Robinson Off To Aston Villa

Wish he could have stayed good... But we can't be sympathetic in this game I'm afraid.
Still, not bad business is it!
See ya Robbo, your cheerleading and score updates will be missed.
I'll give you a clap on your return (a clap, not THE clap)

I feel relieved...

...And yet guilty.

As you say, Harry, it's probably a welcome respite and opportunity for him. I genuinely hope (if he should go) that he is able to reassemble his career from its broken parts.

Even until recently I had hope that he would recover his form at Spurs. I kept thinking that maybe - just maybe - if he trained himself to visualise the ball as a giant pie he might catch it more often.

But it was a forlorn hope. As anyone familiar with Gloucershire's annual cheese-rolling competition will attest, Robbo based his famous 'roll' on the downhill motion of the circular cheese. He is deserving of extra praise, however, as his roll was executed on a level surface.

He shall be missed.

You'll love this Harry!!!
Vital-MK regarding ground-share
"However, the plan is sure to be met with fierce criticism from die-hard Dons, who would be appalled at the idea of sharing with such rivals"
LINK

Whilst robbo's form has been crap he will be a good keeper again. Martin O'Neil will probably get the best from him. The shame is that we haven't had a defence to give him that bit of confidence he needs.

Robbo's demise was caused by (and in this order); The spurs defense, the bobble in croatia, the spurs defense some more, the german goal at wembley, ramos coming in and getting a poor 1st impression, and then finally not knowing his place was safe in the team. A bit like a domino rally.

Does anyone know what Spurs have in place re sports psychology? If ever i thought that kind of approach could have an impact i would say it was with robbo.

Suffice to say the Pie and Mash bonus system employed under Messrs Jol & Hughton was stopped. This caused a cataclysmic change in Robbo's fortune.. I mean, what did he have to play for! Of course I jest, but he is like a lot of Spurs players over the years, he just isn't good enough, but at least we aren't holding on too long out of sentiment.

I would be happy for Robbo to stay, but only as a back up to our new custodian?? That wont happen so i wish Robbo all the best he has done well for us in the past & i think it is important that fans remember this. Good luck Robbo, i sincerely hope you find the form you had 2 years ago BIG THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES!!

He was good enough. The question is can he be again. I agree however there is no time for sentiment and his time has come for the door. Fuckin' shame though, cos i wouldn't bet against him recovering the form that saw him play in a CL semi.

robbo to go it is a shame,he lost confidence,he allways put in 100 percent,we will miss him.the main problem is centre of midfield and has been for many many years.you have to stop the passes and shots in the middle of the park

Saved our bacon more than once...its a pity he eat it all.
No...he was a fantastic keeper before, I have no doubt he will again.
If he goes good luck, and wish him well. Bring on the "Octopus"

I think it will be a great pity if we let him go. He has the immediate potential to be outstanding, especially with a new goalkeeping coach in place at the Lane. His form will return, he might well become a truly excellent keeper and we will have lost someone who actually seems to give a damn about our club. His mistakes have been there for all to see, and are mentioned regularly. His world-class save at Man City kept us in the tie at a crucial period and we all know where it went from there. Oh Wembley... There has been lots of good and a fair bit of bad, but I would be delighted to see the Club encourage him to stay and try to regain the thrilling goalkeeping form that brought him to our attention in the first place, and which kept us so content for what is still the majority of his career at Spurs. Anyway, I won't go on about this any more than I have already.

Up the Spurs!

The Birmingham Mail is not a recognised news source.

Fuck off Harry, you fucking parasite.

Harry - news is that Bentley had the medical yesterday (Islington Gazette) - you heard anything?

I'm never one to get too carried away by a story in the trash mags, but I believe that this story does have some mileage.

If it happens, Spurs loss, Villa's gain!! Robbo has suffered from England Goalie syndrome, one mistake, got slaughtered by the press and some unforgiving fans and he has simply never regained the confidence he once had. Martin O'Neill is just the right man to rekindle that confidence and swagger. £5M represents a decent bit of business for both clubs.

