If Harry Redknapp thinks that the worst insult that can be dished out to Judas Campbell is a thinly veiled dig from Tottenham’s Egyptian striker Mido about Campbell being the “easiest defender he’s ever played against” then he may wear the same kind of expression on his face tomorrow at White Hart Lane as Mary Whitehouse would at a skin flick being shown on BBC1 after the 5 o’clock news.

Mido’s timing mightn’t have been great some say (including ‘Appy ‘Arry) as all he has to do for a teamtalk is pin the newspaper clipping up on the wall to get Judas all fired up and ready for action. I disagree. I see a young player getting a chance to show that he really listens to what the fans are concerned about and even though it is years since that fateful day there are few incidents that wind Tottenham fans up more than S*l Campbell’s lies and deceit and subsequent move to the Goons.

Other fans of other clubs can’t understand the level of dislike and in many cases hatred for the man and that’s for one simple reason: it’s never happened to any other club the way it happened to Spurs.
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So Martin Jol says that despite missing out by a whisker last season on a top four Premiership place and then adding some ?20m+ of talent to his squad over the summer he doesn’t believe that Spurs will be able to break into the top four of the Premiership for another two years?

Talk about a warcry, it sounds more and more like Mr Smooth and Sophisticated in front of the media is suddenly getting a bit of fear about the expectations he’s created at White Hart Lane and with our worst Premiership start likely to continue against pacesetters Portsmouth, Jol is getting the excuses in early for a return to the midtable finish that is potentially on the cards.

I can understand a coach being realistic about his side’s chances but to downplay our ambitions and give the players, most of whom need a kick up the arse at the best of times, an excuse to play for 6th/7th/8th for another two years is inexcusable. We need a confident, ambitious coach who will stop at nothing to achieve the club’s aims of regaining our place back at the top table and I won’t hear any rubbish excuses for why we can’t for two more years when we spend a fortune on new players and have one of the most complete squads (barring a few exceptions) in a decade.
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Today is the last day for one lucky winner to get their hands on a signed copy of Alasdair Gold’s brand new football book “Ode To Jol - A Spurs Fan’s Diary”.

Ally Gold is a former State of the Game columnist and one of the funniest football writers I’ve had the pleasure of being involved with in my time running this site.

To get involved just move over to the Ally Gold competition thread on SOTG Forums, register as a member (it’s completely FREE and only takes a few seconds) and have a read through the few rules for entering.

Basically we just need you to sign up as a FREE registered member of our forums and you will be entered into a draw TODAY (30th September at 5pm) to win “Ode To Jol” , whether you are a Spurs fan or not, Ally Gold’s “Ode To Jol” is well worth a read for any football fan.

Check out the Amazon.co.uk reviews and availability now for Alisdair Gold’s “Ode To Jol”:

and then enter the State of the Game competition to win your own signed copy!

What a surprise to find that a British police force aren’t at all concerned with investigating further a violent assault that could have seriously injured or even killed the victim simply because he’s such a good bloke that he has asked them not to pursue it further.

Whether Pedro Mendes wants the attack by Ben Thatcher dealt with by the FA or not it should be a police decision to prosecute and in my opinion jail Thatcher for his deliberate act of grievious bodily harm on the Portsmouth midfielder regardless of what minor punishments the FA and Manchester City have dealt out.

A few games suspension and the loss of a few weeks wages will teach a lifelong thug like ben Thatcher absolutely nothing and I am disgusted to once again see one rule for thugs on the street and quite another for multi-millionaires just because they carry out their offences on a football pitch and not on the street outside a pub.
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It mightn’t have been quite a “watch out or you’ll be sleeping with the fishes” style warning but nevertheless Spurs boss Martin Jol has laid down the law to international managers, and England boss Steve McLaren in particular, that he will not agree to any of his players playing for their country at all if they haven’t been fit enough to pull on a Spurs jersey.

Spurs injury woes have been growing over the past few weeks as Aaron Lennon broke down in training, Dimitar Berbatov was injured on international dutywith Bulgaria, Jermain Defoe was injured this week and captain Ledley King also broke down in training after recently returning from a long term injury which kept him out of the World Cup reckoning.

It’s mainly Defoe and King that Jol has warned McLaren about using as he doesn’t want any outside influences to ruin Spurs chances of getting their experienced Premiership performers fit and back in the side as they now look to buld on their UEFA Cup win over Slavia Prague.
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Doesn’t really make sense does it? A Frenchman who has probably played a bigger part in bringing multitudes of foreign players into the English game over his ten year spell in charge of Arsenal than any other coach or manager and now he’s the one speaking out about the English game losing it’s English identity.

Come on Arsene, it might be an easy pop to have at the great evils of American held Old Trafford and Russian controlled Stamford Bridge but to try and take the moral high ground on issues of foreign influence in English football is more than just a bit rich when you’ve basically made Arsenal more French than most French clubs and have transformed the Arsenal Academy into a nurturing ground for he cream of European youth talent that you’ve pilfered from other clubs on the continent at the expense of bringing through young English players.

Wenger says:

“I feel the soul of football in this country is first granted by the owners of the clubs. Here, for example, at Arsenal I feel I am really at an English club.

“Traditionally the people who owned the clubs were first and foremost supporters. If that ceases to be the case then the clubs lose something.”

