I use the phrase burden of expectation quite frequently but it's often just coded language for unreasonable, impatient bastards.

Word has been flying about all afternoon that (in big am dram voice) Bentley will never play for the Tottingham Hotspurs again! I have no idea what truth there is in this. But if it is the case then to the player it must come as a relief.

No, Bentley hasn't been a runaway success story. His transfer took forever and when he did land he was greeted with at best indifference and at worst the most desperately childish enquiries as to who he supported as he had been at Arsenal. I could have wept.

Azza Blud was singularly frustrating prior to Bentley's arrival. I can't recall too many voices demanding that the Rn'B loving dwarf do one. Oh no, it was an endless mantra of 'he's only young, give him a fair go'. The reality is that it took the threat of him being usurped by Bentley before he got his naffing act together and managed to improve his dreaded end product.

I always had a sneaking suspicion a lot of it was jealousy. Hardly Wayne Rooney on the eye, is he?

Conjecture is that after acting up/being disinterested in a training game today that Arry has lost all reason and he's drawn a line through his name, rather than beneath it.

Modders is back and frankly I fear for his future. Not that he may be on Sir Alex's wish list but on our lot's hit list should he fail to deliver upon his return. He was always modestly favoured but that support appears (rather bizarrely) to have dramatically spiraled during his injury induced absence. 

It's rumoured again - which is hardly a shocker as Administration looms at Upton Park - that we may see Scott Parker's name brandished about in earnest very soon. 

So what's my point? Under Arry, be mindful of the ol' ODM phrase and be careful what you wish for. Parker to Tottenham. Pav out and who in - Carlton Chuffing Cole?

I'm having two more Mai Tai's then a lie down at the very thought. 

The Daily Mirror is running rehashing a PSB to Celtic tale this morning.

I don't see it.urely it would be easier for Keane to fake his own death than to get involved in such a move? If Bob Keane has become a white elephant at White Hart Lane then he'd be heading to an elephant's graveyard at Celtic Park.

Bob is a determined character. We know that much. Few players have exhibited the drive and will to undertake as many club transfers has he has. But the much covered Liverpool one was an unmitigated disaster. 

Also, this mystical 'spiritual home' cobblers that is attached to Celtic Park kind of passes me by. After the 'boyhood dream' schtick we had to endure from the flat faced one as he scuttled up to Anfield he has surely even he has more self respect than this.

At the risk of repeating myself; I think the Rafa fiasco damaged him. Something broke and my fear is that it cannot be mended. Ordinarily, the best bet for a striker that's gone of the boil is a good run in the first squad. Get the boy back in the saddle and see what happens. In this instance I think the player needs some time out of the limelight and out of the line firing line of the fans.

The burden of expectation placed upon Tottenham players is always huge and never more so than this season. Sitting third and fourth as we have been. PSB would do well to step aside, regather himself and with any luck return refreshed and ready to play his part. The resentment garnered as he was seemingly undroppable needs to subside and if it doesn't sound too soft, folk need to feel that they can trust him again.

Arry obviously thought once he knocked a few in that would be the end of it. Unfortunately all that did was paper over the cracks.

Now, 'Can I have another one of these with some booze in it?'

  HH has of late adopted the role of an online Santa and the gifts just keep on coming. I have procured three of these bad boys.

The No#1 Fan is the latest must have in any Yids life. This is quite simply an all singing all dancing über gift.

Officially licensed FA and officially ridiculous.

Now, Nunchucks has already won one, so that leaves two more burning a hole in the HH homberg. Or you can buy one HERE!

Good luck, ladies.  

 There was a brief spell around about my third pint I think, that I quite got into our defenders showing a bit of steel.A bit of gung ho.By my fifth or so even I had realised that a dizzy blind man with a bag over his head would probably have achieved better results than our lot 

This blog will undoubtedly and maybe rightly deteriorate into an elongated lament about how we blew it. But whilst our defense was in disarray, an effective partnership of Huddlestone and Palacios is emerging. And Lennon may well return from the World Cup a hero. 

There will be those who feel that a point from up there isn't a disaster. Teams drop points, penalties are somehow a raffle. 

I'd say that's precisely the mentality that keeps us in 'our place'. As an outfit of chancers who nicked fifth twice; once upon a time. We fundamentally lack the mental strength. We really do. Everton are in tatters really and they have the desire to come back. Fulham are a band of 'not quite good enough players' yet they are - use the football parlance - knocking on the door of a Europa Cup Final. 

For Tottenham to even vaguely deliver some of our expectations the acceptance of mediocrity has to go. Walk. Do one. Just go. Leave and not return. 

We lacked bite. We lacked determination.  Crucially we were also shy of a manager who was prepared to bite the bullet and use his bench effectively.

What a pity. 

PS! Another week, another slice of pure luxury courtesy of the good folk at Savile Rogue.