Spurs fans shouldn't be surprised when he comes back to WHL next season, keeps a clean sheet and wins man-of-the-match.

LINK

Im glad we are moving on, but he was a yiddo and i wish him the very best!

ps Robbo seems like a decent bloke and a good club man, but he was a real liability last season and has to be replaced. I'm just hoping that at least one of the keepers linked with us will step up to the plate and help to cut down our dreadful goals against record!

WW,

No doubt about it, i dont know thou i feel guilty but extreamly happy at the same time.

well said vespa
our lot clambering for this big donk gomaes probably dont even know if he speaks any bloody english!
should make for some interestig defense situations

Harold, if you don't like what Harry writes, don't come here. Or try developing some social skills first. Prick.

Harold, if you don't like what Harry writes, don't come here. Or try developing some social skills first. Prick.

Dear Harold, Prick, of "The Birmingham Mail is not a recognised news source. Fuck off Harry, you fucking parasite." fame.

The Birmingham Mail, of Midland Newspapers Ltd (owners: Trinity Mirror, or 'The Mirror' to avoid confusion), formally Midland Independant Newspapers, is a long standing and respected publisher of, guess what, NEWS. Clearly it doesn't have the journalistic gravitas of Caughtoffside, perhaps you should look there.

Harry - a quick look backwards - is it true that Alan " Big Shot Market Boy Knows Nothing About The Glorious Game" Sugar refused to buy both Bergkamp (alleged Spurs fan) and Zola when they were offered to us on, the basis that he didn't want "Johnny Foreigners" in the British game? If it is true, the bastard has got a lot to answer for!

Spot on Vesper.

White Whiz, I'd be very surprised if the Islington Gazette had access to the required sources to exclusively break a story such as this. Interesting first par: "The 23-year-old WAS THOUGHT to have undergone a successful medical in a private hospital in north east London." Sounds to me like they've scraped the blogs (or perhaps TalkSport) for this.

Yeh - you're probably right Chirpy - I'm really hope we do land him though - I think he'd be real asset!
If we do get Bentley, I think we will be in touching distance of a really exciting and well balanced midfield (with just a solid DM to complete the picture)

What does everyone think about Arsehole wanker talking up Arseshaving this morning on Skysports, do you reckon a deal is done, on the cards or trying to get Arshavin to say he would love to
join
the Arseholes?

You have to have a keen eye when reading these papers, some leave quotations open so you don't have a clue if the person said what he said or is it just the paper speculating, its unbelievable how the papers love to shoot the spurs down all the time, constantly linking us to players and then saying they snubbed us to go to this and that club.

White Whiz, agreed fella, he'd be an excellent addition.

Rough748, there were two interviews with Arshavin broadcast last night, in which he confirmed he'll be leaving Zenit St. Petersb.

He made no mention of Spurs, but did speak of ManUre (specifically Ferguson), Ar5ena1/Whinger and Chelsea/Scolari, of London and Spain, and the importance of regular first team footy.

If you're interested one is incl. in today's BBC Five Live's Football Daily podcast.

Would've loved to have seen him at Spurs, but it doesn't sound hopeful.

Nice-1, thanks Chirpy, he is a class act, but to be honest we need a good DM, hard to see to many of them around, the day of the hard DM is nearly gone, any suggestions or links apart from Gattuso?

Does my white heart good to see Lehmann cocking up and struggling against the Turks - let's hope he now loses it completely brings someone down and gets a red card!

Good luck to you Robbo, wish you all the best for the future and i'm sure you will be welcome back to WHL for a few years to come.

To make sure of this and show us how much you really love the Spurs why not let a 40 yard Zokora effort sneak past you, go on you know you want to…. guaranteed you’ll get seat at WHL for the rest of your days!

