Come in Chosen One… your time is up.

Today Manchester United, for all their early-season bluster about longevity, parted ways with “The Chosen One” David Moyes, after a string of poor results and failure to qualify for next season’s Champions League rendered his position apparently untenable. Herein I shall attempt to dissect what has gone so badly wrong for last year’s champions and in particular the manager. There are many reasons for Manchester United’s sudden and unexpected (by some) decline. I’ve already gone over some of the reasons why this season’s performance hasn’t been up to scratch (or more crucially that last season they over-achieved) in my previous piece, and I’ll do my best not to repeat myself here. While the bulk of my analysis will be the manager himself, certain things need also to be said of the players too.

The Players

In simplest terms, the players have let Moyes down badly on and off the pitch. Some of the performances have done more damage for me than the results. Conceding late, failing to retain (or build on) a lead, and a display at Everton which was frankly impotent. The manner of that defeat was worse than the scoreline. I have been lamenting the “sleepy” performances of Rio Ferdinand for five seasons now, and other older players have felt like they’ve been playing with the metaphorical fag in their mouths. Nemanja Vidic announcing his departure halfway through the season was a ludicrous state of affairs and some of his performances – and in particular some of the facial reactions to conceding goals – have told the story of a man already thinking about his new club. Either that or his holiday.

Smalling ; fool.

Off the pitch, the poor discipline of Moyes’ young (English) players further betrayed a lack of commitment to the cause with their penchant for a late night at the most inopportune times. On the eve of the West Ham game in March, Chris Smalling (24) – while injured – was photographed and observed dancing a jig outside a Manchester club at 3AM, singing: “We’re Man United – we’ll do what we want.” An observer said “He’d obviously had a good night with his mates. They were singing football songs and having a great time.” I’m not sure whether it’s the behaviour itself that I find so repugnant or the irresponsibility of having a night on the lash when you’re meant to be injured and seeming so buoyant despite your team enduring a season of unprecedented failure, but this was not a great message about the discipline at the club.

Welbeck ; clown.

Mere weeks later Danny Welbeck (23) and Tom Cleverley (24) were also snapped dancing in the street outside Sakura on Deansgate Locks at 3AM hours after being knocked out of the Champions League by Bayern after Ashley Young had jumped into a taxi. An onlooker gave the MEN paper a quote of “It is amazing. They were laughing and dancing and looked to be having a real good night.” Spot a pattern emerging here? I can’t imagine any Man United fan not being offended by such crass merriment so soon after a devastating loss. Players like Smalling, Welbeck and Cleverley should thank their lucky stars they get near a Manchester United starting 11, and this behaviour I find totally deplorable, even as a neutral.

Revolving door centre-backs

Once upon a time…

Due to the reliance on the injury-prone Vidic and the past-it Ferdinand who also had spells on the sidelines, Moyes has had to constantly rotate his centre-back partnerships. Even in this era of rotation, you simply can’t compete without a settled defensive core of goalkeeper and centre-backs. Ferdinand and Vidic playing together every week won them titles. Kompany & Lescott won one for their local rivals. You build from the back, and United have been trying to build on shifting sands rather than concrete.

Have a look at United’s centre-backs for the following poor results :

22/09/13 Man City (A) 1-4            Ferdinand and Vidic
28/09/13 West Brom (H) 1-2        Ferdinand and Evans
19/10/13 Southampton (H) 1-1     Jones and Evans
24/11/13 Cardiff (A) 2-2                  Ferdinand and Evans
04/12/13 Everton (H) 0-1               Smalling and Vidic
07/12/13 Newcastle (H) 0-1          Vidic and Evans
01/02/14 Stoke (A) 1-2                   Jones and Evans
09/02/14 Fulham (H) 2-2              Smalling and Vidic
16/03/14 Liverpool (H) 0-3           Jones and Vidic
25/03/14 Man City (H) 0-3            Jones and Ferdinand
20/04/14 Everton (A) 0-2              Jones and Evans

Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but that’s far too much screwing around. No understanding between De Gea and any partnership could truly be established, so their defence suffered catastrophically. If too many years hadn’t been spent trying to turn Smalling into a right-back and Jones into a midfielder when they had an establised centre-back partnership for the England Under-21s, they might have been laughing now.

Points dropped due to defensive-minded substitutions

Tough place to win, Cardiff. Just ask Cardiff themselves.

