Perhaps a slight stretch but South Korea, Scotland and Israel cover most of the known universe so the heading stands. Better a half-truth than a lie. Mr. Johnson.
And then there were six. Just when we were beginning to think that the latest deal was Djed in the water! Only one more for a Magnificent Seven, Bale’s parting gift to us all. And we all remember how that went.
But that was then and now with the Champions League and a top, top Manager the course is set fair for Trophies-Ville and a new chapter in the Tottenham story. What can possibly go wrong?
Those boxes marked ‘Spursy’ have been removed from the trophy cabinet to make way for….well trophies obviously, and are now gathering dust in Daniel’s attic. May they never see the light of day again.
I am pleased that we have added youth and more than a hint of potential to the line-up. ‘Talksport’ alleges, for what it’s worth, that this was a club choice that he didn’t oppose. How soon he muscles his way through to RWB remains to be seen.
The key purchases so far are experienced, hard-working recruits in positions with which Conte will be satisfied. Flexibility will be important as the season progresses and cover for the variety of games, illness and injury.
Richarlison and Perisic both offer flexibility and hard work and Conte will have plenty of variety for his initial line-up sand in-game tactical changes.
Now we must reduce the squad, especially of non-Home-Grown members to boost the transfer budget and relieve the overcrowding in the dressing room. Tanguy Ndombele, Lo Celso and Reguilón are the obvious candidates (Daily Mail) but either Emerson or Doherty must be on the manager’s exit list.
It looks as if the other ‘One Of Our Own’, the other Harry, Winks will be leaving us too. His career path didn’t quite work out after reaching the England squad in 2017 and playing some fine games for us, especially one at Real Madrid.
He has been with us for 20 years, boy and man, and has unfairly become something of a scapegoat, after sustaining a serious ankle ligament injury not long after what proved to be his best days at Spurs. I wish him well and every success in his future career.
The trip to South Korea has been a marketing success, building on Son Heung-min’s enthusiastic following and should sell enough shirts to keep both management and fans happy. The new away kit is dreadful as usual and once again I won’t be buying one.
Sonny scored twice in the opening game, including a penalty donated by Harry Kane who himself scored 3 times in the two games. We beat the Team-K League side 6-3 in the opening game, which flattered us a little but their defending was a little ill-judged and over-enthusiastic towards the end.
In the second game, we drew 1-1 against Seville who I thought were the better team on the day probably having played together more. Their passing and movement put us on the rack at times. But with Harry and Sonny on form, you need to score more than 1 goal to have a chance of winning.
Dier has been outstanding so far and fittingly scored the first goal of pre-season, striding out of defence and exchanging passes with Gil and scoring a scorcher from outside the area for his first goal in 3 years.
Betancur and Romero have played well but Hojbjerg, Sanchez and Kulusevski have not quite found their form. Richarlison has been hit and miss but promises great things once he settles and adapts his game to his new colleagues.
I have not been impressed with Austin in goal. His distribution is straight out of the Hugo Lloris playbook and I don’t remember him making a save so far. Harvey White played well in his brief appearance as have Skipp and Gil.
I remember when it used to be an accepted Spurs article of faith that a successful pre-season heralded a faltering start and a struggle before Xmas but those days have surely gone.
With Rangers to come on Saturday at Ibrox and Mourinho’s AS Roma in Israel at the end of the month to complete our World Tour, things can still go either way in terms of a successful pre-season.
Regards, but be careful what you wish for.
