Spurs face long road to follow Dortmund model

IF Dortmund are the blueprint then Tottenham now have a brutal indication of just how far there is to go. 

People can point fingers at the manager, the line-up and the fitness levels all they want but there was nothing that a few changes would have helped in last night's 3-0 drubbing at the Westfalenstadion - this was men versus boys. 

Our lads were outpassed, outpressed and outworked by a slick, efficient and endlessly fit Dortmund side that could have been out of sight by half-time.

It might feel like scant encouragement but this is the side that Spurs aspire to emulate - with possessive-yet-potent attacking football, homegrown talent and even a huge behind-the-goal kop. 

Who knows, maybe even reasonable ticket prices!

A bigger concern has to be the poor reflection it casts on the current status of the English game.

Yes, we are all enjoying a fantastic and unpredictable season in which any one of four, maybe five, teams could still lift the title.

Yes, we've had some incredible stories, upsets and seen some brilliant goals. 

But should a team second in the Premier League really be so comprehensively outclassed by their Bundesliga equivalent?

You certainly wouldn't back Leicester to give German leaders Bayern Munich a run for their money either.

Seeing our big sides flounder makes entertaining viewing but this was the biggest indication yet that those who have replaced them at the top this season are not raising the bar, just making the most of an opportunity.

On the night it was a painful defeat but at least those on the pitch, the bench, sat in the stands and watching on the box now have a yardstick.

This is what can be created if we stick on the path we have started. 

Mauricio Pochettino's squad are 18 months into a philosophy that Dortmund have had drilled into them since 2009. 

Their boss Thomas Tuchel joined last summer and is continuing the hi-octane, high-pressing work introduced by Jurgen Klopp seven years ago.

Interestingly enough, Tuchel also managed Mainz shortly after Klopp, quickly surpassing the now-Liverpool manager's success.

Where Klopp got Mainz promoted, Tuchel took them into the Europa League.

Where Klopp took Dortmund to back-to-back league titles and the 2012-13 Champions League final, Tuchel has them again chasing down Bayern at the top and they must now be favourites for the Europa League.

It all comes together for one nasty bump back down to earth for Spurs but an impressive lesson to go with it. 

The improved fitness levels, the demanding pressing game and the flowing attacks can all go up a notch. Our players now have first hand experience of it. For some, it will be an encouragement, for others a kick up the ass.

If this Dortmund side is a glimpse of where hard work and a well-drilled philosophy can lead you, then we should be very excited about our chosen path.

Tough week could help Spurs hang in there

ONE point from two huge games was not what everyone wanted but bear with me while I argue that it might do us a favour.

Wins over West Ham and Arsenal would have left us top by two points - but can a team that has not won a title in 55 years really be expected to lead from the front with nine games to go?

The pressure, focus and searing hot spotlight that comes from being frontrunners is surely too much for a club stalked by its own shadow of late-season stutters.

We have a history of easing off the gas from good positions, so let Leicester take the weight of responsibility for the time being.

With 27 points left to fight for, a five-point gap at this stage is hardly unassailable and 
there is no sense in making ourselves the team to beat at the start of March. 

We are safer riding Leicester's coat-tails as they attract the limelight and deflect attention. 

Apart from anything else, my blood pressure could do with a rest from the nerve-shredding tension of our last two games. How the players must have felt is anybody's guess.

If the Foxes do win the title from here then they damn well deserve it and we should all stand up and applaud rather than picking apart our own supposed shortcomings.

But to put that feat into perspective, they have never won nine top-flight games in a row in their history.

It's a nervy time of year and everyone is dropping points. City lost to Liverpool, United at West Brom, and Arsenal haven't won in four.

Leicester's final two fixtures are Everton at home and Chelsea away. That's a tough enough finish in itself but in the meantime, if panic does finally strike Claudio Ranieri's squad, then any match becomes a banana skin and five points can disappear very quickly indeed.

Our final two games are home to Southampton and away at struggling Newcastle. Although by then they could well be "relegated Newcastle".

With that in mind, the main aim should be to stay within striking distance of the top, keep your fingers crossed we can hang in there and give ourselves a chance come May.

But many Spurs fans are starting to bite their fingernails not just over whether we will be fighting for the title come May, but whether we will still be in contention for the top four.

In 2011-12 we surrendered a 10-point lead over Arsenal in barely a month, the season before we won just one league game in ten from late February, including a home defeat to Blackpool. 

Both seasons we had put ourselves in the driving seat with regards to a Champions League finish. 

Yet in 2009-10 we got it right and beat Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City in a run-in that saw us nick fourth. 

The difference being that season we were underdogs right until the penultimate game, where a shock 1-0 win at City sealed it a game early.

And that is why we shouldn't be too disheartened heading into another crucial week on the back of two disappointing results.

