Do we need to raise funds before spending?

January transfer period will be over in less than two weeks and we are yet to sell anyone or buy anyone. Many of our fringe players were targeted, but every player seems to be valuated too highly, most recently Defoe and Pavlyuchenko, where Levy asked £20M for the Englishman who spends his time on the bench mostly and 30 year old, out of form Russian who isn't seeing any playing time in the league.

All of the sudden, team wants to keep all of its players, or so would seem. Pienaar was linked to move back to Everton and seeing as how he isn't playing much and is on a huge payroll, I wouldn't see a single reason to keep him, yet Harry insisted South African has a future at the club. I agree with Harry's philosophy on buying players. There really is no need to buy anyone who wont seriously challenge for the starting place.

We have an astonishing amount of depth among the team, seeing as how one team player Premier League this season, while a totally other team of players played Europa League. One was obviously more successful than other, but it goes to show we have plenty of backup and we don't need to sign anymore of those players, if anything, we need to offload some, but that is where Mr. Levy doesn't really share the same opinion as me, with his high valuations of the players. Perhaps he's being frustrated by the market where every in-form player costs a fortune, so he's responding in the same manner, though none of these players are in form, or he's doing a more rational thing, where he realizes he wont be able to sell all the players, but still sell some and make a nice amount of money from the clubs willing to, at least partially, match his valuations.

A Magnificent Performance

We're officially on par with the rest of the EPL when it comes to game count, reaching our 20th game and 45th point. I don't imagine there was a single Yid who expected our point count to be this high after just 20 games, yet we're on par with Man Utd and only 3 points from the dream. Londoneers are far behind us, with Chelsea and Arsenal trailing by 8 and 9 points respectively, Spurs look like the top London side at this moment.

Performance against Everton was a joy to behold. Everton, as usual, has proved to be a tough opponent for us, but we were simply too good to be handled and grabbed our deserved win with goals from Lennon and Benoit Assou-Ekotto. Game started off with Saha almost scoring a goal with only 50 seconds gone. Everton had a few notable chances, but their forwards just weren't impressive tonight, with only 3 shots hitting the target tonight, easily denied by Friedel. We, on the other hand, kept pushing all night, Bale did his thing, but Everton defence was determined to hold on, that is, till the 35th minute when Baines made a fatal mistake allowing Lennon to get passed him and with a finish that took a deflection, Howard was beaten and Spurs were off.

Even though we were the dominant side, the possession of the ball wasn't on our side as much as we're used to it, which just goes to show how vital Parker actually is for us. Don't get me wrong, Livermore did a fantastic job out there, but Parker is just magical and he should be ready for the Wolves game, having barely missed out on Everton clash. As the game dragged on, there wasn't much going on, Everton kept pushing, but couldn't create anything troubling, as Dawson's comeback to the pitch was outstanding. He made sure Saha was given no space, while Kaboul looked a bit shaky on several occasions. In 63rd minute, simply out of nowhere, Benoit Assou-Ekotto took the ball, 40 yards out, smashed it pass Howard to send the stadium into ruptures. It was later seen that ball took a deflection from Cahill, but nevertheless, it was an absolute stunner. Then, as expected, Harry made some changes, took Adebayor and Lennon out of the game to give Pienaar and Pav a chance and we went on to record 14th win from 20 games this term.

With today's display, it really begs the question: Does Tottenham really need January funds? Though in my opinion, I would like to make a swap for some players, selling Pienaar, Bassong and Pavlyuchenko and bringing in Hoilett, Samba and Demba Ba. When you think about it, this is quite doable, seeing as how Blackburn are desperate to get out of the debt and Ba has a release clause attached to his contract, apparently, though suitors would have to be found for our unwanted trio. There we could get 3 top players without almost spending anything and the hunt for the title would look even more serious.

Why we need to sign in winter transfer period

New Year has just began, past one has been successful for us, especially the second part when the new season kicked off, seeing as how we're occupying the 3rd place only 3 and 6 points behind Manchester United and City  respectively with a game against Everton in our hands.

Similar story to last year. Don't know how many of you recall, but we were considered title contenders at one point, having gotten off to a great start with a new big-name signing Van der Vaart alongside Modric and Bale, we were looking a sure thing for the Champions League spot. Then after a quiet January transfer window with only 1 notable signing that never did anything for us, really (yes, Pienaar), our form quickly dropped, injuries started hitting hard and we began dropping points, that not only did we not challenge for the title, we even lost that 4th spot and barely got to 5th in the last game against Liverpool. This season we at least won't be having any European distractions.

But, I fear that our team needs some fresh blood, at least to add some excitement. Honestly, think about it, don't you just love hearing about new arrivals? It's one of the most exciting parts of football. There, I said it. Italian giants, Inter, team we trashed and destroyed at White Hart Lane, are the example of 'not keeping it fresh'. Their president concluded, after the team dominated the whole Europe, that he does not need to reinvest in his squad and kept his squad mostly the same as it was. That proved to be a fatal mistake. In short period, he changed 4 coaches. From Benitez, to Leonardo, Gasperini, and now Ranieri, who knows how long he will last.

We made quite a profit in the summer by selling Crouch and Palacios to Stoke, 18M pounds if I recall. We made £30M that summer, spent around 8 on Parker and Adebayor's fee. So now it would be nice to show some real ambition and spend £20M on a player. We need to send out a message about our ambitions. Signing Doumbia would be the perfect fit in my opinion. CSKA would be interested in Pavlyuchenko, so a cash+player deal would be perfect for us, as much as it would be for them, though we should probably get more cover for our fragile defence, now with Gallas also being injured. Samba could be what is needed.