Hat bound names are required and this week's killer question is Savile Rogue offer many scarves for many teams. But How many Premiership Club's do they do?   HERE

Just email me at harryhotspur@oleole.com and remember if you have already asked to be a hat dweller and haven't won anything yet, it's all good and you are still in with a decent chance of winning something. And I have more quality tat to fire at you next week too.

 Jenas has been at it again. This time in the News Of The Screws. Apparently he's targeting human suffering in Nottingham and Africa. Well you would, wouldn't you? 

JJ lays himself bare and tells it how it was being street tuff on the eastside of the gangstar hell that is ...Nottingham. JJ holds back the tears as he grinds on and on and about how his aunt Dolly sold her artificial leg to pay for his football boots as a nipper, whilst his mother worked 16 hour shifts as toilet cleaner on a Dysentery Ward in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, not to mention how is own father (who was a black man, it was exclusively revealed) called him Mr Tibbs.

Alright, I made some of that up, but sweet mother of God. Give me a break, will you. Will you?

When are these jokers going to shut up and just let their feet do the talking? This is a naffing brochure. World cup  airplane seats still to be allotted and just by sheer coincidence here we have a model citizen of what do they call it now? Mixed heritage descent snapped hugging kiddies who need a library and someone to tell them to just say no.

Jermain flower, let me tell you a secret. Nobody cares. You earn more in a week than many people earn in a year. You want to genuinely help the sick and the malnourished or lower the crime rate in downtown Nottingham, get your sodding cheque book out. 

Alternatively turn it in with the Bono bollocks and concentrate on playing football and doing so consistently well?

I can't improve on Mullingar's team choice from the previous blog and so this would too then be my squad. My fear of course is that Arry will buckle and we'll get more than just the threat of cameo's from PSB and JJ. 

Gomes     Charlie    Les    Bassoon    A&E   Azzablud    Sarge  Tommy  Krankie  3MP    Deffo

No two ways about it, we're having a good run of it against the mid table teams and so today ought see more consolidation, more progress.

I'll leave you with this from the Qi book that she left in the lav.

On her 121st birhday, Jeanne Calment was asked for the secret of her longevity. She attributed it to olive oil, which she ate nearly every meal as well as rubbing into her skin. 'I only have one wrinkle, she gurgled coquettishly, 'and I'm sitting on it.'

So JJ, as Fonzerelli used to say in Happy Days, 'Sit On It'.

Good morning friends.

Anyone hear the one about the Hall of Fame dinner in honour of Darren Anderton and Steffen Freund? Unfortunately, I'm not kidding.

 How do you make a million dollars? Well based upon this morning's news you could shoot 60 Manchester businessmen in the stomach or schtupp Tiger Woods and get weighed off for keeping schtum. Alternatively a career as a football agent would nestle somewhere within that ethical divide.

Figures have just been released and it makes for predictably sorrowful reading. Especially when one begins to make a direct and obvious correlation between monies paid out and achievements. Here then are the dirtiest dozen.

Manchester City - £12,874,283

News just in again that we're definitely, definitely telling people that we've definitely, probably are or indeed are about to, in January, sign this Sandro bloke. It is thought.

The hot gossip this time is from our old friend, Roger Morgan. Of Rog I know very little; but I do recall him announcing the arrival of the our curreny glorious leader well in advance of everyone else. I'm sure he has other strings to his bow. He may be a whizz in the kitchen, a diva on the dance floor. Who knows?

But then that's the Internet, see. You never can really know who it is you're dealing with until you see the whites of the f*cker's eyes. Oh yes, Mr Morgan believes the figure of the impending transaction to be about  the £6.5 million mark.

All this talk of Sandro is a good thing. I have no idea if he works, but the merest suggestion that our all too frequently lacklustre/scaredy cat midfield might be in for some class of shake up does at least give me grounds for hope, if nothing else.

Elsewhere I found myself uncharacteristically laughing out loud when I read in the Daily Fail that Sol Campbell had agreed to a gagging order. How they can get away with writing that in this enlightened age of political correctness is beyond me. What he does in the privacy of his own home is his business.

And lastly, I just found THIS site and think it looks rather good.

Meet  Steve  Perryman 

Pay close attention. I'll take your brain to another dimension. Not my words, but those of popular beat combo, The Prodigy.

In actual fact, where I was suggesting you might head is possibly less exotic. In fact, I was thinking Enfield.

Steve Perryman is doing a book signing down at Waterstones on this coming Monday. He'll be there between 2pm and 4pm. The book in question was a recent giveaway on the blog, When Football Was Football by Adam Powley. HERE

Now, regular readers will know I haven't always quite seen eye to eye with old Citizen Smith at Spurs Odyssey but I have to say he got it right when he described Adam's book as The Affordable Opus. I've waxed lyrical about it already and the idea is to 'put you on to a good thing' and not to fatigue you, so I'll be brief. This is a really nicely put together historical document of a book about Spurs. So if you're looking for a real impact gift for the Yid in your life or simply fancy a substantial treat but at a price you can afford then buy one.

