From Portugal with Love

The few days at home were nice after the fixture with Madrid. We don't talk much about football when I am at the house so its a great way to set my head straight. After a few weeks away from the family it was nice to see them again. Joana (my wife) told me that her family and herself had been watching all our friendly games. Doesn't seem like much but when your family also enjoys your work it makes it all the more sweeter. Anyways off to sleep, early flight to the US tomorrow so we can get over the jet lag and have a decent day of practice the day before the game.


Our days in San Jose have been excellent the first day we got here we just relaxed got our bodies into the right timezone and the next day we had a solid little practice not to over work the players. A bit of running and shooting for less than half the day. Today though was the game and it was a game at that.


Great to see Rodrigo on the score sheet again. He is fitting in well with the fluidity of the team. Dembele showed his creativeness in the game dusting off any talks of Spurs losing their flair since the departure of Modric and Van der Vaart.


Only eight days to go until the opening of the season and my managerial debut as head coach of the Lily Whites. Against our arch rival too. Once we get back we are going to have two days of off time, followed by increased training before the Arsenal game. With a day before of light training before the game.

Great update Inq

Just read through the story. Really nicely done so far mate loving the style and the regular pictures in the update. Good work signing Rodrigo and McCarthy (he develops really well) and of course good stuff shifting Huddlestone for that much haha

After getting back from the US we had some great training. Adebayor and Rodrigo were duelling it out in training to compete for the starting spot as striker. Which proved a difficult choice for me. Ultimately I went with experience over youth and flair. Although Rodrigo brought the speed and technique to our game play Ade's hold up play and experience proved to be the deciding factor.

A lucky own goal from Koscielny gave us the lead in the 3rd minute but overall the Gunners looked the better side and we were fortunate to win. Not the way I wanted to start of the league and I let the players know that. In my mind we are second to no other team especially in London. The North is ours. Our next game almost a week from now against Wigan on Saturday will be where we grab our first three points in the league. I promise that.

On transfer news we could have a potential buyer for Ekotto. Also another player is looking to be on the way out and that is in the striking options, have a guess?

Too bad you couldn't win :S

Is it Defoe?

Unlucky with the Real result, nice to see Bale doing a job as always though. Arsenal were always going be a tough first league game, good luck with the rest of the season.

2013-05-15 00:47#100962 Glenn T : Too bad you couldn't win :S

Is it Defoe?

Maybe

It's the 5th of September and much has happened at my new club. Departures, draws, games and signings have occured. On the 25th of August we played Wigan at home, our first home game of the season and I looked to make an impression for the enthusiastic fans. Along with this Mathew Horne came out to the game to watch Spurs start off their season at White Hart Lane. This was a nice surprise to see as he walked around the change room greeting and wishing luck the players. Apparently he starred in a show out here that got him notorious for often being received with "GAVVLLLAAAA!"



Rodrigo punching us past the Latics in a tight fixture. The fans met his goals with great uproars which made me thoroughly pleased with our new strikers capabilities even at a young age.


The transfer deadline day was one to remember as Defoe was put on the transfer list before the Wigan game to everyones surprise and we were still looking to shift Benoit to another club and replace him with a younger and stronger player to sit behind Bale.

Both Defoe and Benoit moved to rival clubs unfortunately either way we made the money we were looking for from them to fuel a bid for a LB I had in mind. Defoe went to Chelsea for 9.5m and Benoit went to Manchester United for 12.5m a good sum for both. In that we sent a bid to Bayern Munich for none other than Austrian star David Alaba (25m) and we got him.


Swansea away next with our knew man possibly in the mix.

Rodrigo looks awesome! Knew it was Defoe

Why would Chelsea want him though? They seem to be able to do with better.

And Assou-Ekotto to United

2 strong results and fantastic transfer fees for BAE and Defoe! Well done on getting Alaba as well

Great transfers! And hahahaha united!

Thanks Guys!

I almost forgot to say we got our group draw for the Europa League this season. Leverkusen, APOEL and Academica. In my eyes this is a pretty decent group. Especially not a hard one but Leverkusen will undoubtedly put up the hardest fight out of the three. Our first game of the tournament is the next fixture against them. In the mean time between the transfer window closing and now we had a game against newly promoted Reading.


Holtby and Rodrigo seeming to be my star men right now. They look to be enjoying there football Rodrigo especially. After the game he spoke to me briefly about how happy he is to have made the move to the club and prestigious league. His nimble footwork being the a catalyst in the destruction of teams not to mention his favoured move of cutting inside and striking it on his left.

Good to see Holtby getting a run in the team and Rodrigo getting the goals! Keep it up

2013-05-17 20:35#102005 k1rups : Good to see Holtby getting a run in the team and Rodrigo getting the goals! Keep it up

Yeah its odd I expected Holtby to be slower at getting into the starting XI! Rodrigo though I expected to be getting a fair amount of starts due to his dribbling and finishing. Right now he reminds me of Defoe without the smashing one at goal whenever he gets the ball.