Tottenham fans will not have taken much joy from hearing their manager compare Heurelho Gomes to David James after witnessing their goalkeeper’s recent addition to his ever-increasing back catalogue of errors with his performance against Blackpool.
An incredible penalty save, diving low to his left, immediately followed by successive failures to hold onto a football and an inexplicable decision to bring down Gary Taylor-Fletcher in the box, summed up Tottenham fans’ frustration with their goalkeeper since he joined from PSV in June 2008.
However, Redknapp was right to point to the fact that Gomes has kept Spurs in games at times throughout his Premier League career, but for every point he has won, there are just as many points lost, with the Blackpool incident proving that to be the case – he saved a penalty to keep the score level, then immediately gave away another to put his side behind.
Errors in League games against Chelsea and Wolves and both legs of their Champions League quarter-final with Real Madrid – to name but a few – have cost Spurs dear at the worst possible times this season. After the Champions League quarter-final second leg at White Hart Lane, Gomes hardly put fans’ fears at ease by claiming that he will make more mistakes in his career, insisting he needs to ‘show character’ in order to bounce back.
Redknapp’s support of his goalkeeper is admirable, but it may be borne more out of a lack of a realistic replacement rather than loyalty to his current player. Harry has already said that the main aim for Spurs this summer will be to keep hold of their star players, whilst trimming what is the Premier league’s largest squad, so he knows that he will not be able to compete with the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and of course, Manchester City in the transfer market. Moreover, considering we already know Sir Alex Ferguson is already in the market for a new No.1, standing by Gomes may be the more realistic option.
Apart from the usual suspects of Hugo Lloris, Manuel Neuer (most likely on his way to Bayern anyway), David de Gea, and Maarten Stekelenburg – none of which would command a fee less than £10million – who else is there that Harry could go for? Robert Green at West Ham – who has performed well this season in the wake of his World Cup mistake and despite being part of a team that currently sit bottom of the table, Shay Given – the forgotten man at Man City, who may not want to sell him to a rival, and there are also concerns over his recent shoulder injuries. Other than those two it is hard to think of a realistic replacement for Gomes, someone who could do a better job between the sticks for Spurs.
Few would argue that Gomes is a quality keeper, unfortunately there is always a ‘but’ that naturally follows that statement, and it is that ‘but’ that has followed Spurs around all season. If Gomes does not indeed show ‘more character’, or just learn how to better maintain his concentration for a full ninety minute match, then that ‘but’ will continue to cost Spurs vital points and will lay rest to any potential title challenge they may have in them next season.
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Last season I was inclined to give Gomes the benifit of the doubt, putting it down to nerves and aclimatization to the pace and passion of the EPL however, not a great deal has changed as far as he is concerned. The man is capable of making amazing saves and at the sametime amazing gaffs. There is no doubt that he has cost us dearly and must make the defenders infront of him extremely nervous everytime danger is about but he is by no means alone. The manager has to take a huge slice of the blame for picking him match after match, very poor team selection and what can only be described as inept tactics if any. Failure to secure proven goal scorers in the transfer windows beggers belief because we have some abysmal attackers at the moment. Can you imagine Alex Ferguson, Arsen Wenger, Carlo Anchellotti or Kenny Dalgleish putting up such a piss poor performance with the calibre of players we currently have at their disposal, I DONT THINK SO.
I read certain pundits saying that we Spurs fans should be greatful to Harry and all that he has done for Spurs, getting us out of trouble and getting us into the Champions league etc. FFS, Harry inherited the vast majority of players whom Damian Camoli brought to the club. I firmly believe that under Ramos, the players struggled to understand his instructions with his very poor command of the English language and the use of Gus Poyet as his interpreture whereas Redknapp speaks plain English, made it simple and away we went, no great miracle there. People also forget that Spurs are a huge club with a huge following, with a glorious past which we the fans crave for its return and as such will always be expectant and we do recognise a fake when we see one, particularly one that self promotes at the drop of a hat, contradicts himself in the process and pokes his nose into others clubs affairs instead of addressing the issues at hand, namely do away with your favourites and bring in winners instead of your mates.
On a thursday?
Agreed on the Gomes points, he can at times be a match winner but unfortunately these moments are few and far between compared to his “David James” moments.
Thre purchase of Foster should have happened last year or as part of the Berba Deal. Any right minded united fan would tell you that. Now if spurs want him it would cost over £10m given Brum are no longer skint. Id say all in all Spurs are 4/5 first team players away from a title challenging side,a keeper, 1/2 strikers, a world class centre half alongside Dawson and a left bank, Akotto makes too many mistakes butthey could potentially get away with him if they sort the rest. There is too much Dead wood/squad players on the bench. Why buy pienaar when Kranjar can do his job and save £3m for the summer window. My thoughts on Harry and his family’s monopoly of the media are that he is a limited manager that has been put on a pedestal by his london media cronies, he blames everything but the Boogie on his teams failings, he will be found out when he takes the England Job