Guess Who’s Back?
Good morning! Ignoring the prevailing sense that we’re about to be dropped into the Arctic Tundra without thermal underwear or a good pair of thick socks, Spurs’ 2012/13 campaign will be very much under way this afternoon. Yes, you heard right. Premier League Kickball is back and it’s in custody of a brand new bag.
Forget your down-to-earth, likeable Olympians doing extraordinary things for a fraction of Ashley Cole’s monthly phone bill: this is where the real action is. Gaudy, over-hyped, over-paid sports pirates; spinning off the planet one enormous wage packet at a time. And would you want it any other way? No, of course not. Of course not.
Tyneside, then, the first port in which this good ship throws down anchor and a sterner test for our returning heroes you couldn’t imagine. While business has been slow for Pardew in these long, wet summer months- Luuk de Jong and the excellent Debuchy were both courted but neither captured- the robust underpinning of the side remains, for now, intact. In Krul, Coloccini, Cabaye, Tiote, Ba and Big Papa Cisse, Newcastle posses a central core which, the experts would call, lovely.
And so to our dear Tottenham. Not wishing to lament the former chief with a tendency for the predictable, I genuinely have no idea what to expect this afternoon. Each in terms of performance, formation or personnel. The back five picks itself, so we’re told, but then I’m hearing whispers of Dawson being made captain. While a big fan of Michael and everything he brings; I do hope this supposed new job-title can be fulfilled from the dug-out or within the confines of a changing room. You might give a badge to a police dog as a matter of course, but you wouldn’t want him driving the squad car now, would you? Vertonghen and Kaboul, e’ery day.
Elsewhere about the pitch, I’m all of dither at the prospect of seeing the boy Sigurdsson in Technicolor action. He’s just one of the reasons I’m able to look at the current dearth of striking options we’re faced with and think maybe, maybe, we might just be able to wing it for the first one or two games. A potentially disastrous mindset, I’ll admit. Clearly having a solitary centre-forward on the books is not ideal, but along with VdV, Bale and now the trigger-happy Icelander, we’re far from lacking in goal-scoring midfielders. And, hey, if it’s good enough for Spain…
Good luck, André. We’re right behind you. COYS!
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