Moyes’ mentality when it came to changes was still very much a mid-table manager’s mindset when he first arrived. In the mauling at Man City, at 4-0 down he replaced Ashley Young with Tom Cleverly on 52 minutes, attempting damage limitation rather than a change to inspire a comeback. That’s not Manchester United. In the Southampton game where an 89th minute equalizer was conceded, he replaced Nani with Ryan Giggs on 69 and Wayne Rooney with Chris Smalling on 87, two clear indicators of “We’ll take a 1-0.” Traditionally Man United have always defended a one goal lead at home by scoring a second and third, not trying to shut up shop. A 1-0 at home to Barcelona I could understand, but it’s Southampton! In the Cardiff game, Moyes again brought on Ryan Giggs – this time for Javier Hernandez – on 73 minutes, attempting to settle for the win by the odd goal, only to concede a 90th minute equalizer. Taking the lead and failing to retain (or build on) it? Conceding late goals? That’s not Manchester United. By December, he’d gotten out of the habit of making these timid changes, but by that time United’s soft underbelly had been exposed too many times, the fear factor was gone, and defeats at home to Everton and Newcastle were just round the corner.

“It’ll be alright in the end”

Listening to the comments Moyes made after every bad result, his biggest mistake may have been believing the board were going to show patience. Every game seemed to be “it’s a work in progress” and if you keep thinking it’s all about the future, you get caught napping and suddenly the tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday is TODAY, and the poor performances are still going on. All of these quotes are taken from the BBC website in the wake of (I feel) United’s poorest results of the season, and there are some trends. He laments poor defending from set pieces and not taking chances to put games out of sight, but the same problems occur in subsequent games, he seems to not know how they haven’t won certain games (here’s a clue David – your players weren’t good enough) and vitally – it’s a long-term process. It’s highly feasible that these assurances from Moyes of his God-given right to the time to turn things around merely served to highlight how desperate they are NOW, and helped the board decide enough was enough.

22/09/13 City (A) 1-4
“I’ve made the players aware of how I expect them to respond, if there was any group of players I would expect that from it would be Manchester United players. It is the way they have been brought up.”
“Every manager has bad days and bad results and I’m no different.”
“It is one game. There are plenty more to come and plenty of time to fix it.”

28/09/13 West Brom (H) 1-2
“You’re always going to have bad results in football, it is how you deal with them, we will move on and look forward to the next one. There are lots of games here and you get ready for the next one.”
“I’m concerned after the game but only because we didn’t play well. We can put it right.”

19/10/13 Southampton (H) 1-1 (Lallana 89th minute equalizer)
“We had the opportunities to get the game finished off. While it was 1-0, there was always the chance that Southampton might get something. I thought we had just about seen it out, then they got the corner late on. We didn’t do well enough [from the corner]. We will work on it and make sure we do it.”

24/11/13 Cardiff (A) 2-2 (Kim 90th minute equalizer)
“Disappointment that we didn’t take all three points, but Cardiff made a game of it and put us under pressure. We gave away a stupid free-kick which led to the [equalising] goal but we had one or two chances ourselves which could have put the game to bed earlier.”

04/12/13 Everton (H) 0-1 (Oviedo 86th minute winner)
“I am disappointed to lose, that’s the way the game goes sometimes. The game was tight, we missed some opportunities to score and Everton took their opportunities.”

“Spiceworld.”

07/12/13 Newcastle (H) 0-1
“We have to play better, pass it better, make more chances and take more opportunities. But we have just not been able to do that in the last couple of games.”
“(The fans) understand there is a big transition going on here. I don’t think they, or me, expected us to have lost five games at this time of the season, but I think they understand totally that there is a change going on.”

01/02/14 Stoke (A) 1-2
“I don’t know what we have to do to win, I thought we were extremely unlucky.”
 “We made numerous chances and opportunities to score, but we couldn’t take them,”
“We should have been out of sight with the amount of opportunities we had today and we only have ourselves to blame.”

09/02/14 Fulham (H) 2-2 (Bent 90th minute equalizer)
“It’s been a bit like that this season. [Sunday] was as bad as it gets. We dominated.”
“Maybe we could have defended a couple of times a bit better, taken a few more of the chances we made, but we completely dominated and we should have won the game. The amount of attempts, chances and play we had was unbelievable. How we didn’t win I have no idea.”

Don’t blame yourselves, lads.

