It's me again taking a break away from the usual Hive shenanigans to talk about my favourite subject and that is Spurs. Now I never really go into the matches in detail as I leave that to the professional journalists. But I will bring up the hot Spurs topics that are currently going on. I listen to all the Spurs podcasts and it is interesting that they are all different. Some fly off the handle and are always negative. Some take a more objective and mature look at the club. Some go into the technical aspects of the games and others talk more about where we are light but all together I feel that I have a good grasp on what is going on in the club so I want to expand my blog to the Twitter verse or X verse which will in turn bring more people to this platform.

The Weekend

With Burnley brushed aside which was no mean feat and players coming back from injury, United on Sunday will be a treat. Spurs expect to win this. But whenever Spurs are expected to beat United , United show up. Remember the game when United had fallen off and Spurs were playing well under Conte. Ronaldo scored a hat trick and United were back. The whole Doctor Tottenham jibe was flying around and it did actually feel like if there was a club having problems then all would be well if they visit us because they would win. So I am always a bit edgy with United. On the other hand United played very well against Aston Villa so maybe they might have an off game next up. United asked the Cameroon if they would release Onana to play on Sunday which is surprising. Shows how much they think of their sub goal keeper Bayindir.

The Transfers

Tottenhams VDV will be fit for the game so I would imagine he gets a start. Also the Timo Werner deal and Dragusin deal may be sorted out by then so the Tottenham's starting 11 may look a whole lot different this Sunday. Werner is a low risk signing. We have him on loan so if he does well we can buy him and if he doesn't , well, we can send him back with a bow on his head and look elsewhere in the summer. But there was always something about Timo that I liked. He was always a threat and I think he was not suited to Tuchels and Lampards rigid system at Chelsea. When Leibzig actually sold him to Chelsea, their sports journalists knew he would not do well at Chelsea as their systems were entirely different and Werner could not play this way and they were right. The good news is that Ange's system is like a match made in heaven. You could see the crosses Johnson was firing in over the last month for Richarlison to not get on the end of them. Richy is strong with his head but not great with his feet. He actually has a bad first touch. If he has to think about things he makes an absolute balls of it. You could see the goals he has scored for Spurs that he did not get any time to think and just naturally scored. We need a striker that is better with his feet. Werner is that man and he is a great presser. Now you will throw videos up of Werner missing sitters but he has scored 85 goals in 160 odd games at Leibzig and even in the Chelsea system he managed to score 25 times so he ain't no has been.
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Dragusin from Genoa looks like a done deal if Bayern don't hijack the deal but the thing about this player is that he is another hot head. Another Romero so Spurs have got to be careful. Disciplinary issues are now a problem under the new Ange system so he will need to reign in the two centre halves if we are going to achieve anything this season.

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Conor Gallagher is in the picture as well due to Chelsea's ongoing FFP problems so they have to sell homegrown talent. The most expensive being their captain Conor who Poch loves and has topped the stats out of every player at Chelsea. I would love to get this guy but the only problem is that he might just hate us. If we got Werner , Dragusin and Gallagher in , that would be amazing.

There is talks Eric Dier agreed personal terms with Munich. Harry Kane keeps looking after us even after he leaves. Him and Dier are best mates so it is clear Harry put in a good word for him. 5 million will be the fee and that will be high wages off the books. His contract is up in June so this would be a great move for him and the club. I think if memory serves me that £4 million was what we paid Sporting Lisbon for Dier so technically it's a £1 million profit on the player. I like Dier. He always gave 100% but maybe that was not good enough so Munich is surprising but maybe he will excel in a slower league. He did captain England so he ain't no slouch.

Loanees

Scarlett has returned as he wasn't getting a game for the tractor boys and also with Veliz injured he will now get game time. He did already against Burnley which is great. Scarlett is seen as England's brightest talent but it hasn't worked out for him at high flying Ipswich so let us see what Ange can do with him.

Spence got sent home from Leeds after what Daniel Farke described as lacking in standards on and off the pitch. This is not the first time Djed Spence has ran his mouth so questions whether he will succeed in the Premiership are being asked. As Neil Warnock said , he will go to the very top or equally go to the very bottom. This guy is some player but rumours of questioning the manager selections is just not good. He's back but maybe Brentford are going to come in for him.

United have also given us back Serge Reguilon after Luke Shaw is fit again.We knew this was going to be the case. UEFA rules state that a player cannot play for more than 2 clubs in one season so I imagine Reguilion will be sent to Dortmund for the rest of the season and not feature for Spurs. Unless of course he is willing to reveal ETH's tactics for this weekend.

Parrott is still on loan in the Dutch league while Joe Roden is playing well for Leeds so he is one to watch.

The other loanee is our highest paid player and we are not answering Galataserays calls to send him back.

We saw at Burnley that we really missed Maddison and Los Celso or Kuluevski are not the answer really. Although Los Celso had arguably his best game in a Spurs shirt against Bournemouth, he is injured again but should be fit for United.

The Unavailability Crisis

So from an injury crisis we are now looking at an "unavailability crisis" because Son, Bissouma and Sarr are all on international duty. 3 first team players gone for a month. You can see that Ange is a bit tetchy in the press conferences as he is eager to get players in so he can work with them over the month to fit into his system. We are now 8 days into the window and nothing done as of yet so hopefully we will have news of done deals very soon. I criticise Sonny on this blog quite a bit as I think he disappears in games but when he is gone you do miss him and it was seen against Burnley how big of a miss he actually was. Interesting point to note is that Man City have 0 players playing in Afcon. Shrewd planning by Man City. Luckily during the month of January there are only 2 Premier League games but the FA cup came to the forefront and even though Liverpool defeated Arsenal, it was a tale of two halves and Salah was missed.

Centre Back Situation

Over the Christmas Spurs played Royal and Davis in the Centre Back positions as Ange decided not to play Dier and also not to play the summer signing Ashley Philips. Much has been made of not playing the youngster as if he was ever going to get a ganme then it was now but Ange decided not to and we do not know why. In my opinion the position could take years to learn and Ange did not want to throw him in but he has played for Blackburn and did well so why not which is a valid point but who knows what is happening behind the scenes. Ange has thrown in Sarr and Udogee into the mix so he does play youth when they are good enough so maybe Ashley is still recovering from that injury. Your guess is as good as mine.

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So United this Sunday is a huge huge game. Over the last fortnight Angeball has not been the same due to the injuries but I predict this will be back against United so I look forward to this immensely and it will really show how serious we are with a title charge after Christmas. 3 points here would be serious seeing that Arsenal have now not won 7 games on the bounce. A win here could be the tipping point and the dark days of having no availability may be over for Ange, a mere footnote in his time at Spurs. 6 points off the top, 3 points off second. Not bad going for having 14 players available to him since October.