The Spaniard scored a fantastic goal and played some perceptive passes using cheeky touches when necessary
The Spaniard scored a fantastic goal and played some perceptive passes, using cheeky touches when necessary.Best set of fans, beside your own?West Brom. Despite their dire position last season they supported with humour and good voice.Best chant?”Are you West Ham in disguise ?” to Aston Villa after their 5-1 defeat at White Hart Lane. This season we might find out!!Which ground is your favourite to visit and why?The Hawthorns. Although modernised, there is still a feel of the old ground at West Bromwich Albion and the atmosphere is always good there.What improvements need to be made this season?A ball-winning, creative midfielder was the priority, but then it is for most clubs. This was closely followed by the incident when Robbo held the team back in the tunnel, leaving Ledley to run out onto the pitch on his own !!Best individual performance against you?Luis Garcia of Liverpool. He showed the sort of skill that most English players are not naturally blessed with and even when they are the property of the opposing side, you have to applaud them. A happier man I could not have wished to meet and one who took it all in his (giant) stride.
Slapping me on the back, he also knocked me down the tunnel !! Oh, and some dodgy lineman’s decision at Old Trafford.And the funniest?Paul Robinson’s roll out to Ledley King against Newcastle, but with King looking the other way, the ball went to James Milner, who produced an awful intended chip to miss the target by some considerable distance. Rohan Ricketts fell into the same category as failing to meet the promise he showed.What was the most memorable moment from last season?Interviewing Martin Jol just after he had been announced as the new Head Coach after Santini’s mysterious departure. Played well for Watford on loan, where he got good reviews, but back at Spurs he might find a long queue in front fo him for a first team place. Ledders is developing into the king-pin of the defence (and attack in the latter stages of some matches last season).Who was your worst player?’Worst’ is a very harsh and subjective term, so I have gone for one player who has failed to meet the hopes fans had for him – Johnnie Jackson. A left footer is always a useful player to have in the team, but he seems to have dropped down the pecking order rapidly and his confidence went with it. Quiet and unassuming, he has captained the side well and goes about his work without due fuss or histrionics.
Earned Spurs a number of points they wouldn’t otherwise have added to their total.And the most under-rated?Despite working harder than it looks like he does, Michael Carrick doesn’t seem to have won over the fans yet, so perhaps most under-rated must be Ledley King. He is massive in stature and ability and must rate as one of the best signings Tottenham have made in recent history. Why, oh why can’t we see off the bottom sides?Who was your team’s best player last season?Overall, I would say that Paul Robinson was our best player despite missing the last two and a bit games with injury. Your team’s best performance last season?
Definitely Everton at home on New Years Day.
A 5-2 win over a team that doesn’t concede many with our midfield contributing four of the goals was too good to be true And not one card was issued in the match. The 5-1 victories over Villa and the South Coast’s Big Club (now of the Championship) were good too, but Everton were a better side.
And the worst?0-3 at Crystal Palace. In an ideal world it would, rather predictably, be the mercurial Ronaldinho.What would you consider to be a good season?Survival, plain and simple.How would you sum up your manager?Mick has excellent man management skills and a great rapport with his players and the fans. He is well known for speaking his mind and does not suffer fools gladly. Although not a master tactician in the Wenger/Ferguson mould he has the ability to get the best out of his players and knows a bargain when he sees one. His style of play is ideally suited to this club and if anyone is capable of helping us survive in the upper echelons of English football it would be McCarthy.If you had to put a £1m bet on where your team finishes, where would you say?14th.
Expect fireworks on the pitch and a repeat of an all too familiar score-line, 2-1.Which of your young players has impressed you?Andy Welsh who often looks like a little lad whose lost his mum in a supermarket but when he gets going he is magic to watch. Lets hope we see a lot more of him next season.If money was no object which player or manager would like to see at your club?Alan Shearer…only kidding perhaps Claude Makelele who I thought was the best player in the Premier League by far last season. Also Stephen Elliot for pretty much the same reasons and to prove Kevin Keegan wrong again for letting him leave City.Which game are you most looking forward to?Newcastle at the SoL. Tyne-Wear derbies are by far the biggest and liveliest in the country and this one will be no different. As soon as the Full-Time whistle went we were offered many hand shakes and cries of ‘good look’ and ‘you’s have got a cracking side there’. Sure to be a question on ‘They Think It’s All Over’ in the future. Also the Bowyer/Dyer bust up cannot go without mention and will be written into Mackem folklore sure to be remembered for the rest of time.Whos was the best individual performance against you?Best performance against us was Dave Kitson who bagged a brace at the Stadium of Light to give his team a win against the odds and to end our eight game unbeaten run.Best set of fans, besides your own?Best fans would probably be the Ipswich fans at Portman Road.