For an utter ####### turd of a game, that first half at Carrow Road really flew by. Skull-crushingly dreadful.

Spurs were just awful there. The midfield got dominated, the wingers barely touched the ball, and Dawson seems to think that Spurs attack consists of him feeding balls directly to Defoe. Oh, and Dempsey was terrible. Blah.

Spurs need some of that Juventus juice.

I'm glad West Ham managed to be level for, oh jeeze, 45 seconds, maybe?

That Bale guy is pretty good.

That was as classic a Gareth Bale goal as you will ever see. Almost exactly the same as the one he scored last year at Norwich. Holtby's energy and one touch passing have made a huge difference.

And now I think Liverpool is paying for the first half insistence of Suarez to track back. He has nothing. Rodgers should have subbed him off instead of Sturridge.

Very frustrating game for Spurs but you can't expect to win when you don't show up for the first 60 minutes. Those 10 seconds from Bale made up for a lot, though.

Yeah, I'll take a point from that. Holtby looked class, though pretty much anyone would have in comparison to Dempsey today.

United holds on. Southampton outplayed United badly in the second half. Maybe the new coach was worth it.

United holds on. Southampton outplayed United badly in the second half. Maybe the new coach was worth it.

To be fair, Southampton outplayed United the first game as well.

Oh and Adam Le Fondre is the bets player in the league in stoppage time.

Ursus,yeah Juventus was who I had in mind. I suspect the Milan Lab was a direct reaction to the Juventus tangled web. Given the timeline I don't think its a theory that requires much of a tin foil hat. Everyone tends to think of Juventian roid monsters when it comes to PEDs in football but I think its likely the Milan Lab found better uses for PEDs.

I know this isn't an original point, but ManU are really uninspiring for a team that's running away with the league.

1563, I'm not sure that it really was a direct reaction as much as part of a more general trend.

Marseille were widely thought to be doping during the Tapie years (86 -94), in part because Tapie's first foray into sports was in cycling. MilanLab was founded in 2002, right around the time that Juve were building the inventory at their pharmacy and Parma were giving all of their players IV treatments before big matches. There was a general interest among Italian clubs in better living through chemistry that we are unlikely ever to know the full details of, and plenty of players who submitted to injections without any idea of what was in the syringe. And for what it's worth, the rules at the time were even vaguer than MLB's.

That was some goal by Bale. He really is a special player. Based on a quick survey of the blogosphere, the "he plays on the left" brigade is strangely silent just now. Good work by Hauptmann Holtby to start that counterattack, incidentally. He looks like a nice pickup. I think Adebayor and Sigurdsson will really enjoy playing with Holtby if they get the chance. It's so nice to have another player in that part of the pitch who is clever and has the technique to play one touch stuff in traffic. Watching a left-footed trequartista stroke it around while wearing the number 23 shirt made me think of van der Vaart, though. So I had a little cry.

Speaking of the Siggunator, sometime soon he is going to have a game where he comes on and scores a hat trick in about ten minutes and assists another two. His appearances the last two or three months have consistently been quiet but also quietly good. He works hard, he makes really smart runs to get into great positions (that Defoe and Dempsey pretty much never pick up on), and he's been beaten by the woodwork and some incredible goalkeeping on four or five occasions.

Back to Holtby, what impressed me the most besides his obvious skill was that he wasn't afraid to jump right into a tetchy, combative game and demand the ball straight away, all the time. That sort of energy and assertiveness is a good way to endear yourself to English fans right out of the gate. When that all goes wrong, though, you get...

Scott Parker, who looked like a kitten chasing a laser pointer out there. He should be slowly improving at this point, but in my view he's gotten steadily worse since coming back. Spurs really can't afford to be carrying a passenger in that area of the pitch while Scotty tries to play himself back into shape. He's a yard off the pace, his passing (never a strength to begin with) stinks, and he's surprisingly even lacking positional discipline as he tries to do too much too soon.