I personally will be gutted if it is the case that Robbo is leaving!He has been a fantasic for years and although hes had a bad 18 months you don't become a bad keeper overnight.Good luck Robbo whatever happens.
COYS!!!

Whilst I like Robbo the man and appreciate his better performances I don't think he is or ever was a top rate keeper.
He can stop shots with the best but his inability to consistently catch crosses coupled with absolutely no idea when to leave his line is just not good enough.

A really top keeper (think Cech, Big Pat, Shilton, Van der Sar etc) will completely control the penalty area and have indomitable self belief. Unfortunately, Robbo has neither but I wish him well and thank him for his obvious love and loyalty to our club, which was never beyond doubt.

rough748, you've hit the nail on the head; 'Who is that masked man?'

What I do know is Zokora aint good enough and Thudd still has much to learn, which would be OK with Ledders and Woody consistently behind *sighs*.

Suggestions on a postcard marked FAO The Dame (aka Comolli)

There is nothing like a Dame... Cheers, Chirpster... Great to see you on here so often, genuinely flattered....

Paul - I agree with you, you cant become a bad keeper overnight but you have yourself said he has been becoming poor over the last 18 months. In the cut throat business of the premiership that is far too long to just be going through a sticky patch. Its time to move on, as much as I love Robbo, I just cant see him turning the corner for us. We have just lost too many points as a direct result of his bad all round keeping, our defense doesnt help just like he doesnt help our defense.
I think that moving him on will benefit both sides, he needs to go to rebuild his career, a move out of london and to a team where the spotlight is less harsh will better for him. A commanding keeper who can control his defenders and his box will be better for us.

As a byline I just wanted to say a big thank you to Harry - This is clearly the best spurs blog - you give us the news and the platform for fellow yids to debate.

COYS

ShelfMatt. Bonsoir, sir.

Just woken up and seen reports that we're in for Crouch and Benayoun, but then I saw it was from the Daily Mail and felt a lot better.
Lennon won't be too happy either, seeing his name as a make weight in the Bentley deal. Doesn't look good for the little non-crossing winger, 6 months ago he was considered Bentley's main rival for the England RW, just like Robinson, a change would do him good, but perhaps a loan deal.
Good luck to Robinson.

I see Bambi's off, then...

About this, I am decidedly less guiltridden.

i hope he can get back to his former self for his sake, although i doubt it as many a keeper has gone through a slump only to be forgotton.

on a lighter note.... legends heros flopstars is glenn hoddle today.... have a peek! maybe a few comments?

It was getting blamed for that goal against croatia that killed robinson. It wasn't even his fault either.

I do love Robbo though, one season he scored the same ammount of goals as Fabregas

Paul at his best is a fantastic shot stopper and he has very accurate distribution with his kicks.

However, he rarely ever throws the ball out and I would much rather a keeper had a big accurate throw than kick. But his problem has always been that he is terrible at coming for crosses (even when he was playing well). Things went from bad to worse with an inexperienced and unsettled back 4 and his various mistakes which led to his confidence and the teams confidence in him drain away.

The move away will be good for him and the club as long as we bring in a keeper that is the complete package. I often think its better for a keeper to not be amazing at anything rather than have glaring weaknesses. As if the thing that they are amazing at dips then they can fall apart. Most keepers are good shot stoppers, some are amazing. Some are great at one on ones. Some have great distribution but few are really commanding at coming for crosses and this for me is a key pre-requisite for any keeper we get. And I think it is especially important in the premiership. My concern over Gomes is that he too appears a bit of a flapper…

Gomes almost gifted us a couple of goals when we played PSV.

He seems like a character though who gets the crowd going which is good, and PSV have won the title with him in goal so he must do something right

The Eredivisie is a two and a half horse race, so it's not THAT much of an accolade.