16/03/14 Liverpool (H) 0-3
 “We are going to have to do better. We are going to have to make ourselves harder to beat and also to create more opportunities.
“I think the job was always going to be hard but if you are asking me is it harder than I thought I would say so, yes.”
“It will be very difficult but it is not over yet, So we have to keep working as hard as we can. We have given ourselves a long road.”

25/03/14 Man City (H) 0-3
“I thought it would be a tough year but I hoped it would be more competitive.”
“Everybody knows this is a job that is going to take a little bit of time to get the way we would like but that is the job, Other clubs have had to do rebuilding jobs – we hope it won’t take as long as some others but we have a period of time to get to that level.”

20/04/14 Everton (A) 0-2
“I thought we did well, were the better team at 2-0 down in the first half.
“We’ll do everything we can to win the remaining four games. We are under way with what we are doing to improve next season and try to give ourselves a better chance to compete at the top end of the table.”

“You bastard.”

I know the man can’t be blunt in criticizing his players and that Tim Sherwood style “I’m not playing Cleverley because he’s been rubbish lately” wouldn’t be Manchester United, but you really see the picture of the Scot slumped over in his chair massaging his temples repeating “It’ll be OK… it’ll be OK…” over and over again.

So, in the previous blog entry about Moyes I made it clear that we should judge David Moyes on 14-15 season, but the Manchester United board have not had the patience, and after the Everton game I’m inclined to believe the fans have lost theirs as well. Ultimately it’s perhaps daft that we’ll never know what he and Ed Woodward could have done in the transfer window, but maybe the appropriate appointment forthcoming will set matters straight. “Restore United from the ashes” is a more tempting challenge than “replace the irreplaceable” after all.

Well, you didn’t think I’d make it all the way to the end without ONE allusion to Ferguson… did you?

Jermain Defoe – Farewell, Legend Of The Lane

The word “legend” is overused in sport these days ; anyone that has a couple of good years or wins a single piece of silverware can be described as a “legend” by the casuals in the pub, but as we count down the final days of Jermain Defoe as a Tottenham player, I wanted to write a retrospective in my own words of the career of a TRUE club legend, and a favourite of the fans that populate White Hart Lane on matchday. I wanted to title this blog with the words that we chant at Jermain at White Hart Lane, but in the current climate, you simply never know who you might offend, but I think “Legend of the Lane” will do quite nicely.

Beginnings

“Jermain Defoe… he’s a Y***o…” – JD signs for Spurs

2003-04
Jermain Colin Defoe joined Spurs at the age of 21 in January 2004 having spent half a season in the Championship with relegated West Ham, with the disappointing Bobby Zamora going the other way. The initial £6 million wasn’t quite the bargain it would be these days, but it was nevertheless excellent value for such a prospect. Defoe scored on his debut for Tottenham, just as he had for Bournemouth, for West Ham and for the England Under-21 side, opening the scoring on 13 minutes in what eventually would end up a 4-3 victory at home to Portsmouth. He followed up with goals in the next two games, an unpopular strike at The Valley against Charlton in a 4-2 win and two goals in a topsy-turvy 4-4 at home to Leicester, including the late equalizer. JD also scored Spurs’ last goal of the season in a 2-0 win at Molineux, ending his season with a fine return of seven goals in fifteen games as a Lilywhite, even though the club had endured an indifferent campaign, spending much of the season under caretaker boss David Pleat, with the year being written off as “transitional” almost as soon as it began. Defoe’s career received another boost when he received his first England cap as a substitute in an end-of-season friendly against Sweden, although there was never serious consideration for him to sneak into the Euro 2004 squad ahead of Emile Heskey or Darius Vassell.

2004-05
2005 season started brightly for Defoe with three goals in Spurs’ first four games including their first of the season at home to Liverpool, but Defoe’s form, like Tottenham’s, was not to last. After only one defeat in the first eight games, a run of disastrous results including home defeats to Bolton and Charlton saw new manager Jacques Santini depart after only 12 games at the helm. Defoe scored in the first game under new boss Martin Jol, a 4-5 reverse at home to Arsenal, and a mouth later bagged his first hat-trick for Tottenham in a 5-1 demolition of Southampton.