The forward is by Mr Stevie P himself so to get an autographed one would seal the deal for me.

.

Gomes 6 Corporal Klinger picked it out of the net twice like a true pro.

Hutton 5 Needs repatriating. Not the guy we bought and he's run 'oot' of time.

Bassong 4.5 Bit part performance. Am I allowed to ask where our Club Captain is?

Dawson 5 Suddenly all the 'going to South Africa' chat has subsided.

Bale 6.5 Much like he was when we first bought him. How very good of him to join in.

Lennon 6 Improved as the game progressed; for a man out of position.

Palacious 5 Like a dog chasing a car. When he did catch one he didn't know what to do with it.

Jenas 4 Stretchered on with a crab related disease that only permitted him sideways movement. 

Bentley 5 Frustrating is the word. Can do better but unlikely to get the chance under Arry.

Keane 4.5 At times, he's just a big flat faced failure. Last night was one of those times.

Defoe 4.5 Very unlike his off field self - he didn't get much action.

Despite some very low ratings I thought on occasion, we looked bright and very nearly looked threatening. It was alright though, it turned out to be wind. No two ways about it we flattered to deceive. Ahh, the Spurs of old are back in town.

We had plenty of the ball, we simply failed to think of anything vaguely useful or memorable to do with it. 

 "It was played at a lethargic pace; we didn't make a tackle in the first half. It was like a practice match, it just never got going." You're quite high up at the Club, Arry. You should have had a word with the Tottenham manager.

And so it came to pass that Jenas needs singling out. The poor old goat didn't do that much wrong. But we're in the Medals for Bravery and Gallantry in the face of the enemy business here. Not Long Service.He didn't give the ball away much, but then that's hardly a fitting epitaph for a guy who is allegedly one of ourt senior players, is it?

This is harsh, but when Toon come back up, he should rejoin them and become a Tyneside legend. He doesn't give me the impression he's only in it just for the money, but he does have me convinced he's boxing just ever so slightly above his weight. We need dynamism and urgency and ...a whole wheel barrow of stuff he used to threaten to offer us but now rarely does.

Keane is increasingly looking like damaged goods. Burnt out and with more issues than a Big Issue vendor with facial leprosy, who's drunk and wielding a knife at people. And shouting a lot.  Except at least the mentalist I just described would be threatening. Keane is no longer a threat.

Cast your mind back to that run he made down the left against Chelsea that time where he left their right back on his arse and got his cross in. You may as well be thinking of a different player. Bob now looks like a frustrated toe poking goal hanger who's just discovered his wife has left him.

And so to Bentley then. Shocking free kick or whatever it was. I suppose the rain coming down like something out of The Killing Fields didn't help. Oh I don't know, I irrationally like him. Always have. Just as many have always seemed to have irrationally despised him from the off. Arry clearly doesn't rate him and so he's another PSB in so much we don't really want him and yet it's difficult to see anyone in their right mind offering us anywhere near market value for him.

Bale caught the eye. Mind you that wouldn't have been difficult given the weak performances he was surrounded by. But this was very much him returning to the same form he demonstrated when we bought him. I'm, not trying to sound churlish here, but my response is less of a thank you - but rather more of a what happened to you in the chuffing meantime?  

With our midfield consisting of the nondescript duo that was Jenas and Wilson the inevitable occurred and that was no matter who we played up front - they got nothing. Which leads me neatly onto...

Arry's tactics were a bit strange. with Lennon and Bentley on he was, theoretically anyway, creating width. So why you'd provide two short order chefs for them to aim at is beyond me. With Modders behind them, yes, but he wasn't and so no.

So we're out of that Cup and readying ourselves for Everton. Everton are hugely beatable. I watched a fair bit of the Bindipper Derby and there has to be an air of despondency in their camp by now. My only fear is we won't capitalise on it by sending out Ireland's Bob Keane and England's Jermaine Jeans against them.

Keep it Tottenham.

Stone me. The face of modern football journalism is a mess of shaving cuts and this morning's breakfast. I was a late riser (that's what she said) and so have only just had an opportunity to peruse tomorrow's chip wrappers.

Well a dead fish isn't a fussy one I guess. The Torygraph have gone out on a limb and are suggesting we won't be fielding Crazy Pavinchenko against Yanited this evening. John Ley ought to know better. Maybe he's just trying to put his kids through school, in which case I'll leave him be. 

One good port of call on all things Red Devil related is the Republik Of Mancunia site and their pre match prattle is good and is HERE .

Team for tonight? It's going to be announced in minutes. 

Come On You Spurs and BIOYC!