WM, nice summary. I agree, Robinson's kicking (when he makes contact) is one of his strengths and both an inexperienced defence (at the early part of the season) coupled with precious little cover from Zokora and Jenas, and the reaction to his 'mistake' for England, all conspired to detrimentally impact his confidence. It was at this point the flapping at and punching of crosses crept into his game and his overall form eventually suffered. His reaction to being dropped was adolescent, although perhaps indicative of how much he cares about the club. Lest we forget, this is the keeper who (only the season before) said he wanted to see out his career at Spurs, in the modern game an unusual statement of intent, and we were all delighted to hear it. Confidence can be re-built, if he hasn't burnt his bridges with Ramos.

For me, Gomes does not convince, although there are positives - his stature and character. I feel that with the fans it could go either way, dependant on how well he starts.

My preference would be to keep Robinson, acquire an up-and-coming 'young buck' (Hart or Amelia) for c.£3m as competition and save the remainder for a DM and/or Bentley ;-)

Gomes is only 27. His best years as a GK are ahead of him. Starting now (please).

All being well, Hans Leitart will coach him into the next level - with some positive, 'leitarted' observations. ;O)

Chirpy

Robbo has gone, he is no longer the first choice keeper of Tottenham Hotspur football club. Ramos has let him know him that from almost day 1.

Gomes whilst a bit of a vampire (poor with crosses) is a good keeper. You do not play for a side that wins the league year after year if you are rubbish.

''The Eredevisie is a two horse race'' - So is the Premiership!!!

we are looking at breaking that top four domination and by acquiring a top class experienced player from a club who consistantly win trophies we are improving our squad and along with that our chances of breaking the big four

Man City would never sell Joe Hart for £3m and im pretty sure that Amelia has recently joined Palermo. Alnwick should be given a chance as the back up keeper IMO look at Hart at Man City as a young guy who broke into the team and proved himself.

I think our summer of strengthening is going well I would like us to get the Bentley & Gomes deals done then concentrate on a top quality CDM and CB to show Berba that we mean business, if he stays it would be a bonus as we dont have to go find a replacement and take the gamble on the new man settling in rtc.

9-37

Echo your point..... Gomes is younger than Robinson has a shedload of trophies, champs league experience etc

He has come from a winning club and will bring with him a winning mentality

anyone seen this?? makes for good reading if true..

LINK

Just read that Arsenal are in for Veloso.......

NOOOOOOO!!

Harry any updates on the supposed transfers??

Jamiespur my main issue with Gomes is the one you highlight, he isn't great at dealing with crosses. Keepers have to deal with crosses a lot more regularly in the EPL than the Dutch league. As a result I feel that Gomes, whilst not a terrible option, is not a perfect fit.

Of course he has positives, as you say, otherwise he wouldn't have played for PSV for as long as he did or be as successful as he has been. I just feel that looking at the stats isn't wholly reflective of how he will perform at spurs considering that he played for a dominant side in a division that is much weaker than the premiership and where the style that teams use to attack is very different. Look at Arsenal's keepers over the past few years, their stats are good, but they weren't great players and I just feel Gomes is similar.

Re. GK

"Opinion's divided, I says it is, everyone else says..."

Jamiespurs,

"Robbo has gone, he is no longer the first choice keeper of Tottenham Hotspur football club. Ramos has let him know him that from almost day 1"

Strange then that he was re-instated for the Carling Cup Final.

You're right, we have now missed out on Amelia, but my point is that I would prefer an even younger up-and-coming GK as competition for Robinson, rather than Gomes.


Re. Bentley

Interesting article re. Blackburn's finances: LINK which may or may not be an influencing factor in the club's decision as to who to sell to.

Chirpy

I think he was reinstated for the carling cup final because Cerny had not had that much match experience over the season. He played and then set his wall wrong, stood behind it and then didnt move for Drogba's free kick...... Kind of proves why he was dropped and why he is on his way out.