JD scored in Jol’s first game in charge of Tottenham… as he would in his last game in charge, three years later

A resurgent Spurs under Jol took the fight for the final UEFA Cup place all the way to the final day of the season but ultimately fell short by a single win, and Defoe personally played in 44 of Spurs’ 48 games in all competitions, scoring 22 times, thus achieving exactly the much-touted “good return” ratio for a striker of one in two, despite competition from Robbie Keane, Freddi Kanoute and January loan arrival Mido. Internationally Defoe was handed a shock first start for England by Sven-Göran Eriksson in a vital qualifier in Poland on the 8th of September, eleven days after his third goal in four Premier League games, and he rewarded Sven for his gambit with the first goal in a 2-1 win. When Wayne Rooney returned to fitness Defoe found himself constantly on call as reserve striker for Rooney and Michael Owen, but could not add to that goal in Chorzów, and soon questions were also being asked about other in-form strikers such as Darren Bent and Andrew Johnson.

2005-06
In 05-06 despite starting the season well, a partnership with Gzregorz Rasiak failed to bare fruit (due to the latter never being Premier League quality), once Robbie Keane had come off the bench he never looked like returning to it, and with the Keane-Mido partnership seeming to click, Defoe found his starting chances limited and only managed 9 goals for the season.

JD scores against Portsmouth in Harry Redknapp’s first game back in charge of Pompey

He kept up his run of scoring against old teams with two at home to Charlton (whom he played for between the ages of 14 and 16) in the spring and a goal at Upton Park on the last day of the season that might have been important had Tottenham kept the score at 1-1 (they didn’t) and Wigan managed to do Spurs the ultimate favour at the Emirates (they couldn’t) as the battle for fourth went down to the wire. Perhaps unsurprisingly, JD was left behind as a mere standby for Sven’s World Cup squad, as the Swede relied instead on Peter Crouch, the half-fit Michael Owen, the unfit Wayne Rooney, and the 17 year old Theo Walcott who had yet to play a single minute of Premier League football for Arsenal.

Surplus To Requirements & Eventual Departure
2006-07
2007 season saw the arrival at Spurs of Dimitar Berbatov and a formidable Keane-Berbatov partnership emerged, leaving JD firmly down the pecking order, but he still had ample game time and chances to score 18 goals in a busy season that saw Tottenham reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and UEFA Cup (in which Defoe scored his first European goals against Steaua Bucharesti (2) and Sevilla) as well as the semi-finals of the League Cup. In October and not for the last time, JD courted controversy in a home game versus West Ham in which he appeared to bite Javier Mascherano, but he escaped action from the FA. On Boxing Day JD grabbed a brace at the Lane in a 2-1 win against Aston Villa, his second goal being his 50th for Spurs.

Ensuring Villa will not have a Merry Christmas

Defoe once again was the scourge of former teams in the league games he did play, scoring at home to Charlton in a 5-1 win, at Upton Park in a 4-3 win that we thought had condemned Alan Curbishley’s men to relegation, and again on Easter Monday at the Valley to actually put the nail in the coffin of Curbishley’s (and Defoe’s) old team Charlton. In all three games however Defoe was put in the shade by Berbatov who scored spectacular goals himself, and Defoe’s season ended with the frustration of a missed penalty at home to Man City – in a game in which Keane and Berbatov both scored. His international season started brightly as he started the first game for new England boss Steve McLaren – a home friendly against Greece – then netted twice in a 5-0 win against Andorra which saw the first example of the results his partnership with Peter Crouch could yield, the latter also bagging two. Defoe remained a regular player for McLaren but did not score again, having a goal stolen from him in the away game with Andorra as David Nugent booted Defoe’s goalbound shot in for himself literally as it reached the goal line.

2007-08
The summer of 2007 perhaps will have been when Jermain saw the writing on the wall, as despite having him in addition to the regular Keane & Berbatov partnership, director of football Damien Comolli decided to spend £16.5m on Darren Bent. Soon even the substitute appearances seemed to dry up for JD, although he reminded Martin Jol of what he could do with two brilliant goals from off the bench in a 6-1 drubbing of Anorthosis Famagusta in a UEFA Cup qualifying round match, although it wouldn’t have made any difference either way since Jol was shown the door the night of the home game with Getafe in said same competition. Ironically, Defoe would score the final Spurs goal under the watch of the manager that didn’t seem to want him any more, on that same sombre night at the Lane.