I notice no mention of the fans feeling alienated because of a foreign manager in the hotseat (of course not) or a first eleven filled with no domestic players (I mean that has no impact on the fortunes of the national side, does it?), it’s merely foreign ownership in the boardroom that destroys the integrity of clubs. What a coincidence that Arsenal is still English owned as Arsene says. The Wenger/Arsenal Ten Year Anniversary Love-In rumbles on.

Not that we’d ever stoop to using outdated regional stereotyping in a serious post about European regneration grants but I’m sure that car owning away fans who travel to Anfield ever other Saturday could be rather pleased to hear that the area around Stanley Park and the surrounding area will be getting a major facelift with a ?9m grant from the European Objective One project.

Liverpool Football Club guaranteed ?160m of investment in a new stadium and the Objective One committee couldn’t wait to write out a cheque for a further ?9m to pay for restoration of Stanley Park, where the new Liverpool stadium will be built, and the creation of a shop-lined plaza on the site of the current Anfield ground.

None of the ?9m will actually be spent on the ground itself but there will be a few “calm down’s” heard in the vicinity this evening as the locals get wind of the regeneration plans for their area.

Liverpool and Objective One really do have to be congratulated on this initiative though because in this day and age of new, out of town, soulless stadia it’s good to see a football club staying close to it’s roots and helping improve the local area for the local people who have been it’s main supporters over the years. Too many clubs are desperate to get out of their old environment and into a shiny new stadium so as to attract more corporate sponsors but at least in Liverpool they’ll get a new stadium instead of their park and a new row of shops.

Should Everton be jealous?

I’m sure we’ve all read the plaudits being hurled at Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger for making it ten years not out in the Gooner hotseat but the most surprising one of all came from former nemisis and Manchester United bovver boy Roy Keane.

We all know that Keano has talked himself into a quieter number in the Championship as he tries to revive Niall “Mother Theresa” Quinn’s club’s fortunes and it has to be said that he hasn’t been doing too bad a job. The sight of an enraged Keane storming through the dressing room door while two down at halftime must literally scare the sh*t out of the assembled Mackems players and as a short term measure it looks like being a successful motivator.

Keane has always been a winner though and whether it was winning trophies for Manchester United or storming out of an underprepared World Cup camp for the Republic of Ireland he has always had his eyes on the biggest prizes and I think he might just be doing some buttering up for the future with his praise for Wenger today.

Keane said this (in a menacing Cork accent no doubt):

“He has done a brilliant job at Arsenal. I watched them last week against United and they were outstanding.

“The way they play the game, the way he leads himself - I have to say, the way he keeps his head or he seems to keep his head, even at the start of the season when people were starting to doubt Arsenal - maybe myself being one of them - I thought United would beat them.

“A manager at any top club like an Arsenal, a Liverpool, a United, has obviously got special talent.

“I read something about him the other day and a thing he said about football: he said some people live off football and some people live for football.

“He clearly lives for the game, I will give him that, and all credit to him. I wish him well.”

Could this really be the same Roy Keane who scrapped on and off the pitch with Wenger’s loyal lieutenant Patrick Vieira over a number of seasons and would have ran through brick walls for the cause of Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson? Maybe retirement has mellowed the Irishman or maybe now that his legs don’t get to do the talking on the pitch for him anymore he’s decided that a bit of diplomacy and a word in the right ears might just swing him a more high profile job a few years down the line.

Is it really so unlikely that he’s picked up some lessons in cunning from the grand master in all those years at Old Trafford? I think not.

You didn’t need to be in possession of a crystal ball or deceptively old former National Lottery medium Mystic Meg to look at West Ham’s away visit to Palermo in Sicily and spot a bit of bother on the horizon. In fact, if it had went off completely peacefully I’d have been shocked.

Selling t-shirts bearing Mafia slogans outside Upton Park before the first leg might have been a cheeky East End bit of leg pulling (and who wouldn’t have cashed in if they were a merchandise vendor awaiting the visit of the Sicilians? I know I would) but it shouldn’t ever have been forgotten that while Sicily is renowned for it’s links with the origins of the world’s most well known crime syndicate, it’s people don’t exactly have a reputation for being in possession of the most advanced sense of humour. Take the mickey out of the Irish or Scousers and you may get a witty riposte back, take the mickey out of a Sicilian and expect to get a shiv in the kidneys if you turn your back. The choice is yours.
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Who would have thought that we’d be here like this after a year?

Obviously we don’t like to talk too much about ourselves here at State of the Game but it would be extremely rude of me not to take this opportunity to thank all of the tireless writers and workers behind the scenes who have helped grow the site into what it is today - one of the fastest growing independent football discussion websites online.

To celebrate we’re giving a ?10 Amazon.co.uk gift certificate to the first reader who can answer this simple question:

Which former Manchester United and Southampton player completed last year’s London Marathon in five and a half days despite suffering from the dehabilitative disease Multiple Sclerosis?

(The answer is actually to be found on State of the Game so if you aren’t sure try searching through the site for it).

First person to send me the answer on the following contact form gets the gift certificate.

Good luck and happy birthday State of the Game!

EDIT: We have a winner!

The answer was of course Danny Wallace and the winner was James Anderson from Bolton who has a ?10 Amazon Gift Certificate winging it’s way to him as we speak.

Well done James!