Spurs have already got holes elsewhere; they need that midfield to be solid if they're going to remain a team that's difficult to beat. A side with better attacking ability than Norwich (i.e. any attacking ability) would have scored a lot more than the one goal in that first half. Parker gets a free pass from way too many Spurs fans because he's tenacious and stuff. Tonight he was tenaciously terrible. I don't know if this means Livermore will get a shot or if this forces Levy's hand to meet Diame's release clause or try to swing some other stopgap deal.

Missed the second half of today's game, so I missed all the good Holtby stuff. I wonder to what degree AVB's system requires a creative player in CAM, and Dempsey and Siggy are goal-scorers, not trequartistas. Dempsey was really terrible in the first half, though, so the problem could also be him.

News on the dawn of deadline day - thinly sourced reports of Everton turning their Fer money into Negredo, which would be a brilliant purchase. Just a pretty good striker would make a big difference for the toffees, who have been held back a lot by Jelavic's terribleness. And on the other side of things, reports of Sunderland buying Danny Graham from Swansea, which seems like a badly flawed team purchasing a good player and still not actually fixing any of their flaws. He's classic #9, and Fletcher's already the best player on that club.

Oh, and Damiao to Spurs. It was reported in a place. It's totally happening of course.

Speaking of crazy ass Spurs transfers, FSC just said the Spurs are in the process of negotiating a Villa-Bale player transfer with money coming to Tottenham from Barca. Color me as skeptical, but thought I would mention it here at Spurs Think Factory.

Beckham to PSG is being reported in real newspapers. That's nuts. Are they really going to sign Beckham for publicity and for a few lower-level league and cup games? Because there's no way a 37-year-old Beckham is going to help them win important games, right? He can place a pass, but he's not Pirlo. (Who in my head is 35, but it turns out is actually 33, so he's not a comp at all. In my defense, he has the face of a man not a day over 52.)

Deadline day! Or, as I like to call it, Leandro Damiao rumor day!

Obviously Spurs are the weird rumor team today. From what I've gleaned at the various Spurs blogs is Spurs have about 20 million quid to spend on a player and it seems like first come first serve for Willian, David Villa or Leandro Damiao. Honestly, I think it's too late in the day for a transfer like this so I'm expecting nothing. David Bentley does seem set for a move to QPR which, since he's in the last 6 months of his contract, would effectively end his time as a Spurs player. I'm enjoying the comedy of Harry relying on Taarabt and bringing in Bentley more than I should. Too bad he couldn't get any kind of performance out of Taarabt when he was in the lilywhite. The David Villa-Bale swap doesn't pass the smell test, of course. Villa's wife just had a baby so I don't think he'll be moving anywhere this window. I don't know why Spurs are even trying.

Negredo to Everton would be a nice piece of business for them.

Oh, and some tosser named Beckham is signing for PSG. What a great football move that is...

edit: coke to Matt on the Beckham news.

Paul Scharner and Aiden McGeady to Wigan. Becchio moves from Leeds to Norwich City.

edit: Jermain Jenas and Kris Samba to QPR, as well. Jenas and Bentley! Triffic!

Chris Samba to QPR is for real. He's a huge upgrade over Derry/Nelsen at the back. He's also coming due to QPR paying his £12M release clause and his £100k per week wages. Let's just say I'm not sure how QPR's business model works. How much money do they project to make from the new TV contracts if they stay up?

Solid burn from the Guardian transfer deadline day MBM:

SKY EXCLUSIVE: "Ok, strap yourselves in, it's 12 o'clock, it's lunchtime, we're into the afternoon." Sky now understand the very concept of time.

Chris Samba to QPR is for real. He's a huge upgrade over Derry/Nelsen at the back. He's also coming due to QPR paying his £12M release clause and his £100k per week wages. Let's just say I'm not sure how QPR's business model works. How much money do they project to make from the new TV contracts if they stay up?

I don't think Fernandes cares about the money. It's all ego now.

Obligatory, statutory and a moral necessity

Freiburg news! They're are signing Hendrick Zuck from Kaiserlautern. I have no idea who he is but I'm happy for some Freiburg news! This has been your Freiburg news moment.

edit: Some weirdness with Andros Townsend today. He was all set for his medical at QPR and then someone called him at the last minute and told him to head back to North London. Strange.