The Anorthosis match – I’m not sure his teammates wanted him to go…

In November Defoe suffered the ignominy of missing a penalty at the ground that despises him most, Upton Park, which would have won Spurs the match. With Tottenham showing signs of recovery under Juande Ramos with Keane, Berbatov and Bent all contributing by the turn of the year, it seemed inevitable Defoe would seek a move away. He capped a run of three goals in consecutive festive period games with the equalizer – upon the occasion of a rare start – in a 2-1 defeat on New Year’s Day at Villa Park which turned out to be his final goal of the first half of his Spurs career, in a game I happened to attend. The next league game at home to Sunderland, Jermain not only started but was given the captain’s armband, in hindsight a nice farewell gesture. Typical of this period of frustration for Defoe, he did not score on his final appearance at White Hart Lane before being substituted, and his replacement Robbie Keane did. Defoe played his last game for Spurs as a late sub in an FA Cup tie at Old Trafford before being sold to Portsmouth to reunite with old West Ham gaffer Harry Redknapp, where Defoe – as usual – scored on his debut, before suffering the double disappointment of having to watch Spurs win a League Cup final that he had helped them reach, then sit and watch Portsmouth lift the FA Cup after a final he could not play in due to being cup-tied. His half season at Spurs involved 31 games of which 23 were from the bench, and 8 goals, and he added a further 8 in a mere 12 games for in-form Portsmouth, earning an England recall under Fabio Capello and capping his season’s recovery with two goals for his country against Trinidad & Tobago in an end-of-season friendly.

Return to White Hart Lane ; The Main Man Again
2008-09
JD had a promising start to 08-09 both internationally (with two goals for England in a World Cup qualifying thrashing of Kazakhstan) and domestically with regular goals for Portsmouth including a penalty against a struggling Spurs at Fratton Park which he took before deafening chants of “You’re Spurs, and you know you are” from the traveling army. In January he decided he wanted to leave the south coast and  took the opportunity to reunite (again) with Harry Redknapp and come home to Spurs, who having sold both Keane and Berbatov in the summer were in dire need of regular goals. The deal mostly involved writing off money Pompey still owed Tottenham for himself, Younes Kaboul (who would also return to Spurs) and remarkably, Pedro Mendes, as well as waiving a sell-on fee. Defoe’s return debut for Spurs came, incredibly, at White Hart Lane against the club both he and his manager had left for Tottenham, Portsmouth. Defoe scored on his debut, as is his wont, in a 1-1 draw, robbed of the perfect return by David Nugent, of all men.

Scoring on his re-debut – don’t blame yourself, Sol

After 3 goals in 4 games Defoe suffered a toe injury that both ruled him out of Spurs’ second consecutive League Cup final and prompted the panic re-purchase of his old strike partner/rival, Robbie Keane. With 4 goals in 10 Spurs games, Jermain capped another eventful season with two more goals for England in a 6-0 rout of Andorra at Wembley.

2009-10
The year that followed proved to be both Defoe’s finest season for Tottenham, and Spurs’ best year with him on the books, mostly due to Defoe being reunited with Peter Crouch in a partnership that averaged a goal a game in their time together for Portsmouth and Spurs combined. Unhindered by distraction by the inferior UEFA Cup for the first season in four, Tottenham started the league campaign in robust form and never looked back, with Defoe scoring an exquisite hat trick in a 5-1 win at Hull just seven days after netting twice for his country away to Holland. In October Defoe scored against an old club again, as is his wont, with what turned out to be the winning goal away to Portsmouth, but was then sent off for an apparent stamp on Aaron Mokoena, causing him a suspension that meant he missed the North London derby, which Tottenham lost 3-0. JD’s next goals for Spurs were his most historic, as in the home game with Wigan he first scored the second fastest hat trick in Premier League history ( on 51, 54, and 58 minutes) before adding two more (69 and 87) to follow Alan Shearer and Andy Cole into the record books as a scorer of five goals in a game in the Premier League (since also achieved by Dimitar Berbatov for Man United). As I’m sure you may remember, Tottenham won the game 9-1.

Kirkland despairs… he was lucky it was only nine

In February Defoe grabbed his third hat trick of the season at Elland Road in the FA Cup and went on to finish with 18 league goals, 24 in all competitions, and with Tottenham finishing in the Champions League place they had been hovering in and around all season, the only negative being a disappointing FA Cup semi-final defeat to Defoe’s old team, Portsmouth. JD capped his greatest year in football by scoring a goal for England in the World Cup in a 1-0 win against Slovenia, a personal triumph in an otherwise bitterly disappointing English campaign.

2010-11
The 10-11 season was very trying for Defoe who missed three months with an ankle injury sustained in England’s Euro 2012 qualifier with Bulgaria – a game in which he scored a hat trick. He marked his return by setting up the first goal in a dramatic 3-2 comeback win in the North London derby at the Emirates, and seventeen days later scored his only goals in the Champions League proper with two in a 3-3 draw away to FC Twente.