Tottenham - WBA, can Spurs bounce back?

We're officially at the crossroads. Having played the first half of the season quite impressively and getting to 3rd place way ahead of our London rivals, Tottenham look like the best London side at the moment. Chelsea managed to scrape a win in the last minutes of the game against underdogs Wolves, while Arsenal failed miserably against Fulham. Spurs now have 2 games more to play than the Arsenal and Chelsea, and yet, they're still above both of them by 3 and 2 points respectively.

Tomorrow we face WBA, team battling with the relegation. So far they've been quite successful, standing in 14th place with 22 points from 19 games. Tottenham won the last game 3:1, despite WBA taking the lead in the 10th minute. We came back strong in the second half, dominated the game, particularly in the midfield with Parker having the game of his career, probably and managed to get a win with goals from Defoe and Adebayor.

Though I must say I'm a bit worried ahead of tomorrows clash. We played one of the worst games against Swansea on Saturday, due to fatigue or was it the absence of wondrous captain King? And now we face WBA, only 2 days after that game. I'm not sure just how ready the players are physically, seeing as how most of our play was based on dominating the midfield, and that can only be done with a lot of movement, which wasn't the case last Saturday. Hopefully, WBA will be just as tired and Bale will be back to his old self in this one and Ledley will lead our defence.

Gareth Bale - best winger in the world?

After struggling to get any playing time in his first years as a Spurs player, Bale quickly emerged as one of the key players in the squad known for his powerful runs down the left flank. Major breakthrough for Bale came when Assou-Ekotto got injured, so Harry had to use Bale as a left back. It was quickly becoming obvious that Bale's biggest qualities are mostly attacking ones. He was soon deployed to the left midfielder position with Modric moving to the inside.

He enjoyed great partnership with Modric, who supplied him with balls down the flank as Bale would beat all the right backs in front of him to assist Crouch mostly with his sharp low balls. Most notable performances are surely two games against, then, European and Italian champions, Inter, where Bale scored a hat-trick in the first game at Milan with Tottenham playing with just 10 players on the pitch. Even though he scored 3 goals, his game of career came when Inter came to London. It was then when the whole world heard of this rampaging Welshman who destroyed the worlds best full back Maicon. Simply destroyed him. Spurs won the game 3:1, mostly thanks to Bale's brilliance and they went on as group winners.

Form then dropped suddenly and everyone quickly became critical of Bale, claiming the Welshman just had his day against Inter, and had no real quality whatsoever. Whole Tottenham team played the second part of season badly, which resulted in missing out of Champions League this season and getting knocked out of CL by Real Madrid trashing us 4:0.

But this season, whole team started playing well, getting the best start in 50 years. Star of the season by many so far would be Parker, someone would even say Modric, but in my opinion, Bale was vital for all of the success. He has been superb, creating chances and scoring goals. Last term, he seemed like a player with only one dribble, where he knocks the ball past opponents and just runs past them. Worked most of the time, but it was very predictable. So predictable that Phil Jones, arguably one of the slowest fullbacks in EPL managed to stop him throughout the game. Now Bale looks like a world class player that is always able to find a solution. He's a great dribbler, his physical qualities are as good as ever, and he seems mentally stronger. All in all, improvement is quite obvious and there is no doubt that every team in this world would love to have him in his squad. So far he remains loyal to Spurs, lets just hope that remains the case.

Cole's handball cancels out Adebayor's opener

Spurs started the game well by constantly pressuring Chelsea defence until they scored a goal with Bale making his typical run and crossing low for Adebayor. Ball just went past Cech and landed on Adebayor's foot to give Spurs the lead.

Domination continued, but Chelsea had a few chances of their own. In 23' minute, after a clear handball by Ashley Cole, he assisted Sturridge in front of a goal while the players were expecting referee Webb to signal for a handball. Even though the ref was in a perfect position to spot the obvious handball, he did nothing and Chelsea equalized. Moments after Drogba showed his class by beating Tottenham defenders but was unlucky to see his shot smash the post.

After that, Spurs took control of the possession and made a lot of chances, but Chelsea played good defence, particularly Terry and Ferreira, who earlier replaced injured Ivanovic. I expected Bale to win the duel against Ferreira, but the Portuguese did quite well against Welshman, who was probably the best player on Tottenham side alongside King and Sandro.

Some might say that the result was fair, with both teams preforming at their best, but looking at the stats, I can't help but feel that Tottenham might have gotten a better result here, seeing as how dominant they were in possession.

Lennon out of derby game against Chelsea, Bale and Defoe fighting for fitness

Tomorrow might be our season defining games against the arch-rivals Chelsea. In the last 2 games, form has dipped down a bit, but Chelsea can't be happy with their displays, particularly against Wigan where they drew 1:1 against a team fighting to avoid relegation.

Lennon picked up a hamstring injury against Sunderland last weekend in the 1:0 win at home, and it looks like he'll be missing for 2-3 weeks, which could prompt Van der Vaart to the position of a right midfielder, while Defoe might start the match alongside Adebayor. Bale is also recovering from the ankle injury, Defoe and him missed last game, but are both expected to return against Chelsea. King is expected to play a part in this game, but his knee problems might prevent him from playing full match.

Concerning the Chelsea, they don't have as many injury problems, but Terry seems to have picked up a slight injury in the training and is in doubt, just like David Luiz. This could see Ivanovic move to the center back position, while Bosingwa gets the heads up on the right flank. This would be great news for Bale, who had a hard time last couple of games against Ivanovic, who was superior defensively, but I expect Bale to dominate Bosingwa, player who certainly didn't build his reputation with defensive play.