Coutinho - Could this go all Comolli

There is much talk of the Liverpool bound Philippe Coutinho being a gamble of a signing. There are some questioning the fact that Inter are allowing an upcoming player to leave for £8.5 million. It didnt help when he suffered an injury late last year therefore losing his place. Whilst he didnt quite make it in the Italian league, he found himself doing some worthwhile in Spain. It was at Espanyol that he bagged 5 goals in 16 games.

Some people though may point to the fact that this is one failed Brazilian, South American players who struggle in Italy can't do well elsewhere. Well some maybe right and some maybe wrong. There of course Brazilians who have lit the Premier League such as Juninho in the cold and bleak northwest. It seems that when a manager takes a gamble, it is always a big risk, critics and football fans often too quick to make a judgement before the player has pulled on a shirt or graced the field. 

Of course there are two names that bring dread to transfers for Liverpool fans. Apart from a few signings, Rafa Benitez and Damien Commolli bring some fear to Liverpool fans especially when Rafa recommends a player. One thing though is that if you dont shoot you dont score. Im willing to give the player a chance as I do with all players...actually Paul Konchesky is exempt from that list. That is one player who doesnt get my support. Why dammit why. Im just glad that he was moved on quite soon

Spain is a long way from Spurs

After last week's blog where I tagged myself and Matt's teams, this weekend saw us both with long faces after the FA Cup's fourth round. I missed all of Sunday's games, choosing instead to watch the rather good Django Unchained, but it seems that this was a wise decision.

Now I could start complaining about poor decisions (possibly) but what seems to have been the downfall is starting with no strikers. My last blog post focused on the lack of options and it was sensible to rest Jermain Defoe and play Dempsey, but this in my view was a missed opportunity to start one of our youth team players - namely John Obika or Iago Falque - and give them the chance to start a match.

Instead we went in like a leaderless Spain and attempted to beat Leeds without a striker. Perhaps it worked, but the evidence is that Clint Dempsey was left to spearhead the attack along with fellow midfielders Sigurdsson, Bale and Lennon.

Personally, I am an advocate of the youth team and would prefer to exciting young players like Andros Townsend and Tom Carroll given the opportunity to play against a decent opposition, plus let the former settle the score with (former loan boss) Neil Warnock.

I will not complain about AVB's player choice if we get 3 points against Norwich on Wednesday, but it is disappointing to be out of the FA Cup with no chance of wembley this season

One week to find them

At the time of writing (24th January), we are one week from the end of the transfer window.

For this contributor (Spurs) and my friend Matt (Liverpool) this has hardly been happy hunting time. Spurs are badly in need of a striker - Defoe looks like he is losing form, Adebayor is still misfiring at the African cup of nations and our other striking options (Falque, Obika, Kane) lack premiership experience.

Our main attacking threat seems to come from the midfield combo of Dempsey, Bale and Lennon and on a day when the Sun reported that there is in fact two Gareth Bales, it does make me wonder if this club has something up its sleeve.

We all love a glory signing, no wonder Manchester United's season has been so good - they're still ecstatic at the signing of Robin Van Persie. Confidence counts so for so much when it comes to team spirit and that leads to form; they seem to be present at spurs but perhaps not throughout.

I don't have the statistics to hand, but with the exception of a 4-0 win over Aston Villa, this feels like a pretty barren season for spurs in front of goal and if this is not the time to invest, it is time to get the next generation of strikers training with the first team squad to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Either that or the club commences its cloning policy and breeds a new Martin Chivers, Jimmy Greaves and/or Clive Allen.

The curse of Africa on Spurs?

This week saw the unfortunate announcement that Emmanuel Adebayor is to be heading to the African Cup of Nations in week to represent Togo.

Despite not really setting the world alight since his permanent move to Spurs, Adebayor is a talismanic striker with proven ability and strength – when he feels like it. So much like his predecessors Berbatov and Mido then.

There have been some calls for him to start as the lone striker ahead of Jermain Defoe – not something that I am especially fond of as I feel the extra man in midfield (often Dempsey or Sigurdsson) adds a lot of the balance and attack of the team. Plus neither Adebayor or Defoe are the type to track back.

But the impact of losing Adebayor on the team, despite his lack of goals and form, will be huge. Losing Pavlychenko, Keane and Crouch in the last 12 months and not replacing them has hit Spurs hard, and this month has seen us pick up a new left back (Fryers from Standard Liege) and midfielder (Holtby from Schalke) but a new striker is sorely needed.

In a way, the return of Adebayor to Togo is remarkable after the shooting on the bus at the last tournament left the team visibly traumatised. Perhaps it is selfish, but to lose one of your key players is really going to hit spurs where they are the shortest – up front.

The other concern is one of form. Spurs fans will recall Fredi Kanoute’s good form for Spurs after joining from West Ham, before he had an 11th hour decision to head to the tournament and play for Mali. Kanoute came back half the man he was and decidedly off form, so perhaps the off-form Adebayor will see the opposite effect, and rediscover the goal scoring form which saw him hit 17 for Spurs last season.

Of course the most legendary story for Spurs fans and the African Cup of Nations is around the call-up (and subsequent injury to) Benoit Assou-Ekotto which allowed Gareth Bale to start at left back in his place. The rest is history, which I also hope Adebayor’s poor form for Spurs will also be.