Jermain celebrates at FC Twente

Injuries blighted Jermain again, and it was March before he grabbed his first Premier League goals with two in another 3-3 draw, this time at Molineux. His next goal, at home to West Brom, was his 100th in the Premier League. Injury caused Jermain to miss the historic games with the two Milan giants, but he did feature in both legs of the Real Madrid tie, albeit as a sub. First team chances were restricted as Harry Redknapp favoured one striker from JD, Crouch or Roman Pavlyuchenko in front of new signing Rafael van der Vaart and the one was usually Crouch, which suited the Dutchman – he ended up Spurs’ top scorer that season – but the team as a whole struggled to score enough goals and finished 5th, Defoe himself managing 9 goals from 30 appearances, mostly from the bench. His copybook was also blotted with another red card, this time at Villa Park on Boxing Day, in a game Spurs won 2-1 thanks to two goals from van der Vaart.

Always The Bridesmaid
2011-12
The exit of Peter Crouch and arrival of Emmanuel Adebayor at White Hart Lane for 11-12 season provided another challenge for Defoe as again Redknapp usually favoured a single striker in front of Aaron Lennon, van der Vaart and Gareth Bale, anchored by the ever-present Luka Modric and Scott Parker.

Congratulating Ade ; rarely on the pitch together but both scored in this 4-0 romp over Liverpool

Spurs spent much of the winter and spring in 3rd place but a reliance on the same men in key positions caused fatigue and the team collapsed between March and May and finished 4th, denied Champions League football by virtue of Chelsea winning the competition and finishing 6th in the league. In and out of the side again, Defoe netted 17 times in 38 games, around the “one in two” mark yet again and only one shy of Adebayor’s total with the latter finishing Tottenham’s top scorer. A testing season professionally ended in personal heartbreak with Defoe’s father dying while he was on England duty just prior to Euro 2012, a tournament in which he made Roy Hodgson’s squad, but did not feature.

2012-13
In the wake of failure to return to the Champions League, Tottenham entered their customary period of transition, with Redknapp sacked and the sales of Modric and van der Vaart. JD initially found himself the primary striker for new manager Andre Villas-Boas in a modern 4-2-3-1 and he started the season well, including braces away to Reading, at home to West Ham and away to Fulham. On Boxing Day he marked his 400th career football league appearance by scoring the opening goal in a 4-0 win for Spurs in their customary festive trip to Villa Park in a game I was privileged to attend. Injuries and the side’s poor form blighted the second half of Defoe’s season as Spurs entered their now familiar post-New Year lull, but he still contributed by turning Vincent Kompany inside out to smash home the second goal in an impressive 3-1 win at home to league champions Man City to effectively end their hopes of retaining the title.

“Turn him and shoot!” I yelled.. and he did

Despite achieving their highest-ever Premier League points total, Spurs came 5th and missed out on the Champions League again. In and out of the team again post-injury, JD managed 43 appearances in another busy season on multiple fronts for Tottenham, but only managed 15 goals, 11 of which came in the league. He started and finished the season well for England, scoring goals in qualifiers in September and March – but they were against Moldova and San Marino. In the big games, JD failed to register, or was dropped for Danny Welbeck.

Oh, Canada….
2013-14
After Gareth Bale’s departure and the insane spending of last summer at White Hart Lane, Jermain yet again found himself second choice, this time to Roberto Soldado. Despite the latter failing to find the net from open play in the league, JD found his chances restricted to substitute appearances but maintained dynamite form in the Europa League, in which which he scored his 23rd European goal for Tottenham against Sheriff Tiraspol, passing Martin Chivers’ record and sealing his place as a club legend.

Record-breaker – European goal number 23 for Tottenham’s Number 18

An action-packed all-round display in the League Cup at Villa Park (in a game I was lucky enough to see in person), capped with a milestone two goals with made him Tottenham’s fifth leading goalscorer of all time, forced AVB to consider giving Jermain a start in the league. Unfortunately this start came in the home game with West Ham, where the worst Spurs performance I’ve seen in twenty years resulted in Defoe receiving very few touches of the ball, and the team losing 3-0. Subsequent starts away to Fulham and Sunderland at least yielded Tottenham wins, but Defoe did not score, and he was back on the bench in the next game at home to Liverpool – a 5-0 hiding which cost Villas-Boas his job. JD started up front with the forgotten man Emmanuel Adebayor in the West Ham League Cup game, and set up the Togolese for his goal, but by the time Tim Sherwood was given the manager’s position permanently, JD had already made up his mind to move on and given a verbal agreement to FC Toronto. Roy Hodgson says the move will not affect his chances of making the World Cup squad ; of that, I have serious doubts.