Aston Villa have signed Yacouba Sylla from Ligue 2 side Clermont. No word if they're trying to get some guy named Charybdis from PAOK.

Apparently Danny Graham to Sunderland has happened. So they'll be playing 4-4-2 now? That's one way to breathe life into a moribund attack, I guess. (Getting that report from a certain Captain Fishpaste, via the Guardian, who posted a twitter picture of Graham in training in a Sunderland shirt.)

Sylla is a defensive midfielder, so he's at least theoretically shoring up one of Villa's big weaknesses.

Huh. Spurs are shipping Gomes off to Hoffenheim.

Stekelenberg moving from Roma to Fulham on loan.

Grant Wahl on Jozy's new fame

Quotes attributed to Internacional Sporting Director Luis Cesar Souto de Moura: "Leandro Damiao will only leave if there is a very quick negotiation, but no official offer has been made. The news involving interest for Leandro Damiao, especially from Tottenham, will always happen, they come and go. Damiao has a lot of quality, is a goalscorer, was the top scorer in the Olympics and he is a very important player. Internacional understand that it's extremely difficult, very difficult, for Leandro Damiao to leave now."

That doesn't sound like a Damiao move to Tottenham is imminent. Same ol' sam ol'. I look forward to 3 months of Damiao rumors in the summer. There is some talk of Lisandro Lopez as an alternative, though. Lyon are cleaning house for some reason.

That was some goal by Bale. He really is a special player. Based on a quick survey of the blogosphere, the "he plays on the left" brigade is strangely silent just now.

Eh. Here are some crude numbers (which I didn't actually pull myself, so I hope to god they're actually accurate):

Two players, numbers for all competitions this year. Guess who they are:

Player 1: 19 GS, 18 sub appearances, 18 goals, 12 assists, 69 shots.
Player 2: 33 GS, 0 sub appearances, 14 goals, 7 assists, 117 shots.

Player 1: 19 GS, 18 sub appearances, 18 goals, 12 assists, 69 shots.
Player 2: 33 GS, 0 sub appearances, 14 goals, 7 assists, 117 shots.

Are they both wingers?

It's Walcott, right? He's scored a bunch of those goals as lone striker, but yes, Walcott is also having an excellent season.

Hell, maybe Spurs should just put Bale up top, too, and end this striker madness.

He's scored a bunch of those goals as lone striker, but yes

Fair point (and yes, it's Walcott). I actually didn't mean to be an arse there, I was just having the exact same conversation over email with a friend about Bale.

Fair point (and yes, it's Walcott). I actually didn't mean to be an arse there, I was just having the exact same conversation over email with a friend about Bale.

Would you swap Bale for Walcott? I would not.

So Samba is obviously a good player, much better than QPR's other options at CB. And sure, that's a lot of money, but staying up is absolutely worth it, right?

So Samba is obviously a good player, much better than QPR's other options at CB. And sure, that's a lot of money, but staying up is absolutely worth it, right?

I think so, but I think QPR will be in the red even if they stay up. They're paying big wages to Hoilet, Bosingwa, Park, etc. The relegation scrum is going to be nutty with Reading and Soton playing well and QPR and Newcastle getting stronger and even Wigan is bringing in some players. I think Villa are done but the other two clubs...who knows?

And sure, that's a lot of money, but staying up is absolutely worth it, right?

Well, I'd distinguish two kinds of "worth it". Can QPR actually have a functioning business model under which they project to make money, given their escalating wage bill and transfer costs? No, I don't think so. But, would QPR be at a very significant risk of blipping out of existence if they got relegated? Perhaps. So more big signings are "worth it" in that if QPR can survive, they kick the can down the road and don't utterly implode.

Would you swap Bale for Walcott? I would not.

