement.

Since those late summer months though I have come to the realisation that, helped drastically by Saturday’s performance, I was right all along.

Rose may be English, he may be young, but unfortunately he isn’t good enough to be the starting left back at a top four and beyond chasing team. Playing against opponents who deny you space and drop deep, those moments when you do find yourself in a metre or two of free green/yellow/muddy/sandy space, you need to exploit it.

Against Palace too many times he wasted that chance. Rose is a decent left back, but he should not be considered one of the first names on the team sheet, a status he currently occupies thanks to some serious mismanagement.

Bovril

At half-time with the cold seeping through my Vans into my socks and up my body, I opted for a hot drink. Normally a beer would be my beverage of choice, but the lack of speed at the counter, that then forces me to down the beer in 2 minutes, put me off.

My companion opted for coffee, whilst I decided to follow my New Year’s resoultion and try something new, I selected Bovril.

It was the first time I have ever tried it. In my head I pictured liquid marmite, sprinkled with the devil’s shavings and infused with Satan sauce, but what I actually got was something quite different.

The first sip puzzled me, the second enticed me, by the 20^th I was berating the lack of depth to my mug. As Christian Eriksen scored, I waved my left arm in delight, but kept my right steady so as not to spill a drop.

Think Sunday dinner, think gravy, roast potatoes, a lovely beef joint and Yorkshire pudding. That’s what Bovril is. It’s heaven in a cup, your favourite dinner of the week in liquid form.

At the next 1882 event when your throat is sore, the bar aren’t serving beer and you need to find the strength to go again, go Bovril. Go for the taste sensation.

Christian Eriksen

When he signed many questioned why he joined us. For a player who has been considered a fantastic prospect, for him to end up at White Hart Lane for an average fee was a puzzle.

Is he overrated? Has the Dutch League be kind to him just as it was Alfonso Alves, Dirk Kuyt and Georgios Samaras?

However on Saturday after he fired in a well taken opener, I realised I don’t give a monkey’s what anyone else thinks. Eriksen is a talent, a true talent around which we can build or team, not just our left wing.

Tim and I may fall out

When I spotted Defoe warming up I wasn’t’t happy. Jermain Defoe hasn’t’t been a favourite of mine for quite sometime, and the thought of removing Roberto Soldado, a player in desperate need of a goal for one MLS bound upset me.

I struggled to see the point, what was the gain in playing Defoe. It’s like Ferrari deciding to test their 2007 car ahead of the 2014 season. There is no new data to learn.

I concede he scored and it was quite fitting for him to do so in the week he pretty much announced his retirement from football, but I would rather have given Soldado the minutes.

When Spurs appointed Sherwood I decided to throw my full support behind him, but on Saturday as he withdrew Soldado,he upset me for the first time. It was a new feeling.

The pitch

Back in the days pre Sky+ or iPlayer, if you wanted to watch Match of the Day you waded through the punditry nonsense, late on a Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

If you were a man of faith you would place your trust in your VHS and a 8-10 digit number called VideoPlus, which hardly ever worked, or you attempted to set the timer. The early to mid-nineties were a difficult time, even more so if you supported Spurs.

We were regularly given the graveyard slot on MOTD and my overbearing memory, other than “mercy we are terrible” was the pitch. Patchy, yellow, sprinkled with sand, with the ball bobbling around before it was leathered up field by Dean Austin/Stuart Nethercott (insert own worst player memory here), it was made us look average, on Saturday during a woeful first half, I had the same thought.

For the first time in quite some time at Spurs our pitch was just as bad as or performance. Sack the groundsman. #GroundsmanOut

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