Less than 24 hours after the announcement, I was on my way into White Hart Lane for the Crystal Palace match. With on sale dates being what they are, I knew that if Defoe got on the pitch, this was going to be my last chance to see him play for Spurs. The Park Lane lower chanted his name well before his introduction on 58 minutes, and I felt like crying when he did come on. As fate would have it, he grabbed his first, and to date only goal of the Premier League campaign on 72 minutes to finish the game at 2-0, and I leaped for joy with tears in my eyes. On my way out of the ground I felt compelled to buy the scarf from which the image atop this article comes.

The joy is tangible as Defoe celebrates against Palace

Yesterday JD was given the courtesy of the last five minutes against Everton and a lap of the Lane on the shoulders of Adebayor and Jan Vertonghen, but I’ll always feel I attended his real farewell – his final goal at White Hart Lane. That’s how he’d want the Spurs fans to remember him, rippling the net after some neat feet. Spurs have trips to Newcastle, Dnipro and Norwich before Jermain leaves, but he’s seen the last of his days at White Hart Lane after spending the best part of a decade with us, growing from a boy of 21 to a man of 31, sitting on 79 from 186 in his second spell with us, 143 from 363 over all, and with ten goals in all competitions, currently the club’s joint (with Soldado) top scorer for 13-14. At 0-0 yesterday even up to the point that Adebayor scored, the crowds were chanting for Jermain Defoe. He was always good for a goal, and as Palace discovered, he still is.

Thus the Spurs story is coming to an end for a man whom only Cliff Jones, Martin Chivers, Bobby Smith and the one and only Jimmy Greaves have scored more than for Tottenham, a man whose best friend in football is Ledley King, a man who once said his favourite journey was driving to White Hart Lane on matchday, and the club’s leading European goalscorer of all time. The Premier League’s record scoring substitute of all time probably sums JD up. The crowd favourite, even if in the eyes of the managers, he was nearly always the bridesmaid. The nearly man. Like the scarf says ; Jermain Defoe – England Lion, and Legend of the Lane.

Thanks for everything, JD

Jermain Defoe….. “You’re Spurs… and you know you are…..“

The Many Myths of Moyes (well…. four)

Yes, my first entry is a football one, and it isn’t to do with the Mighty Spurs. I’m sure the Tottenham-related posts will outnumber the others as we go on, but after watching the League Cup semi-final first legs over the last two nights, when I turned on my thought percolator, this is what bubbled up.

Here are my thoughts on all the nonsense being spouted about David Moyes at the moment, from a neutral’s point of view. He’s in the papers a lot at present, having just lost three games on the bounce, to my beloved Tottenham in the Premier League, Swansea in the FA Cup, and Sunderland in the League Cup. Many things are being stated, including some naked facts without any context, to either criticize or support the Manchester United manager, and I fancy debunking a few of these myths as well as stating my own opinion. Remember – Spurs fan here, with neither affinity nor hatred towards the club, even though I freely admit liking them as a football club in terms of business model, footballing ethos and so forth. Clearly, I would prefer them to win the Premier League than any of the teams currently looking like having a chance of doing so. Having said that, I feel suitably unbiased in my assessment.

So here are some myths I’ve heard from both sides of the coin.

Myth #1 : (Prior to Sunderland) David Moyes lost fewer of his first 31 games in charge than some other lauded United managers (Moyes-7 Busby-8 Ferguson-9 Atkinson-9 Docherty-12 Sexton-13) so that proves he’s not actually doing that bad a job.
Reality : None of those managers inherited a league title winning squad filled with internationals and European cup winners, so the bare facts actually prove nothing.

Myth #2 : Moyes let United down by not doing better business in the transfer window, in particular signing Marouane Fellaini and nobody else of note.
Reality : Ed Woodward took charge of United’s transfer business (of lack thereof) in the summer, including the Cesc Fabregas debacle. Moyes had little say in it. People state that Moyes “took Fellaini with him from Everton” as though he were first choice, but that only happened when the deals that Woodward tried to broker for Fabregas, Mesut Özil and Luka Modric failed to bare fruit.