On Sunday it's Aston Villa away, followed by Bournemouth at home a week later. 

Both matches present sides fighting for their lives and, given our recent history at this stage of the season, I'm happier to be going into it with a little less expectation on our shoulders.

Arsenal's Ozil move doesn't put Spurs in a Mes

SMILES. Smug smiles. That's about all you'll get from Arsenal fans this week. 

But it's not just because they've signed Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid and finally spent some money, it's also because they think they've got Spurs fans rattled.

What's worse is that some of us are proving them right.

Until Ozil's deadline-day Goons switch, our chairman Daniel Levy owned the transfer window but it seems sharing the limelight with our old foes is just too much to bear.

And the irony that it would never have happened without Gareth Bale's Real move makes it all the more cruel.

Well, sorry, that doesn't wash with us. 

On Sunday morning, we were like a boy racer revving his new car at the lights. We were nailed on for fourth place and it was sure to be at Arsenal's expense. 

By Monday evening (yes, that's a long time to be at the lights but just go with it) they rolled up with a Lamborghini and our balls wilted.

What did everyone expect? Arsene Wenger would just sit by and let us speed off into the distance? Hardly.

We've heard it all from Spurs fans this week. "We still need a left-back, why didn't we get Ozil?" and most deluded of all "that was a poor deadline day for us."

All of it is ridiculous.

There's no denying that Ozil is one of the best players in Europe. In the past five seasons, he has created more chances and made more assists than any other elite player in the continent.

But it helps when the man you are passing the ball to is Cristiano Ronaldo.

The simple matter is the German playmaker would never have come to Spurs. He has to perform against the best and we cannot offer Champions League football.

Arsenal's need in the transfer window was much different to ours, they know they already have a squad capable of regularly finishing in the top four, so it only needed a respray. 

But one signing won't win them the title and it does not take away from what we did in the market.

In Erik Lamela and Christian Eriksen we have two of Europe's most renowned young talents. Add to that a reinforced midfield of Paulinho and Etienne Capoue. 

It's a lot of players to gel in very little time but the previous squad had proven three years in a row that it could not keep pace for the whole season and enough was enough.

True, none of the new guys are proven in English football but it shows major ambition and if even four of our seven signings live up to their massive potential then it gives us a fighting chance of withstanding another late-season collapse.

If it's Premier League experience you're after then look no further than Danny Rose, one of last season's key left-backs on loan at Sunderland.

What's more he's English, he's prepared to fight for his place and refusing to sell him on could yet prove to be one of our best moves of the summer. 

The other option was Fabio Coentrao, and even Manchester United failed to prise him from Real.

The view that we are typically shrewd on transfer deadline day is a myth as well.

In the last seven of them, the only real coups have been Hugo Lloris and Rafa Van Der Vaart. And Rafa only because we were in the Champions League.

Other than Clint Dempsey - who replaced Rafa with limited success last summer - our ONLY other deadline-day signing since 2010 has been Louis Saha.

The real crux of the matter, which has jilted folks' perspective, is that we lost the North London derby at the Emirates. 

We didn't create much but it's a game that we've lost 5-2 for the past two seasons, so it's an improvement.

We have never been this consistently close to Arsenal since the Premier League began.

Yes they are still in front but it's not Spurs who have 17 straight top-four finishes to protect.

It's not us who are crying over not winning a trophy for eight years.

And it's not us who had to sing "spend some f**king money" on the opening day just to get some transfer activity.

Frankly, it's not us who should be rattled, it's them.

If Nacer Chadli fits the current Belgian trend then we're onto a good thing

White clouds gather and again the pendulum swings in the great Real-Bale back 'n forth.

Bored, I think is the correct word.

The question bugging Taxi For Maicon at the moment... "Is there any limit on the number of Belgian players one side can field?"

Our most recent arrival - Nacer Chadli, a £7million acquisition from Steve McLaren's Dutch former employers FC Twente - joins last year's signings Jan Vertonghen and Mousa Dembele. 

Not to mention - although I'm just about to - that we were linked strongly with Aston Villa striker Christian Benteke.

It would seem we are trying to buy up the whole team. But why Belgians? Well, in case you hadn't noticed, as a footballing nation they are pretty good of late.

They are leading World Cup qualification group A on 19 points, 3 ahead of Croatia and yet to lose a game. 

And it hasn't gone unnoticed. Most bookies have them as sixth favourite to win Brazil 2014 - that's better than England and level with 2010 finalists Holland.

So in buying Belgian, it looks like we're onto a good thing - although we're hardly ahead of the curve.

