Season Preview - Tottenham Hotspur

Quick Reminder, Real Life

With Manchester City a stronger outfit it was always going to be difficult for Tottenham to repeat their Top 4 finish - especially with their first Champions League campaign running in parallel - but they didn’t do themselves any favours in the Premier League. They added quality/experience in Van Der Vaart and Gallas and had Bale, Modric, Dawson and (the underrated) Assou-Ekotto performing at the top of their game much of the time, but failed to invest in a 20-goal-per-season-striker. The result was a season of missed opportunities; raising their level to compete against the top teams and having a decent run in early 2011, but lacking a clinical finisher (Defoe was never the same after his early season ankle injury) they failed to put away the sides in the bottom half, gaining just one win in six games against the three relegated clubs and 9 home draws in total, the most in the league. Harry Redknapp could be accused of tactical naivety due to his inability to change things when they weren’t going to plan, Gomes’ erratic form didn’t help and in the end 5th place and a Europa League spot was as good as they could muster - and the most they deserved.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

Van Der Vaart was a fantasy sensation throughout the season, taking set pieces away from Bale, taking on penalty duty, scoring/creating goals and making those of us who picked him up cheap early in the season very happy indeed. Much like his league form, Bale was a better producer pre-Xmas and quickly became very expensive in Yahoo’s game but popped up with his fair share of big weeks thanks to a return of 7 goals. Gomes scored consistently despite the catalogue of mistakes referred to earlier but it was slim pickings aside from these three, with Defoe, Pavlyuchenko & Crouch rotation risks and in poor form when given opportunities. Lennon had a disappointing year and Modric has never been prolific when it comes to Yahoo’s scoring system, although he did OK in the Official PL game thanks to a plethora of attacking bonus points. Defensively there was very little to get excited about in either fantasy format.

Summer Changes

Second Thoughts

Great post by Neal, exploding some of the easy myths around Arsenal.  And great comments everyone.  I think you've hit on some interesting points.  Let me add my $0.02:

Jermain Defoe KO for Six Weeks

Harry Redknapp confirms Jermain Defoe KO | The Sun | Sport | Football

TOTTENHAM boss Harry Redknapp has confirmed the news that Jermain Defoe has been ruled out for six weeks with an ankle injury.

Defoe was taken off on a stretcher during England's 3-1 victory in Switzerland but had hoped to be fit to face West Brom this weekend.

But the Spurs striker was on crutches and wearing a protective boot on his right foot at Spurs' training ground today

Boss Redknapp said: "Even if it's a bad sprain, you're still talking about six weeks or so, because it's a nasty one."

But Theo hopes to be back midweek.

Premier League Roundup

Maybe Kuyt should just leave this kind of thing to the experts.

International break always brings with it injuries, real or imagined, that fantasy managers have to take into consideration for the next game week.  Some are big news, others are a bit more obscure.  This time, there is the added fun of the transfer window having just closed so there's also news about new players and their potential to start (and shine) for their new teams.  Here's what I've been tracking over the last few days:

Groin Injuries for Defoe and Modric

Tottenhamhotspur.com - News Articles - 'A great defeat' - Harry

Harry reported that Luka Modric and Jermain Defoe were both forced out of the action with groin injuries.

Niko Kranjcar came on for Luka Modric at half-time while JD limped off and was replaced by Robbie Keane after 66 minutes.

"We'll have to see how they are," added Harry, who now prepares for the trip to Stoke in the Premier League on Saturday.

Keane and Krancjar now in your Premier League fantasy reckoning for @Stoke?

Season Preview: Tottenham

Overall Outlook - This is a huge season for Spurs and the story seems to have been lost in the rush to cover every random rumor coming out of Eastlands.  With Spurs making their entry into the Champions League and the potential juggernauts in Citeh and the potentially taken-over Liverpool Spurs had better make the most of it now lest they be left behind like so many Evertons, Villas, or Fulhams incapable of legitimately competing for the talent necessary to sustain Top 4 finishes.  Reputation-wise Spurs are definitely on the edge as the reactions of players like Luis Fabiano show.  If they have some success in the Champions League and in the Prem then they might be able to recruit some bigger names.  If not, then the window may close on them quickly and more quickly than optimistic supporters may realize.  As to whether this will happen or not, I can't pretend to say.  The assessment of 'arry has always been that while he's likable and tends to do well on a low budget he's a bit lightweight for competing with the Wengers, Fergusons, and Ancelotis of the world.  This is the year we find out because he certainly has a lot of reasonably promising talent on hand.  Can he bring it all together again and sustain a top 4 place while simultaneously competing in the Champions League?  Perhaps the most interesting long term question of the season.

Spurs vs Birmingham - The post-mortem

[I]t surprised me initially to see the aerial presence of Bent sacrificed for Jermain Defoe, though finding out later that Bent had suffered a thigh strain cleared things up. What it didn't clear up is our ever-increasing injury crisis, which was hit even harder when Bale limped off with fifteen minutes to go.