Myth #3 : Alex Ferguson only got the team to 11th in his first season in charge, so Moyes shouldn’t be judged yet.
Reality : Alex Ferguson took over the team well into the 86-87 season (November) with the team stuttering and threatened with relegation. Moyes started with a clean slate. While I agree that Moyes needs time to really make an impression on what is still near enough somebody else’s squad, that particular comparison is meaningless.

Myth #4 : Moyes should be doing better with the team he inherited.
Reality : (deep breath)

Winning the league with that squad papered over some cracks that Ferguson might have addressed before leaving. He’s basically inherited a team of players that :

(A) have never lived up to expectations – Nani, Anderson, Young, Valencia, Kagawa, Jones, Smalling ;

(B) are nearing the end of their usefulness – Vidic, Giggs, Evra, Ferdinand ;

(C) have had a lot of injury/illness problems – RvP, Fletcher ;

(D) are dramatically overrated due to their consistent appearances for a poor England side – Welbeck, Cleverley ;

(E) and Wayne Rooney, who is none of the above. Unsurprisingly, he has been Moyes’ best player this term.

To my mind, only van Persie’s goals, Joe Hart’s loss of form and Roberto Mancini’s ridiculous decision to split up the TITLE WINNING centre-back partnership of Vincent Kompany & Joleon Lescott prevented Manchester City from retaining the title, much as people might want to say it was Fergie being great. That side SHOULDN’T have won the title. It should have done marginally better than it is now, and it did, because van Persie for once stayed fit for most of the season. This season, obviously, he hasn’t. My point is, the team he inherited isn’t as good as a lot of people want to believe, and a lot of the blame has to fall at the feet of Woodward for being so utterly inept in the summer transfer market, especially concerning the Fabregas debacle.

The main problem that Moyes’ United have had (aside from one or two games – Southampton springs to mind – where his substitutions have been too negative on a one-goal lead) is that simply, the fear factor is gone. Technically you can point to giving the ball away cheaply on the edge of their own box, but that’s a confidence issue. United don’t have it, their opponents increasingly do. Teams that play Manchester United – even at Old Trafford – know before the game they have a chance of winning, and at 1-0 down in 2014 they know they still have a chance of salvaging something, whereas in years gone by conceding the first goal at the Theatre of Dreams was usually tantamount to conceding defeat itself. The message has been put out there – United away is a game you can win. West Brom have done it. Newcastle have done it. Everton have done it. Spurs have done it. Swansea have done it.

How you arrest that is simple, in theory. You win football games, the team grows in confidence, that confidence begets more victories. For that to happen, the team needs improvement. Most will suggest that the kind of quality of player that Manchester United would hope to attract in January is almost-exclusively not available in January, that most of the true quality out there comprises of players happy at their clubs, and at clubs unwilling to sell. I’d suggest there is one exception : Juan Mata.

While record-setting Frank Lampard and the exciting Eden Hazard may have garnered most of the attention and plaudits last season (well, when the latter wasn’t kicking ball boys), it is my conjecture that Mata was Chelsea’s best player, and yet he seems resigned to play a bit part in Jose Mourinho’s second spell in charge at Kings Road. With the strength in depth of attacking or creative players at his disposal – Lampard, Hazard, Oscar, Schürrle, De Bruyne, van Ginkel – Jose may be persuaded to let Mata leave. While the Spaniard has been a model pro in his comments regarding his status at Stamford Bridge, there was no hiding his contempt at being substituted during the Southampton game, and no player with World Cup aspirations wants to spend the next five months on the bench. For anyone suggesting Mourinho is too proud/arrogant to sell a player he officially insists IS a part of his plans, I put it to you that for the right price, Mourinho might be tempted to part with the influential midfielder, to get rid of a want-away player and give himself chance to come out in the press afterwards and declare “I will not sell to title rivals, but Manchester United are not a rival right now.” Come on ; that’s exactly the sort of thing he’d do, isn’t it?

Back to David Moyes – yes, it is too early to judge him. The club has already made it clear he will still be at the helm in the summer no matter what, and in the summer is when he will be judged, as it is expected that he will have far more influence in the players that United approach. 14-15 will be a truer indication of what “David Moyes’ Manchester United” will actually look like going forward, and personally speaking, I’m fascinated at the thought of what calibre player the club will be able to attract, especially if they have neither the cache of “come play for Sir Alex Ferguson” OR Champions League football to offer.

Sorry for that last bit, Stretford Enders, but it’s a possibility that shouldn’t be ignored.