The Spurs Blog

Martin Jol has admitted that Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov is still struggling with his groin injury and will more than likely miss the UEFA CUP fixture this week.

He said: “Berbatov still has a minor problem with his groin and he will do a test. But we still have 19 players with us so we will field our strongest team.

“Hossam Ghaly has got a groin injury so he stayed in London and Danny Murphy has a little calf problem, so he stayed at home as well.”

Great News - All Spurs fans will be thrilled to hear that the injury to star winger Aaron Lennon is not as bad as first thought.

The elusive England international could make a shock return to the starting line up for Spurs UEFA Cup tie against Slavia Prague tomorrow after a scan revealed his knee injury was only minor.

Norwich City manager Nigel Worthington has had his loan bid for Tottenham starlet Tom Huddlestone rejected.

Worthington said:  “He is a player I much admire and if there is a loan situation it is certainly something I would explore, “ 

“But it’s not on at this moment in time. But I’ll keep ringing - Mr Jol will have a sore ear by the time I’ve finished. “ 

Reports are today suggesting that Tottenham could make a move for Newcastle winger Charles N’Zogbia in January.

Summer speculation regarding the promising starlet has seen Newcastle boss Glen Roeder move to dismiss any move plans.

“Charles N’Zogbia will play lots and lots of games, and start lots of games this year for Newcastle.” said Roeder

“We are in four competitions. I think the world of him and he would be one player who certainly would never be for sale as far as I am concerned.

“He has a big future in front of him, but I will protect him.”

Tottenham are hoping for good news regarding the injury to Aaron Lennon after he went down at training on Friday.

Spurs boss Martin Jol said: “Aaron was injured in training yesterday, so he could not be considered for today’s game,”

“There could be a problem with the cartilage in his knee.

“We will make an assessment on him tomorrow, when we will probably know the extent of the damage for sure.”

On the 1-0 loss to Manchester United, Jol added: “It’s a disappointment to lose three points. You know that Man Utd are playing well lately, so to lose 1-0 is probably okay.

“But I think we deserved to have something out of this game as we went to Old Trafford and had five or six possibilities.

“They had a free kick, probably from 35 yards, it was a terrific shot, but a stupid goal.

“We still concede stupid goals, I think about Everton, I think about Bolton Wanderers. They are all little things, minor mistakes.

“This is a new team. Ghaly was in the team for the first time and there was also Chimbonda.

“We have to sort ourselves out and we have to be a team. I think we can take a lot of positives out of the game.”

Mido has revealed that he came close to joining Blackburn Rovers when Mark Hughes came in for him earlier in the summer.

He said: “Spurs wanted me and I wanted to come to Spurs, and even though I had offers from other English clubs, I never changed my mind,”

“I was close to joining Blackburn. I spoke to the manager and the chairman and I have a lot of respect for them but I always wanted to join Spurs.”

Portsmouth executive Peter Storrie has revealed that Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe was interested in a move to Fratton Park but was forced to stay at Spurs after the club rejected their £6million bid.

Storrie said: “We put in a bid of £6million for Defoe and it was rejected. He wanted to come and that shows we are a club moving in the right direction.”

Defoe’s former manager Harry Redknapp, who is now in charge at Fratton Park, has recently admitted his desire to sign striker saying: “I’d love to get him here.”

Martin Jol has confirmed that new signing Steed Malbranque will be sidelined for two months after undergoing surgery.

Jol said: “It was his decision and he will be out for seven or eight weeks,”

Spurs travel to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United on the weekend followed by the visit of Malbranque’s former club Fulham the following week.

Mido is fired up and looking to fire after losing 22lbs in the off-season.

Mido said: ‘It was important for me to lose weight. I knew that and I went home and worked on it.

‘Now it’s my job to keep fit because unfortunately at the end of last season I got injured and didn’t play the last five or six games.

‘I gained weight because that is my body - if I don’t train, I gain weight even if I eat normally. So now I am happy that I’m fit. I worked hard for it and now I have to stay fit until the end of the season.

‘I have lost about 10 kilos, three off my hair! I am now talking to a Brazilian who is one of the best physical trainers.

‘His job will be to help the medical staff here keep me fit all the season. He was working with the Brazilian, Maxwell, one of my friends, who was playing with Ajax when I was with Inter Milan.

‘Maxwell had a big injury and he helped him a lot to get fit again. The most important thing is that he has the experience to keep me fit all the time.

‘I asked Spurs’ permission if they would allow me to have a special trainer who can help me to keep fit all the season. I will pay for him myself. Last season he was in Monaco for five or six months working with Maxwell so I hope it will be easy for him to come to England.

‘I don’t have an agreement with him yet but I am hopeful we can work out a programme. It won’t affect my physical power. I did not want to lose any muscle I was just working on losing the things that my body does not need.’

The talented front man also revealed that he had agreed to return to Spurs over six weeks ago, but had to wait for the two clubs to finalise everything regarding the deal.

He said: ‘I had an agreement to come back to Spurs more than six weeks ago.

‘I really appreciate what Spurs did to get me back because Roma wanted to ask a lot of money for me.

‘I had some offers from clubs in England but I never changed my mind. I gave my word to chairman Daniel Levy and we worked on it until I came here.

‘I spoke to the board when I went back to Italy and they told me they needed time to negotiate with Roma to get the best deal.’

When asked about the new signings at the club and how he thought his season would go Mido added: ‘Last season was easier to play because it was clear Martin was playing most of the time with a big man and a small man.

‘This season we are playing European football so maybe we will play more than 50 games and I think if I can play 35-40 games and score 20 goals it will be a successful season for me.

‘If you look at all the big clubs and the clubs playing in Europe they have at least four good strikers and that is what we have here. It keeps you on your toes, as you say in England.

‘What’s good about the strikers we have here is that each one is totally different. Jermain is totally different from Robbie, and Robbie is totally different from Dimitar.

‘Dimitar and I are both target men but he is a totally different player from me so of course we can play together. I played, for example, with Didier Drogba at Marseille and we were one of the best attacks. We played very well, we scored goals, I assisted with goals and he did as well.’

Dutch midfielder Edgar Davids has told his Spurs team-mates to lift their performances or expect a long season.

 He said: “We have to help each other in this situation and we have to grow up very quickly.

“It’s a whole new adventure we are going on this season and everyone has to step up to another level.

“That is the challenge for all of us — it’s the same for the young players and the older ones.

“It is not a disaster because we’ve only played three matches but we do need to start putting on more of a show.

“Last year was difficult but it has been even harder this season because opponents see us as a big scalp for them and they know all about our strengths.

“They know they are taking on a very different Spurs to the one of previous years. We are now a top team and it means we are there to be attacked.”