MEMBER'S STORIES: BENJAMIN WHO?

Exactly what was on everyone’s mind. Who is this Benjamin Stambouli ? An unknown quantity replacing the firm fan favourite. Neither a thankless job nor a no-brainer. Stamboulli is a defensive midfielder who was an inseparable part of Montpellier’s surprise title win in the 2012-13 season. Following the likes of Belhanda, Giroud and Cabella, even he has departed to foreign shores. He is probably a rawer version of Morgan Schneiderlin, whom levy tried to procure, but gladly, not at the exorbitant price, Southampton were quoting ‘ for him. This is a perfect levy signing as Benjamin was in the last year of his contract and we did get him very cheap. Reported fee lies less than £5m. Tackling and interceptions are prominent on his skill-set. During the whole of last season, he was behind only Cabella in making passes. So one can make a case for him being similar to Capoue and providing direct competition to him.

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And this is the result of QPR buying Sandro at the very end of the transfer window ! Levy apparently wanted £16m, Tony Fernandes wanted him for less, the final value rumoured to be settled is at £10m. That’s a decent amount for Spurs, considering his injury record and inconsistent inclusion in the first team last season when fully-fit. Quite a coup for QPR after gauging the fact the Sandro is full-fledged Brazil international, who on his day can destroy any team’s attacking play and a string of exceptional performances can put him back into contention for the national team. I wouldn’t have wanted to sell Sandro. He was immense for us in the last season of Redknapp and only an injury against QPR(what an Irony ! ) ruined his and ours season. The most visible comment I read from the spurs fans after the season wondered “what if Sandro hadn’t got injured…” We finished 4th after being in the top 3 for most of the season, thanks to the multitude of losses or draws against lower ranked teams. With Sandro missing, our team lacked the steel in the middle with Parker not replacing him adequately. The question has always lingered in my mind too. The argument I would like to put is that, we have persisted with the likes of Soldado, Chadli and others among our last season’s recruits who flopped. Then why no faith in a player who we have seen performing at a top level consistently only to regress because of no fault of his ? We have made a decent profit on him no doubt, by replacing him with Stamboulli but I would rather see some faith than profit.

Now coming to worst of the former week. Yeah, worse than selling off Holtby and Sandro. It’s the mauling that we received at the hands of Liverpool. The defeat was made more unwatchable by the fact that we barely had 1 shot on the target. This demonstrates the fact that we were on the back-foot the whole time. Our attack was totally toothless. Eriksen and Lamela misplaced passes, failed dribbles and there weren’t any through-ball from them to take note of. Townsend lost the ball which directly led to the 3rd goal. Chadli had our best chance of the game when he was one-on-one with Mignolet and which he volleyed powerfully but straight at the keeper. The tide became a tsunami when Dier, who had a touch of Midas in the first two kick-offs, showed his inexperience in Premier League by fouling Allen. The penalty was very soft. Dier’s tug on Allen never deserved the theatrical fall made by him. But that’s the key. The game has gone down to such level where a manager may condone his player for diving in public but may hug him in the dressing room. 3 points; by hook or crook. The key is to never give the opponent the chance to showcase his Oscar winning acting skills. Hopefully, Dier will learn from this disappointment and come back stronger. Kaboul was just terrible. Vertonghen was decent but was let-down by his fellow Guardians of Goal.

To cut a long story short, our teams needs a lot of Time and we need to keep up the support. Poch will do his bit but we need to support the team too. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day nor will a great Spurs side will be !

About the author:
Pratik Patil
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