I reckon that just about now the rats will be considering their next move, do they jump back onto the sinking ship and wait for their next chance to stamp their feet and tell us that they’re not coming again, again or do they stay where they are, prodding us with pointed sticks, telling us they told us so until things look a bit brighter, there’s a few points in the bag and they’re able to walk into work without someone taking the mick? Honestly, I’m leaving them to it. We’ve got better things to talk about, and here’s the five that we reckon you should be gabbing about before today’s game.
Working 9 to 5
It’s going to be a slog isn’t it? Spurs haven’t had the best start but a confidence boosting win in Europe followed by a game against a side that they did a most comprehensive double over last season is probably just what the doctor ordered. Latics’ confidence boosting win at Hartlepool isn’t quite the same as they prepare to return to the site of their ritual humiliation.
I guess you don’t ever recover from a 9-1 defeat but it will go a long way to help if Latics can turn up and put a shift in for the full 90 minutes today. After the first two league games what I, and the rest of us that are left, want to see is a performance where our team make the opposition work for every goal, no matter how many they score. Another 9-1 might leave a few suicidal, but one without the ubiquitous collapse and I’ll probably be happier.
Bin lids
Has there ever been such a puntastic football club as Spurs’ midweek opponents. Try to talk about them for five minutes without one of your mates coming out with a “careful” or “ooo-er” like he’s a modern day Kenneth Williams it’s impossible. My favourite was Mark Bright’s tweet that read “At the Lane, anyone fancy Young Boys?”. I’ve still not decided whether that was a slip of the keyboard or part of an elaborate police sting operation.
Still, let’s hope that Spurs are knackered after their midweek exertions against Young Boys, eh? Oh, doh!
Kit cat
Unless your name is Cryuff, van Basten or Bergkamp orange isn’t a particularly becoming colour for anyone but when you’ve played so woefully over 20-odd games in it then it’s bound to get you down about it. We jokingly called last year’s away kit unlucky, but it appears that the players actually believed the hype. Footballers are notoriously superstitious and it appears our bunch got it in their heads that they couldn’t win whilst they were wearing it.
I assume that the quotes being attributed to Roberto Martinez this morning are about the psychological effects of the mindset that the players got themselves into rather than any real belief that the kit was unlucky (we managed to play just as badly without it to be honest). I do like the idea of a ritual burning though, “get thee behind me eight goal defeats”.
A wing and a prayer
After yesterday’s “will he, won’t he” even be at the club, we start today with a “will he, won’t he” be in the squad. I’ve no idea whether N’Zogbia is mentally prepared to play an away game at White Hart Lane, but it’s damn sure he’ll get a less vociferous reaction there than he will do if he’s still here when Sunderland arrive in town in a couple of weeks. If he’s staying then it’s probably a place on the bench for me, assuming that he’s missed some training and been a little distracted.
A no show could mean a whole host of things, but my guess would be that Latics have seen the money and are hoping that someone who’s daft enough to pay £10m for the player and then meet his wage demands is sat around the corner.
I got soooo angry…
The fabled message board post from the fan who turned his internet stream off because of some abject Latics performance or other will go down in Latics history, but for the record I did similar when the sixth Spurs goal went in last year. Not because I was so angry, but because I just had better things to be doing that watch my side get battered through what looked like a dirty fish tank.
This year though, those of us who live within the borough have the more traditional option of sitting back and tuning in a tranny, erm I mean the radio. WISH FM is back on the Latics trail, regrettably without the Holy Pipes of Matt McCann but still less stressful than focus on a 2” blur in the middle of your screen.
Just saying, that’s all.
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