Bend It Like Bentley!

Although we are only in October, the 'Goal of the Season' competition was effectively 'WON' last night by Tottenham midfielder David Bentley.

His glorious 35 yard long range dipping volley in the stunning 4-4 draw with Arsenal was arguably one of the 'greatest goals of its type' ever witnessed in the modern day era!

I know there are still about 6 months of the season remaining, but it is hard to imagine witnessing an equally good or an even better individual goal again this season........but we shall have to wait and see!

I can only think of two possible goals in recent times that might be considered on a par with Bentley's.
Firstly Matt Taylor's long range strike for Pompey v. Everton in 2006.Link

......and secondly Thierry Henry's volley against Man.Utd in 2000.Link


If you haven't already seen David Bentley's goal then watch it here now and all the goals in a quite extraordinary eight goal thriller!
Link


Mr.Bentley.......take a bow!

¿¡¡Y si Bianchi es un "chanta"!!?

Diez razones para por lo menos sospechar del cáracter de bluff futbolístico del "Virrey":

* Hoy por hoy su único trabajo consiste en esas muy redituables conferencias, cursos de management empresario, psicología grupal y demases curros, cual Bucay o Stamateas, en los que se da el gusto de repetir 800 veces las mismas vaguedades de siempre, con ese tono enojado e irónico, tan afecto a sí mismo y que bordea la mala educación, mientras recuerda siempre aquel llamado telefónico de Fagiani -una calurosa navidad allá por el 2002-, y que deja entrever su magnífica gestión de grupo, su pragmatismo alquimista, el cáracter magnánimo de sus decisiones y la devoción que le profesan sus "criaturas".

* Ya pidió el doble de lo que cobraba el anterior entrenador Alfio Basile recordando lo mucho que lo mueve el "verde": por citar un ejemplo aquella conferencia en donde criticó mientras era tècnico de Boca el valor en el que había sido vendido su jugador Battaglia en relación a un jugador de River, Demichelis. Curiosidad: Battaglia retornó a la Argentina a los 6 meses y Demichelis sigue jugando en el mismo club alemán 5 años después. Pero claro cualquier reproche era valido ya que su contrato le asignaba un porcentaje de cada transferencia.

* Fue la primera figura pública (junto a nada menos que Marcelo Tinelli) que salió a respaldar en plena crisis económica y social al banco que inspiró el famoso "corralito", movida que confiscó y depreció los ahorros de gran parte de los argentinos. Lo hizo a cambio de una jugosa paga y para recuperar cada centavo de sus cuantiosos ahorros.

* Demuestra un interés inusitado en conducir los destinos de la selección justo ahora que faltan dos años para el Mundial, y no tiene que atravesar un larguísimo proceso de 4 años (con la paga doble compensaría tremendo "sacrificio").

* No le fue bien en ninguna de sus incursiones europeas: tanto en Roma como en Atlético de Madrid no llegó a completar la temporada al frente de sus equipos. Cuando se fue del Aleti le echó la culpa de su fracaso a "la falta de inteligencia de los jugadores españoles". Tampoco destaca su ojo para elegir jugadores ni la generosidad de su propuesta para dirigir un equipo con la tradición de juego de la Selección Argentina.

* No son pocos los que piensan que se benefició del "trabajo sucio" de sus antecesores cada vez que le tocó recalar con éxito en algún club: Eduardo Luján Manera en Vélez, Bilardo, Veira y Tavarez, primera y segunda etapa en Boca. Ni del factor determinante que constituyó su preparador físico: el profe Santella. Quizás ahora, el "trabajo" de Basile en la previa no lo ayude demasiado.

* El "gesto" de no retirar la medalla por el segundo puesto, en aquella Libertadores perdida ante el Once Caldas, para reforzar su imagen de "ganador". Su tendencia-estrategia de hacerse desear frente a las requisitorias periodísticas para acrecentar su fama de "díficil". Alguna otra vez supo "venderse" muy bien en aquellas jornadas previas a la Intercontinental frente al Milan en Tokio, cuando era técnico de Vélez y aprovechaba cada domingo a la mañana las transmisiones de fútbol italiano en Canal 9 para contarle a todos como le iba a jugar al rossonero. Precursor de la mesa de técnicos de Niembro, un verdadero lince el pelado hincha de River.

* Si pensamos que su éxito futbolístico dependió de manera sustancial de la capacidad para atajar penales de sus arqueros: Jose Luis Chilavert, Óscar Córdoba y el Pato Abbondanzieri en por lo menos una decena de oportunidades. ¿Como va a hacer en las Eliminatorias?

* Siempre demuestra su "amor" y "gratitud incondicional" hacia su querido Vélez afirmando que sólo lo dirigiría si estuviera ... en peligro de descenso!!. ¿Con el sistema de promedios actual algún hincha de Vélez puede soñar con el retorno del ex-Virrey de Liniers?

* Haz lo que yo digo pero no lo que yo hago. Alguna vez criticó duramente al bueno Arsene Wenger, técnico del Arsenal inglés, por poner dos líneas de 4 en una final de Champions (2006 ante el Barcelona), mientras oficiaba de comentarista de aquel partido en una transmisión de ESPN. Justo él que jugaba las finales con triple 5 y apostaba a los penales.