Belgium is rapidly becoming a go-to nation for Premier League scouts. Apart from our three Flemish imports, loads of Belgium's latest international squad play at our top clubs. Here is a rather useful list to paint a picture: 

Marouane Fellaini (Everton), Kevin Mirallas (Everton), Simon Mignolet (Liverpool), Vincent Kompany (Manchester City), Eden Hazard (Chelsea), Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea), Kevin de Bruyne (Chelsea), Thibaut Courtois (Chelsea), Christian Benteke (Aston Villa)

Working out whether or not Belgium are embarking on a path to football domination, however, is not why you're here. You want to know why we signed Chadli...

We first came across him during our 2010 Champions League run, when he played against us twice for FC Twente - and scored twice. 

The 23-year-old got Twente's only goal in a 4-1 drubbing at White Hart Lane, then scored an impressive free-kick in the return fixture, a 3-3 draw in Holland.

Not only can he play on either flank but he's a bona fide two-footer. Of his 23 Eredivisie goals in the last two seasons, he has bagged 11 with his right and 8 on his left.

Of course, the fact he has come from the Dutch league is always worth taking into consideration, such is the difference in standard.

His former Twente boss Co Adriaanse dubbed him "the new Bryan Ruiz" - in England, that's not a huge compliment (Ruiz is that Fulham striker who never scores any goals).

But there have been some genuine Eredivisie gems that have taken to the Premier League straightaway - Fellaini, Luis Suarez and Vertonghen, to name three.

Chadli seems to have all the hallmarks to succeed at Spurs. But with Aaron Lennon, Gareth Bale and Lewis Holtby in our ranks, there is no reason to think the Belgian will be thrust into the starting eleven before he's good and ready.

And if we have to bow to Real's financial force and sell Bale NEXT YEAR, then with any luck we'll have a settled winger ready to step in and soften the blow.

A final taxi call for Spurs' Champions League fall guy

MANCHESTER CITY defender Maicon has completed a move to Italian club Roma to end his Premier League nightmare.

The attacking right-back has never really been the same since Gareth Bale tied him up in knots during our 3-1 Champions League win over Inter Milan.

Having adopted the unfortunate full-back for the title of this fanzine, it seems only fair that we now bid a fond farewell to a man who played such a key role in one of the greatest nights of Tottenham's recent history.

Just in case you have forgotten, let me refresh your memory...

It was a crisp, tense European Tuesday night in November 2010 at White Hart Lane. The visitors had just pulled a goal back to halve the deficit and the home faithful held its collective breath as a neap tide of attacks battered our weary, and all-too-often wobbly, defence.

From nowhere, a Younes Kaboul interception set Gareth Bale flying down the left wing. Three touches and a pinpoint cross for Roman Pavlyuchenko to tap home sent Paxton Road absolutely bonkers.

Spurs had breathing space - 3-1 up against reigning European champions Inter Milan. But where was Maicon - the so-called best right-back in the world - during all this? Nowhere to be seen, that's where.

He was left gasping for air and scraping dust off his teeth in the wake of Bale's devastating dart down the wing and the Spurs fans duly rubbed his nose in it by singing Taxi For Maicon for the umpteenth time and sealing the song's place as the soundtrack of the season.

**********

It completed a torrid few games for the Brazilian, he was also turned inside out in the second half at the San Siro. We lost 4-3, but the Welsh winger announced his arrival on the European scene and Maicon's fortunes began a steady descent. Did Gareth Bale really ruin his career?

Firstly, you have to ask whether Maicon was ever as good as all the press and pundits claimed.

After winning the Brazilian title with Cruzeiro in 2003, he secured a move to Monaco before arriving at Inter. He won four consecutive Serie A titles, plus the Champions League and a host of minor honours.

At international level he has 66 Brazil caps - no mean feat when you're competing with Barcelona's Dani Alves - and they've brought him two Copa America wins, and two Confederations Cups.

Then there's the personal feats: six appearances in different Team of the Year line-ups, a World Cup Man of the Match award and UEFA Club Defender of the Year award for 2009-10.

So, yes, it could easily be argued that he was at the very top of his profession. Yet, strangely, the trophies, the form, the accolades, all dried up at the same time.

Maicon's appearances for Inter plummeted during the 2010-11 season, making a total of just 38, compared to 51 the previous Champions League-winning year. The following season was even worse, playing just 28 games and notching a meagre four assists - the lowest in his six-year Inter spell.

He was dropped from the Brazil squad in 2011 and has not featured since, there are no individual awards post-2010 and in a disastrous stint in Manchester last year his presence graced the first team on just 13 occasions.

The reasons behind Maicon's mysterious downfall from benchmark to bench-sitter could of course be explained by niggling knee injuries, or even managerial instability - he had four different managers in his last two years with Inter.

But there's a nagging feeling that the trauma he experienced at the hands of Bale on November 2, 2010, may have damaged his confidence beyond repair.

In Rome - the home of once-mighty soldiers and fallen emperors - Maicon will be in good company. And, while we wish him all the best in rediscovering his form, we can't help but raise our collective voice for one last time... TAXI!