contemplating tottenham

My first post in who-knows-how-long and it's about another club. Go figure. Anyways, I have soft place in my heart for the Spurs. I've honestly never met a White Hart Lane fan that I didn't like, maybe that's just dumb luck, but it also doesn't hurt that Berbatov the Impaler (who I hate now, btw) won me a pretty penny last season with his late game heroics against West Ham in one of the best matches I've ever watched.

To get to the point of this post, after watching Stoke embarrass them, I was thinking about the Spurs squad and wondering just how talented it is. Which players would make our squad? And would they even see the pitch? The only player who I thought would get decent time is Alan Hutton. I love the Scot and rate him higher than Arbeloa despite the fact that he looks as if he's 23 going on 40.

Other players I wouldn't mind having around are Pavlyuchenko, Huddlestone, Lennon, Luka Modrić, and David Bentley. Not sure if any of them would get enough minutes to be content, but I could definitely see the Russian being a late game replacement at striker and Modrić clearly has the talent to break into the starting side. Bentley would be a decent option on the right, but it would come down to availability and match-ups. The kids would likely wallow in lesser cup/match limbo for the most part and for a player like Huddlestone, I'm not sure that would be the best for their development.

It goes without saying, the Spurs are in shambles. A sad state of affairs that doesn't look to improve anytime soon. If you can't beat a mediocre side like Stoke with an obviously more-talented squad, than something is very, very wrong. I just don't think Ramos, who is the second-worst manager in Spurs history record-wise, understands the English game. Defense isn't exactly the strong point of the Spanish game and unlike La Liga, the Premiership sees no shame in nil-nil results. If he's trying to bring wild-style matches to England, well, he's failing miserably. They didn't look much a threat to score multiple goals today nor any day for that matter. Calling Big Sam?

Should we go after Dimitar Berbatov?

News out of White Hart Lane is that Dimitar Berbatov isn't happy and would like to go elsewhere come January. The 26-year-old striker has certainly lost his form of last year, managing to notch only a pair of goals in 14 matches. Last season he netted 23 in 49 total outings.

Fitness issues may have affected him at times, but for the most part this year his performances have been uninspiring. Comparing matches between this season and last, the Bulgarian International seems to lack the energy and creative spark he demonstrated in his debut season where he looked the threat nearly every time he had possession. In his defense though, he only scored four goals in his first dozen matches for the Spurs, but managed eleven in the final eighteen of last year's campaign. Maybe he just hasn't got it going yet.

Of course on the flip side of that argument is that he needed time to adjust to English football and once he did, well, his goal-scoring record speaks for itself. If that was the case then, how would one explain his recent dip in form? There were rumblings that he and Martin Jol weren't seeing eye-to-eye, but if that's the case, how's he going to react when he gets rotated-out of certain matches by Rafa? Neither Benitez nor senior members of the squad like Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher will tolerate such rubbish.

Another thing to think about is how a change of atmosphere could do him well, but if he had trouble handling the pressure at Tottenham, what's he going to do when the Scouser Nation become disenchanted? Ultimately I think it comes down to a risk-reward factor. I don't think it's wise to pay an exorbitant amount for a player who seems a bit inconsistent and possibly a head case, we already have plenty of those. If the Spurs would take Crouch and £10m, I'd say do it, but anything over £22m straight cash would be foolish. Let Chelsea take that kind of risk.