I don't think that's a transparently crazy proposal, which is how I would expect most people to treat it. Walcott seems like he's been a disappointment, presumably based on his unmerited place on the World Cup squad when he was a kid, but he's been very good, and I think he's probably better than Bale right now. But Bale's left-footedness likely makes him the more valuable player. He's also clearly the better dribbler, by a lot.

Walcott seems like he's been a disappointment, presumably based on his unmerited place on the World Cup squad when he was a kid, but he's been very good, and I think he's probably better than Bale right now.

Hahaha. Wake me up when Walcott gets double and triple marked as a matter of course.

Well, I'd distinguish two kinds of "worth it". Can QPR actually have a functioning business model under which they project to make money, given their escalating wage bill and transfer costs? No, I don't think so. But, would QPR be at a very significant risk of blipping out of existence if they got relegated? Perhaps. So more big signings are "worth it" in that if QPR can survive, they kick the can down the road and don't utterly implode.

Yeah, if QPR go down they are probably going to follow the Portsmouth path.

They are playing better but I think it's still a tall order. They are 4 points back of everyone which isn't huge but even with the improved form lately they have all of 2 wins on the season in 24 games. Since the advent of the 38 game schedule the fewest wins to stay up are 6 by West Brom in 2005 which is probably a pretty good comp for the way this year's fight is shaping up. Aston Villa stayed up with 7 wins last year and other than those to it's been a minimum of 8 wins needed. I'm not sold that QPR can get 4-6 wins in 14 games.

Part of that is that there is a LOT to play for out there right now. The relegation fight is shaping up to be brutal with 5 teams probably feeling threatened and the European spots also pretty open. There really isn't going to be a lot of games where teams don't have something to play for and that doesn't help.

Whether or not he merits a roster spot on a Champions League team, I commend Beckham for his career decisions. Spending your last several years in Madrid, LA, some time in Milan, and then finishing in Paris seems like a much better way to live than kicking around Stoke or Bolton for a few years.

Not to keep talking about Spurs...but...I've been watching a lot of Torino along with Spurs lately and one thing that's been striking to me is how much more comfortable Torino is playing one touch football. They basically have the same team they had last year in Serie B but they are really adept at creating moves from the center line with multiple players touching the ball one time. Spurs rely a LOT more on dribbling and the individual speed of players to try to break down a defense but the downside of this is they are kind of lost when defenses bunker down and there's not enough space to get a full run going. I'd say this was the difference between English and Italian soccer but I think the other top teams in England and Swansea are all better and one touch passing than Spurs especially with Modric and Van der Vaart gone. I don't even know where I'm going with this, just that I thought the difference in the two teams is striking and I'm starting to believe Spurs are too reliant on power and not enough on finesse.

Multiple reporters (real reporters, not Mail/Mirrors) are confirming that Spurs are going to try to get Damiao today. Ok.

Multiple reporters (real reporters, not Mail/Mirrors) are confirming that Spurs are going to try to get Damiao today. Ok.

--Puts fingers in ear, sings LALALALALALALALALA very loudly--

Hell, maybe Spurs should just put Bale up top, too, and end this striker madness.

Barring some unexpected additions today, I think that’s AVB's best option for this weekend’s game at West Brom. Defoe is either injured or so out of sorts he might as well be injured. Dempsey’s been okay, but Spurs need someone with pace who will force the opposition’s center backs to play deeper and give the attacking mids some room to operate in the danger area.

Lloris
Walker–Caulker–Vertonghen–Benny
Dembele–Livermore
Lennon–Holtby–Sigurdsson
Bale

Something like that, with the band of three being very fluid, like they were after Holtby came on against Norwich last night - that was a joy to watch at times.

I don't even know where I'm going with this, just that I thought the difference in the two teams is striking and I'm starting to believe Spurs are too reliant on power and not enough on finesse.

The ball movement from Spurs last night, especially in the first 60 minutes or so, was just shockingly ponderous. I am starting to think that Sandro's athleticism, which allowed him to win the ball relatively high up the pitch quite a bit, and his quick and accurate distribution to prompt counterattacks in dangerous positions rather than in Spurs' own half was papering over a lot more cracks than I'd realized.

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