A reminder to those who have BT, they are showing the Norwich v Spurs under 21 game this evening live from Carrow Road, kick off at 7:45. A younger squad than usual as several of the more experienced players are away on International duty. The squad does include goalkeeper Jonathan Miles who was released by us in the summer, but has been training with us whilst searching for a new club. The Pritchard named in the squad, is Joe and he is not related to Alex Pritchard.
Bloody hell, that's a bit of a step up: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/young-defender-relishing-brazil-trip-121014/
Onomah looks handy so far, first time I've seen him, he looks a decent athlete to go with his ability which we've heard about which will only stand him in good stead. Spurs look pretty shaky at the back, and I had no idea Will Miller was so tiny!
A fairly young and inexperienced U21 team lost 3-1 to Norwich, but Ceballos scored a quality goal: [video=youtube;CQPQguCadmA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQPQguCadmA[/video] It'd be nice to see him getting some time in the cups.
He almost scored a couple more just like it PNP. I feel like Ceballos is a bright prospect, a good technician certainly, but still has to improve in other ways. Him and Onomah were our best last night for me, although Miller and Lamerias (the latter more so in the second half) were also looking good as we chased the game. The defence looked a bit shaky throughout, although 2 of Norwich's goals came off reasonably significant deflections so perhaps that does have to be taken into account re. the scoreline, and we were missing players like Velkjovic and Ball who might have had impacts in that part of the pitch for us. Kudos to Norwich for letting people into Carrow Road for free too. The atmosphere seemed really good on TV and it'll have been great for the players to play in front of ~10,000 at a proper ground.
Veljkovic was a bit busy helping Serbia dump Spain out of the U21 Euros, unfortunately. Getting a decent amount of young fans in to watch U21 games seems like something of a no-brainer, to me. No idea why more clubs don't do it. Well done Norwich.
Unfortunately Mr Levy does not agree with you PNP. He doesn't like having these games at WHL as there's no money to be made from them as no alcohol can be sold and he doesn't think kids buying burgers is enough justification, so he prefers to let Stevenage try and make a few quid out of holding our games at their place. Tim Sherwood did try and tell him he was missing the point here, it it didn't get him anywhere. As you say, well done to Norwich City.
I've always said that Sherwood was an insightful and intelligent bloke... Where does Levy think that these future Spurs season ticket holders are going to get the bug from? Getting fans to watch games in person is incredibly important. The games are going to happen anyway, so why not get people to attend them? Even on a purely financial level, shirts will get sold, as will all manner of other tat. Really shortsighted stuff.
Incidentally, its the culmination of the little things like this that I think cause so many fans to be disaffected with Levy and ENIC. Of course there are more significant issues than U21 games, but the big issues like selling key players for big money while still lacking significant (if any) net investment might sting less if we didn't have things like Stubhub, or if gestures like free U21 games at WHL came around every once in a while. I mean the obligation is something like 2 or 3 games a season isn't it? In the grand scheme of things it surely wouldn't be the biggest financial drain, you'd make some money back from merchandise and food too. And as PNP said it would probably be beneficial for the club in the long run as it'll help build the fanbase, especially amongst youngsters. Do we even do things like kids for a quid for the U21 games? What are the tickets going for?
Tickets for the games at the Lamex are £5 for adults and £2 for concessions (U16/60+). Very low, but that almost makes it worse. Really pointless, in my opinion. Invite everyone to our own ground for nothing or even build a small one somewhere where we've got lots of fans. Near the training ground, perhaps? Good for the players, good for the fans, goodwill for the club and good planning for the future.
"Near the training ground, perhaps?" As you know, since the under 21 competition began, we have been playing the majority of our home games at the training ground. The league rules state that whenever possible, all games should be played at a ground which is as close to a "proper stadium" as is possible. So, Spurs were told the training ground should have a stand built there and this is one of the reasons we have relocated back to Stevenage.
Yeah, I can remember the locals kicking off about the stand being built, due to the lighting or something. Perhaps we could copy Dartford's environmentally friendly one? please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Practical, doesn't stand out from the locale, relatively cheap (£6.5m or one third of a Bentley), good for the youth sides and great publicity.
I've been there !! Back in July 2007 for a pre season friendly. Our team that day, was Tommy Forecast, Phil Ifil, Charlie Daniels, Jake Livermore, Leigh Mills, Troy Archibald Henville, Jacques Maghoma, Jamie O'Hara, Lee Barnard, Adel Taarabt and Andy Barcham.
