replaced by Toony?
Newcastle United’s latest messiahs were in town and boy didn’t Spurs piss on their and Sky Sports’ parade with a scoreline that flattered the hosts and their fraud of a manager.
For all the talk of the Saudis taking over Newcastle – how many of the journos would be mentioning their track record if they hadn’t been accused of killing a journo? – one positive should come from it. The end of Steve Bruce stealing a living as a football manager.
This was Bruce’s 1000th and hopefully last game and he’ll go out as he spent most of those previous 999 games, losing and looking completely out of his depth. Surely no one will come calling once Newcastle pull the trigger, and he’ll follow Pardew, Allardyce and his one time team mate and fellow only got a job because of who they played for Hughes.
Bruce will be left to remember his greatest moment in football… when a beach ball scored a goal.
For a moment there though it all looked like it could be different, it looked like Dr Tottenham had made his house call, Spurs would be Spursy and the hosts would get their first win of the season.
Oh weren’t Sky and the Saudis in raptures as two minutes in Newcastle played some good stuff, getting the ball to the byline and a cross in that Wilson headed home, like so many of the messiahs they’ve worshipped in the past.
Yup, it looked like Spurs were here to make their day, much like we’ve done in the past. I mean they flogged us Sissoko for a fortune off the back of a day like this could have been.
Fortunately “it’s Newcastle, lads… it’s Steve Bruce’s Newcastle, lads”.
It wasn’t long until the headdress wearing Toonites, Ant and or Dec, the Saudis and their plastic doll in her leather skirt were looking miserable.A ping out from Dier to Reguilon, wide and high left, he squared the ball back to Ndombele who got the ball from under his feet and put it past the keeper, who stood still and watched.
It had been 15 minutes of joy for the locals and you could hear sadness in Martin Tyler’s voice. Sky were slowly lowering the flags to half-mast. Five minutes later and their misery was complete.
Harry Kane actually scored a league goal. It almost felt as long for the VAR verdict to come through as Kane’s barren spell in the league. Is this Kane finally back as it was the type of chance he’s been missing lately in the league. Hojbjerg chipping a ball over the defence, Kane had arced his run perfectly to be onside before lobbing it over the keeper.
It was game over, much like in previous games when Spurs had gone behind the hosts heads fell and they had that sinking feeling again. It was almost as if Mike Ashley had come back into the stadium and shouted “April Fool”.
Meanwhile the new Saudi boss was looking at his phone…
"Have you been mis-sold a football club…"pic.twitter.com/aL982lo8YU
— Токсическая сеть (@Toxic_Web) October 18, 2021
As the half drew to a close Reguilon alerted the ref there had been an incident with someone in the stands while Dier ran to the sideline to get medical help. The ref then removed the players as the man received help, after a short break they were back and it got worse for the home team.
Someone on Twitter had said during the week…
Watching Lo Celso play in Argentina it quickly becomes clear that his game is based on quick passes and what many of us call Arthur Rowe’s push-and-go. For that to work he needs movement around him, short distances between players, quick passes and team mates overlapping. #THFC pic.twitter.com/GXjy9P7VMW
— Spurs International (@simonyemane) October 15, 2021
Can’t agree more. Spurs are better when they play fast, minimal touches and spend less time dwelling o the ball. Just before the half-time whistle, they played some great, Ndombele and Moura, who played a great through ball to Kane in the box, where he crossed it for a Son tap in. Moura is one that at times could pass but takes to many touches. If he played more like this at times.
Ndombele can also be a too many touch merchant but he can also do what he was doing here…
🤭 Tanguy doing Tanguy things. pic.twitter.com/dIdSy67d4R
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) October 18, 2021
Newcastle didn’t get any better after Steve Bruce’s half-time talk. It was just they were luckily up against Spurs who didn’t take advantage. Spurs needed to win by seven clear goals to take fourth spot from Brighton. Most other teams when in this situation would have done it. Newcastle were there for the taking. Spurs didn’t.
They should have had a penalty. The Newcastle left-back twice blocked a cross with his arm, the second one was inside the area but the ref and VAR got it wrong. He didn’t get Shelvey’s two yellow cards wrong, though.
But then it wouldn’t be Spurs without some last minute hanging on. Dier gave away a free-kick from which he got into a right muddle trying to defend. He seemed to go to head the ball, it bounced off his shin past Hugo.
But after that Spurs had the ball and just played round the striped shirts until the final whistle blew. Sky were in proper mourning. Ant and or Dec were deciding which gets to drown their sorrows and which is the designated driver. The messiah worshippers were getting a sense of deja vu all over again. Steve Bruce was looking at counting his £8m payoff for being useless.
It could have been Spursy, it wasn’t but if after this take over Newcastle are relegated it should surely relegate Spursy, to be replaced by Toony.