Como sea, cualquiera sea la suerte de Bianchi en la selección, acuerdense que el primero que dijo que era un chanta de campeonato fue toto.

Cock-Sure !

The meaning of the adjective 'cocksure' - marked by excessive confidence; 'an arrogant and cocksure materialist'; 'so overconfident and impudent as to speak to the queen'; 'the less he knows the more positive he gets.'

It is rather ironic that this is one of those terms the origin of which we are far from cock-sure about. One point of certainty - it is old. Robert Whittinton, mentions it as early as 1520 in his grammatical tract Vulgaria:

'I haue knowen a man or nowe that thought him selfe cocke sure of his intent.'

Tottering Cockerels reel your necks in........I know it's not clever or original to bring up the current plight of 'The Spuds,' but what gives me the hump is all those fans of North London's 2nd Club, be it on radio phone-ins, on messageboards, on blogs, pub gossip & so on, but they think they are untouchable, 'to good to go down' not unlike teams of the ilk of Leeds & Forest in years gone by.
Your hear the rumblings of discontent for sure, but none of them seem to believe it could happen. Why ever not?

Here are some of the most stone cold simplistic observations as to why 'Spuds' fans' should indeed worry & why IT IS possible for the 'Spuds' to go down:

Results so far: P8, W0, D2, L6. These include defeats to Boro’, Sunderland, Hull & Stoke (no disrespect to the afore mentioned Clubs) but not quite the Premier Leagues’ heavyweights.

Lack of Premier League points: 2 from 24 (a points win ratio of just over 8%) & only 5 goals scored.
36 points were required last season to stay up, (Spurs finished in 11th position last season with 46 points). So in theory Spurs need another 34 from 30 games. However this season it looks like it will be a closer battle to stay up with more points required than last year to secure safety.
IF we say 38 points to be on the safe side then Spurs need another 36 points from 30 games which means a win ratio for a struggling side of 40% - 12 wins from their 30 remaining games.

The Manager: Juande Ramos – good overseas managerial record BUT NO previous experience in Premier League management. A jolly foreigner with arguably no interest in the spoken language & as a result only a token grasp of the native language of this country. Doubts about his tactical nous at this level are also doing the rounds.

Current Players speaking out publicly (rightly or wrongly) stating some home truths, namely David Bentley the expensive recent acquisition from Blackburn (& currently a shadow of his former playing self) called his own team sh*t & the experienced Jonathan Woodgate saying his Spurs team-mates 'need a good kick up the a*se.......and the way we are playing we deserve to be at the bottom.'

The Defence: 'Coco the Clown' alias Heurelho Gomez between the sticks & one clean sheet from their opening 8 matches says it all. A total lack of confidence is apparent in defence. May as well hire a behavioural therapist as a defensive coach.

Discipline: – or should that read indiscipline - 3 red cards in the last two matches......not down to bad refereeing, just insubordination: Premier League Statistics – 2 sent-off & 15 bookings in 8 games, 3 sent-off & 30 bookings in ALL competitions! Hardly subservient behaviour

Forthcoming Fixtures: – In the league Bolton, Arsenal & Liverpool next - a very tricky 4th round Carling Cup tie on the 12th November also against Liverpool & in danger of going out of the UEFA Cup at the group stage, with awkward ties still to play against Russian & Croatian opposition.

The Boardroom: The sacking of manager Martin Jol a year ago was the first of many big mistakes, a knee-jerk reaction to a generally disruptive working environment involving player unrest, an incoherent transfer policy, poor decision making at all levels & questionable on-field tactics.
Now Jol is at the helm of Hamburg & they currently sit proudly at the top of the German Bundesliga.
Damien Comolli, Tottenham’s Director of Football, deals with the transfer policy at Spurs & must be held accountable to a strategy which involved selling two seasoned and respected international strikers so near to the end of the transfer deadline, without first ensuring that appropriate signings had been made to fill the void. This was totally irrational & preposterous behaviour.

A member of the Tottenham Supporters' Trust recently cast his view across of the Clubs' current predicament when he said of the goings on. 'The people who run the club are obsessed by making money and they seem to think that volume, in terms of player transfer activity, adds up to quality. It isn't. Football has become obsessed with money and Tottenham are an arch example of that'

Players In/Out: Strikers – proven Premier League goalscorers Robbie Keane & Dimitar Berbatov sold (albeit for big bucks) to Liverpool & Man U respectively, only to be replaced by two inexperienced Premier League strikers in the shape of Roman Pavlyuchenko & youngster Fraizer Campbell.
To emphasise the point, top scorer this season is Darren Bent with 3 goals in the league.
For the next highest scorer see the column marked 'own goals.'


I for one firmly believe firing Ramos would be the worst possible solution.

Tottering Cock-Spur the trap door looms large!

Ramos to be next Premier League boss to leave/be sacked: Betting suspended.
Spurs to be relegated: 7/2.

Odds supplied courtesy of Coral bookmakers as at 16:45 on 24/10/08.