They still dont get it - Italian football and racism

Following the racist chants from their fans in a friendly against AC Milan, Pro Patria have been forced to play one game behind closed doors. The Lega Pro who are in charge of the lower league football have issued this punishment...well punishment at its minimum, following they claim incidents that have taken place before. Their verdict was the following

"(The Lega Pro) will impose on the club Aurora Pro Patria the sanction of the obligation to play a league match behind closed doors, with immediate effect, with the caveat that further breach will be evaluated as an

occurrence of multiple violations, for the purposes of the subsequent sanction."

Many of you would think this is a weak idea of punishment and you would be right. They have already received fines of 4,000 and 5,000 euros respectively for previous incidents. They stated that the previous punishment was ineffective....well if a fine of 4 or 5,000 euros will not make a difference to the problems, then a match behind closed doors is not going to make one bit of difference. They need to clamp down seriously on these issues. It needs the Italian football association to actually make a stand, but sadly we know it wont happen.

Things need to change and maybe it's time that UEFA actually had the bottle to stand up and be counted. They were quite happy to ban English clubs from European competition after the Heysel tragedy, so why cant they ban Italian clubs from European competition. The problem is rife up and down the Italian league and until UEFA take a strong stance to make the Italian football association wake up and take action themselves, we will no doubt see more of the same walk offs by players.

Handing out pitiful fines and games behind closed doors is not saying we take it seriously, it says the Italians are making the point of you've been naughty so dont do it again. 

Whilst I am not saying English football is racism free, the English FA and Football League are more positive in dealing with this problem. 

From top of the world to mid-table in league one in 26 years

Last weekend saw Spurs (my team, you'll see me write about them primarily) play Coventry City in the third round of the FA cup.

For the well remembered and stattos among you, or failing that those of you who read Saturday's sport sections will recall, this was a replay of the 1987 final.

It was watching the side of Hoddle, Waddle, Ardiles, Gough and Allen that swung me into following Spurs that day. You may feel that it is strange to choose the losing side and stick with them, but that is what I did and 26 years on, I am still with them.

Although there has been some tough times, mainly called the 1990s, supporting Spurs is a joy. Most people like them as a second team, we play attractive football and have a reputation of having classy players: Gascoigne, Ginola, Defoe, Modric, Bale.

However for Coventry, history has not served them so well. A famous exit in 1989 to Sutton United has been followed by relegation and financial issues, to the point that Saturday's match was probably seen as an unwinnable cash-cow.

The 3-0 win, with goals from Dempsey and Bale, seemed pretty academic from my Soccer Saturday standpoint. It also saw the return of Scott Parker and Benoit Assou-Ekotto to the first team but what was an academic win for Spurs was probably the biggest match of the season for our opponents.

Times do change - look at the demise of Bradford City, Sheffield United and many others in the championship, but if there was a gulf of quality in 1987, it's now an ocean in 2013.

It's not that I feel sorry for Coventry, they were one of the clubs that had the new stadium and having attended a match during Chris Coleman's reign, a very nice one it is too. However this undoing is all too common now and while many clubs 'need an Abrahamovic', Coventry have been better served than many others, and need to realise where things went wrong post-1987.

However I will not lie about it, I don't have a lot of love for Coventry. They had a touch of the Wimbledon about them and in the way Arsenal fans still dislike York City and Wrexham, losing in such a style does hurt.

So in a way, this does serve as some sort of recompense for me as a Spurs fan, and I hope the future is brighter from here on for the Sky Blues.

Suarez not to blame

Liverpool beat Mansfield in the FA Cup 3rd yesterday, but that's not the whole story. Luis Suarez who had replaced Daniel Sturridge was credited with the second goal which had come off his hand. The Uruguayan who thumped the ball in the back of the net in somewhat frustration expecting the goal to be disallowed, was probably more surprised that it was allowed to stand. Mansfield players rightly protested but the referee and the assistant allowed it to stand. The reason according to the fourth official was that it was accidental. We all know that referees change their mind like anything, so it was surprising that it didnt change once again.

You have of course those saying that Suarez should have owned up. Why should he? no one else has apart from Miroslav Klose. Do you see defenders who handle the ball admit to doing so? nope. Why should he do the job of the referee. To be honest it's not the first handball goal in recent times. Did you see Demba run to the referee to say rule out the goal, which gave Newcastle a point against Reading? nope. Did you see the one and only Lionel Messi own up to putting the ball in the net with his fist? Did Roy Carroll run to the referee or assistant referee to tell them that the ball had crossed the line? I certainly didnt see Terry Phelan hold his hand up and say the ball crossed the line in the 0-0 draw between Everton and Bolton. Had the goal stood, Bolton would have stayed up and Everton relegated.Therefore why should Suarez be any different. Of course Liverpool were on the receiving end of a bad decision with the beach ball incident. The game should have been stopped under the rules but it continued and Sunderland won the game. Had Arsene Wenger not been in a sporting mood, would there have been a replay between Arsenal and Sheffield United who knows.

It is upto the officials to make a decision. The rule is always play to the whistle. So I guess if any more incidents like this or similar happen., we should expect those players to stand up and sorry and the fans to criticise if they dont...sadly I cant see it happening.