Robbo needs a change of scenery to sort his head out. I'm sure he will come good again and its a shame he cant do it with Spurs but the reality is that we cannot wait for him to get back on track and jeopordise missing out on Gomes, starting the season with Robbo in goal would not be a good move for us at present

Let him go to Villa, let Martin O'Neill try and rebuild the big man. He will be missed and i genuinely feel that he loves the club. however, we cannot be sentimental when we are trying to become a ruthless team who are in the hunt for top prizes

Chirpy, I don't think Robinson is going to hang around at a club where the manager doesn't rate him, 50%+ of the fans and probably some of the players have lost confidence in him too. At 28 and having been the England keeper, he's hardly going to want to play second fiddle either. Unless we promote Alnwick to no.2, where ever the fuck he is, we need 2 more keepers. Time to say goodbye and good luck to Robinson.

Sorry I don't buy that, in the weeks preceeding the final Robinson had little/no match practice. JS, fella, I was simply challenging the notion (not fact) that Robinson was immediately, upon Ramos's arrival, no longer Spurs first choice keeper. Whatever the rationale, when push came to shove, UEFA QF, Carling Cup Final, Robinson remained as Ramos's first choice. It could be argued that, in playing Cerny, Ramos may have been trying to give Robinson a respite from the pressure and allow his confidence to recover, but couldn't risk it for the big games. In short, we don't know and will have to wait for his memoirs, shouldn't be too long...

We should get Given

Maybe we could get Sylvester Stallone in goal, he used to play back in the forties. He was fantastic

Chirpy

I cannot wait for the Robbo memoirs.......

any suggestions for the title???

I'm going with: Robbo the Roly Poly Goalie

or -

Gary nevilles back pass - The Paul Robinson Story

Melton Mowbray, my part in their downfall
Life of Pie

How about this,

Catch the fucking ball you fat bastard !!!!!!!!!!!!

Or,

Englands Number Bun

Cant catch wont catch

Do u think he will write any self help books???? lol

or an adpatation to the famous book:

Robbo - The catcher in the PIE

Catcher in the net

Flapper

do u think he wants to go to villa because he thinks its where VanILLA ice cream comes from??? That and the Urban Pie shop obviously!!

got another one-

'The idiots guide to goalkeeping' by Paul Robinson

Although it's said you don't become a bad goalie overnight, I'd say the night of 6-7 June 2006 is as close as you can get. The link below is to a BBC article, dated 7 June 2006. In the article, Robbo talks anxiously about the new ball at the World Cup.

At one point, he even says: "Every goal that goes in, even if it's one from 25 yards that everybody says you could do nothing about, you wonder if you could have got a stop in."

Little did he know then that those 25-yarders would become a habit.

Also from the article: 'Despite the wildly variable flight of the ball, Robinson insists he will not do anything differently.

"I don't think you can because if you start doing things you don't normally do during the game that's when things can go wrong," he said.'

Was it a refusal to change that was his undoing?

Flappers a cartoon about a tubby dolphin who's always getting himself into mischief

Sorry - forgot the link. ;O(
LINK

9-37

I dont think it was his refusal to change his goalkeeping habits. It was hsi refusal to change his eating habits!!

In all seriousness though, you dont become crap overnight. With Robbo it started with the Croatia goal (even my nan knows to make passbacks wide of the goal!)(in theory we can blame Gary Neville for Robbos loss of form)The lovely press kicked into gear blaming Robbo for it, Robbos head went, when something goes wrong you either get back on the horse so to speak or u hide.

Unfortunately for Robbo he hid, he stopped taking risks, he stopped coming for crosses, stopped making decisions (The theory being if he doesnt decide then he cant make a mistake)For a goalkeeper this is fatal.

Keeping is all about decision making, about doing the right thing at the right time. when you lose that you lose what makes u good. This made the team lose faith in Robbo and ended up with us ruining our season because i genuinely believe that Robbo's uncertainty spread through the team and especially the defence - YOU ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS YOUR WEAKEST LINK

Robbo was that weak link. Thanks for the memories Robbo. I hope one day we can have you visit the lane with your new side and chant ''ENGLANDS NUMBER ONE'' at you like the good old days