The Gargano region of Inter's native country is known as The Spur of Italy, rather ironically. Let's hope that Walter lives up to that billing and does us a big favour.
After boss pasted a quote from an inter milan forum, I thought i'd have a look at one and see what they all had to say. http://forzainterforums.com/showthread.php?11443-Tottenham-Inter-(7-Mar-13) It's amazing many of them think that "take care of Bale and we'll win" is the solution. The problem is that none of poster's are actually coming up with a convincing way in which they are going to be able to do it... There's a few people who have pointed out that Lennon will be extremely dangerous and that they are naive to think that Bale is the only threat. And a few members are rating Dembele as a problem for them. some think that we've very beatable, some have resorted to "We're gonna get raped!". Have a read if you get time, it's interesting to see the thoughts.
I don't really understand why that forum is in English. Do people actually support foreign teams as their first club? Surely there can't be that many native Milanese who use English as their first language...? I suppose they could be Americans, Africans, Australians etc...
There's some gems on that forum. http://goo.gl/zlTiQ And also some nastiness. "****hart lane" is a new one to me and it wiped the smile off my face. There's no real effort in the word-craft. It doesn't rhyme for a start.
My thoughts exactly WY. There do appear to be some locals with broken English though, but not many. All they needed was the "e" after ****. Shows how stupid they are, I guess.
It's nice to see that a number of them still remember what happened to Maicon. Funny that they blame the English press for destroying his reputation and not either the player himself or Rafa for failing to protect him on the pitch.
"Bale+Assou Ekotto doubled up on Maic and ****ed him so hard that he still can't walk right." "was at ****hart lane last time we played each other... all i remember was "where is your mourinho" and "taxi for maicon" chants ......not sure i want to go to the stadium this time"
Jermain Defoe ‏@IAmJermainDefoe Look out for me on Channel 4's 'What's Cooking' on Weds lunchtime #whatscooking Hopefully this is pre-recorded, as it's not the best preparation I can imagine for Inter EDIT: Sorry wrong thread
Some of our football back then was fantastic! Although looking at that video, it reminds me that Arry didn't know what to do with Bale (sarcasm tone)
Indeed, why all the fuss now! Although I quite enjoy this "one man team", as what does it say about the 17 other 11 man teams below us in the league!
Inter Milan part 2! A shame Maicon isn't there anymore! I think being at home first leg we could/ should rest a couple of players, not saying I'm not taking Europa seriously but after Arsenal, we really need to ensure our players as fit as possible to maintain our league run, plus Liverpool (Suarez) are looking really dangerous at the moment. Team I'd go for: Friedel, Walker, Caulker, Gallas, Naughton Livermore, Holtby Lennon, Sigurdsson, Bale Defoe/ Ade Subs: Lloris, Dawson, Vertonghen, Parker, Dembele, Carroll, Defoe/ Ade Lennon and Bale never seem to tire in my opinion so I think they're more than capable of doing a shift against Inter, plus teams in Italy generally struggle against pace, IF and it's a big IF we manage to get a goal or two before 70/ 75 minutes, then perhaps bring them off. Inter aren't doing too great by their standards in Serie A so I'm also hoping they may be looking to rest a few of their players for this match, which will obviously work in our favour. Very tough game, though think we can grab a win, 1-0 or 2-1 providing our lads put a real shift in.
The more I think about it, the more I'm not worried about this game. They aren't the team they used to be. They are sat on the same number of points as Lazio in Serie A, who we scored 4 against. (but had every one disallowed!) There's a 12 point gap between these two clubs and Juventus, which just shows how they've fallen over recent years. I'm expecting another "park the bus" fixture on thursday. I can't imagine they'll have any other game plan away from home, other than to sit deep so they don't get caught out like last time? Perhaps see if they can get a goal from a counter attack or a set piece?
Our officials for the game are all Spanish, Referee...Antonio Mateu Lahoz (ESP) please log in to view this image Assistant referees Pau Cebrian Devis (ESP) Javier Rodriguez (ESP) Fourth official Roberto DÃaz Pérez del Palomar (ESP) Additional assistant referees Carlos Gómez (ESP) Carlos Del Cerro (ESP) http://refrefs.com/referee/e91c ...likes his cards, averaging 4/game!