How could you give Lloris 5? One mistake, one superb save after having little to do and some excellent distribution for a change. And Butland 5!!! if it wasn't for him Brian would have been shouting 'we want 10'.
Stoke didn't offer a lot going forward, but I thought that they were pretty decent in the first half. Kept it tight, cut off the angles and worked hard, but struggled to deal with Son's movement and let him isolate defenders too often. Fell apart after the break once the second goal went in, though. Several of their players pretty much gave up entirely. Can't see Hughes lasting much longer, if this continues. Dier fitted in very well in Sanchez' absence, though he'll have much tougher tests in the future, you'd have thought. Winks and Dembele both played well, but there's no real holding player there and it could cost us against better opposition. Son and Eriksen were our best players, despite Kane scoring twice. The Korean's really putting in some top performances recently. Hopefully he'll be able to cement his place in the starting lineup and push on. Great to see.
Another blinding result against the side I hate the most outside of the London rivals. 17-1 in our last four games against them now, laaaarvely! The team were great, probably our best performance of the season in the league alongside the Pool game. My mate Sonny was absolutely terrific, Stoke couldn't handle him whenever he had the ball, quite possibly his best ever performance in a Spurs shirt and he's had some bloody good ones in the past. Eriksen finally rediscovered his excellent passing game, when he plays like that defences don't know how to handle him because he can literally volley a ping-pong ball into a nun's snatch when in that sort of form. I also thought the full backs were excellent, Davies grabbed a well deserved assist and Stoke knew the threat that Tripps can provide out wide but still couldn't close him down enough. Dier deserves a shout out too, I've always maintained that versatility is an incredible asset to have and he's the most versatile player in our squad, slots into midfield or defence with ease. Really enjoyable game, topped off by a belated birthday night out with the boys that resulted in my Cousin getting absolutely paralytic and doing a Henrik Larsson Euro 2004 diving header into the frame of McDonald's front door, amazingly didn't knock himself out!
There's been a very long-standing relationship between the club and Argentina. In 1909 the club went on the first South American tour with Everton FC. That time, we came home with the first black outfield player in English football, Walter Tull and the infamous parrot that died the day Arsenal bribed their way into Division 1, thereby giving rise to the saying "As sick as a parrot." This courtesy of When Saturday Comes.... Visits to exotic climes are nothing new for English clubs. Simon Hart charts a trailblazing trip a century ago "The pioneers of football in foreign lands.” It sounds like a slogan dreamed up by some Premier League executive bent on selling the “39th game”. In fact these were the words of Everton director EA Bainbridge describing the ground breaking tour of Argentina and Uruguay jointly undertaken 100 years ago by his club and Tottenham Hotspur. The duo made history by facing off in Buenos Aires in the first match played between two professional teams in Latin America. Unlike the contemporary Everton squad who jetted off to North America this summer in expensive comfort, their 1909 counterparts did it the hard way. While travelling directors went in first-class, the Everton and Spurs players had to settle for second-class on the three-week sea-voyage. (Little wonder, perhaps, that Everton, top-flight runners-up in 1909, slipped to tenth the next season.) That was no concern to Bainbridge when he reported on “a most pleasant and instructive trip” in the Liverpool Echo that July after what must have been the adventure of a lifetime for those involved. Their itinerary included stops at Lisbon, Madeira, Cape Verde, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro though a missed train at Waterloo meant the Spurs party almost did not get out of the Solent, never mind to South America. Late for the HMS Araguaya’s departure from Southampton, they had to charter a tug to catch up with the ship. Among the diversions on board was a Derby sweepstake – some things have not changed – and a fancy dress ball to mark Argentine independence day. Dressing up as Bo Peep did Everton’s Robert Balmer no harm as he subsequently struck the opening goal on South American soil in the match between the English sides that kicked off the tour on June 6. Argentine president José Figueroa Alcorta and his foreign and defence ministers were among the 10,000 crowd at the game, which finished 2-2. On target for Tottenham was Walter Tull, a triallist whose efforts