The Spurs Blog

Mido has slammed the ability of former Tottenham and Arsenal defender Sol Campbell in the lead up to the match against Portsmouth on Sunday.
 
Mido said: “I tried to score against Slavia Prague and I am very disappointed to miss such a good chance. But I have so much confidence in myself and I don’t have any doubts.

“I came back to Tottenham because I know I can score goals.

“Portsmouth have Sol Campbell at the back and he is the easiest defender I have ever played against.

“I’m not scared of him.”

Egyptian striker Mido has expressed his confidence that Spurs will get their act together and achieve another good placing in the Premiership this season.

He said:”A lot of teams who didn’t start strongly last season played very well and finished strongly in the end - like Blackburn for example. Others started well and faded,”

“We still have a lot of games and a lot of things to do to get results. We will get started very soon.”

Aaron Lennon has insisted that he will be even stronger when he returns from injury in six weeks time.

Lennon, 19, said: “I tried to do a sharp turn and felt a pain in the side of my knee. I didn’t think much of it but the physio said to go and have a scan,” “The scan showed a little tear in the side of my cartilage. I am a fast healer so I shouldn’t be too long.

“It is horrible, there are big games coming up and there is also Europe. It is part of football and a learning experience. I’ll be strong and come back stronger - I’ll be alright.”

Ledley King is confident Spurs will pick up their performances and move up the Premiership table soon.

He said: “We’ve brought in new players and lost Michael Carrick.

“It can take a little while to gel.

“We’re still confident of winning back-to-back games and climbing straight up the table.”

Spurs defender Michael Dawson is confident his team can recover from the slow start they have made to make an impact on the Premiership again this season.

“The problem at the moment is getting the ball in the back of the net, but we’re keeping clean sheets and if we stick together we’ll hopefully get a win,” said Dawson.

“We believe a win will come. It’s only a problem if we’re not creating chances, but we do create them and I’m sure we’ll get a few goals.

“Once we get the first win, more will follow. Last year we had a great start, but this year it hasn’t been the case. “But there’s a long way to go until the end of the season and a lot of points to play for, so hopefully we can start picking them up.

“The Premiership is our bread and butter and we had such a good season last year that we want to do it again.” Midfielder

Martin Jol has admitted his frustration at the lack of goals his team are producing this season following the 0-0 draw with Fulham at White Hart Lane.

 Jol admitted: “It is a concern. We could have been a bit more lively up front.

“But having said that Teemu Tainio had a good chance and so did Mido, who hit the woodwork. We could have scored without playing well.

“It is disappointing. We had four or five chances against Everton and could not put them away.

“If you want to win you have to play good football and put your chances away.

“It’s about service and creating something for yourself. Mido played his third game in seven days and we have to expect a bit more from him in the future if Dimitar Berbatov is not there.

“But you cannot bide your time, you have to get results. We have to show more imagination to the front players and show more imagination up front.

“It’s not all about finishing, it’s about preparing them for the finish. We need a bit more imagination, certainly at home.

“But we have to take the positives out of this game. We kept a clean sheet but it is not enough at home.

“We did okay defensively and we were a bit unfortunate as well. You can be negative and sometimes I am, but the players have to be positive.

“We have to work on our team shape and teamwork.

“Overall it is disappointing we could not win a home match but you can lose these as well.

“They came for a result, probably a draw, and we couldn’t score.”

On meeting the supporter’s high expectations this season he added: “They know how difficult it is, they know we have big expectations but can’t do what we want.

“But if you don’t score you have a problem. Pascal Chimbonda had two chances and so did Teemu but they are a defender and midfielder, I prefer my strikers having these chances.”

Fulham manager Chris Coleman has admitted that Tottenham Hotspur could have signed winger Luis Boa Morte during the off season if they tabled a £5 million for the player.

Coleman said: “Boa was about £5 million away from joining Tottenham in the summer. What they offered was nowhere near what we valued him at,”

“We had no chance of replacing him for the fee they offered and the longer all the talk went on the price went up.

“Boa is linked to a move away from the club every time there is a transfer window. People are saying he is going to Tottenham or he is going to Newcastle.

“He came back from the World Cup where he did not have a lot of rest, then there was all the hoo-ha about whether he was leaving or not in the August window.

“That made things hard for him. He has been chipping away and he will get there sooner rather than later.”

Spurs manager Martin Jol has expressed his satisfaction with the 1-0 victory his team achieved away at Slavia Prague in their opening fixture in the Uefa Cup.

Jol said: “It was the best result you could wish for, 1-0 away from home.

“It was a good goal - Jenas can do that, he can score goals and that is what you want in away games in Europe.

“To get a result is great.”

Tottenham have confirmed that England winger Aaron Lennon will have to have a knee operation after failing his latest fitness test.

Spurs manager Martin Jol confirmed:  “Aaron will have the operation on Saturday,” Jol said after the 1-0 victory in Prague.

“He has a minor tear in the cartilage and we had hoped for the best.

“But after training yesterday he said he couldn’t do everything he wanted to so we thought it best that he had the operation. He will be out for five or six weeks.”

Ledley King is eager to get another taste of European football following a string of injuries which has prevented him showing his potential on the bigger stages.

King admitted: “I’ve had so many injuries I can’t even remember them all — so it’s about time things changed for me.

“Missing out on the World Cup was particularly tough as I’d been in the England squad all the way through.

“That was probably the hardest thing I’ve had to take in my football career so far.

“It was a massive blow but I have always been strong in the head so I just had to knuckle down and get through it.

“I missed the European Championship finals for totally different reasons — my wife gave birth prematurely so I headed straight for home.

“Then I could hardly believe it when I missed out on the start of this campaign as I’d done the hard graft in pre-season then picked up a cartilage problem which needed an op.

“All this after I could play no part in the run-in last season because of my foot injury.

“The club came so close to getting a Champions League place, only missing out on the last day of the season.

“I’ve managed to stay positive, though, by accepting injuries are part of the game.

“One thing is for certain, I’m not counting my chickens ahead of the UEFA Cup game and will finally know I’ve started a big match when I hear the first whistle.”

When asked about the progress of the team so far this season King said: “It’s not been the start we thought of but, on a personal note, I’m just glad to be back out there playing. It’s been a long time.

 “The European tie might be a nice way to take our minds off the league but I can tell you all the lads are hungry for European success.

“We’ve looked at what Middlesbrough achieved last season in reaching the final and are thinking ‘Why not?’

“It’s been a long, hard road to get back into Europe and I must admit when I sat on the bench against Kaiserslautern six years ago, I was thinking we’d play in Europe every week!”