earned him a contract – and a piece of English football history as Britain’s first black professional outfield player. He would die nine years later on the Somme. With Argentine football still dominated by British migrant workers, Everton’s first local opponents, Alumni, included five Browns and another player called Browne. That 2-2 draw was the only match either of the tourists failed to win against the South American sides they faced. Both beat Argentine and Uruguayan League XIs while Spurs – celebrating promotion as second-division runners-up – also registered victories over Argentinos, Rosario and Alumni. Perhaps Spurs’ heavier schedule explains why they succumbed 4-0 to Everton in their second encounter in Buenos Aires on June 19. For Everton, England forward Bertie Freeman “did the hat-trick”, as Bainbridge put it. If the tour provided a profit of “£300 for the benefit of football in the Argentine”, it also left a notable legacy in Chile where a group of youths in the port of Valparaiso set up their own club named after the visiting Everton team. Their leader was David Foxley, whose grandparents had emigrated from Liverpool to set up a flour mill. One hundred years on, CD Everton, since relocated to Vina del Mar, celebrated their centenary on June 24 and the 2008 Aperura champions’ ties with the English Everton are stronger than ever. A delegation from CD Everton – including club president Antonio Bloise and Juan Foxley, a nephew of the founder – visited Goodison in February and there are hopes of a friendly match between the clubs. A group of Evertonians, the Ruleteros – the nickname of the Chilean club – have worked hard to strengthen the link and are producing an English-language history of their South American counterparts due out later this year. They undertook a trip to Chile in 2005 and returned this summer to visit not just CD Everton but other, amateur namesakes in Argentina and Uruguay. Everton are not alone in this– Argentina’s top flight has an Arsenal, Uruguay’s a Liverpool and Chile’s a Rangers, though only Arsenal (or “el Arse”) took their name from the British team itself. As for Tottenham the tour not only paved the way for Tull’s historic signing but also led to one of English football’s best “strange but trues”. The Spurs party acquired a parrot on the return journey which provided a prop for Fred Wilkes and Tull when they claimed third prize in the ship’s fancy dress carnival as Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday. According to Tottenham’s records, however, the bird died on the very day in 1919 that Arsenal were controversially elected to the top flight at their north London rivals’ expense. A few years back one of my brothers travelled out to Argentina. He went to a game at Quilmes Atlético Club, the first club of Ricky Villa. Some locals didn't like an Englishman in their bar before the game and decided to try and start some trouble. However, during the initial sizing up 'chat' there was the mention of Tottenham and Ricky. Immediately,he became their new best friend and was bought drinks before and after the game and treated like a member of the family. So, the next time you're in a tight spot........mention Ricky.
I believe Arsenal sneaked in to Division one with the help of the Liverpool chairman. I wonder if there was a lot of money changing hands there.....and why would a Liverpool rep have anything to do with the Woolwich?
If my memory serves me right (unlike you smithy I wasn't born then) but I read it was blackmail. Liverpool didn't want to lose the lucrative Liverpool v Man U 'derby' so they threw their match. It was so obviously fixed there were moves to nullify the result which would have seen Manure relegated, Sir Henry 'cun7ybollocks' Norris, the l'arse chairman, used this to his advantage by blackmailing the Liverpool Chairman into supporting their bid. The people of Liverpool learnt from this and blackmail has been a way of life in Liverpool ever since.
Stoke is a hard place and club to love, especially if you don't come from there. Garth Crooks is a local and I'm not sure he cares for the place much. I spent FOUR YEARS there as a student in the 80's/90's or the 1950's, as it was in local time. That's FOUR ****ING YEARS. Einstein was right, the movement of time is relevant to your place in the universe. Every day in Stoke feels like a decade. Years ago, Mrs B and I went with the kids to Lapland in December, when there are 3 hours of daylight and it was sunnier than Stoke in June. Black holes emit more light than is seen in Stoke in a decade. Etc.
Given I live a mile away from the training ground, I know why the snow ran away first thing this morning.
Mark Hughes says he wants his players to use their fans confronting them after the last game as a catalyst for their season. Oh they will. He can expect a few transfer requests to come his way...
