Tottenham: Pavlyuchenko's ill-advised comments may be damaging for career

The Good of The Game believes that Tottenham's Russian Roman may be harming his future prospects by his repeated outbursts, and in this instance player-power might not be the answer.

Roman Pavlyuchenko has once again subjected us to his innermost thoughts in a bid to buy a one-way ticket out of N17 and end his disappointing spell with Tottenham Hotspur.

In the latest of a number of carefully worded comments to the press, Pavlyuchenko has taken one step further towards guaranteeing his exit from the club, claiming that manager Harry Redknapp is "mocking" the Russian by refusing to play him.

I can't help however, but think that Pavlyuchenko is only making his situation worse by confiding these self-indulgent comments to the wider world. That his Tottenham career is coming to an end is beyond doubt - Redknapp has staunchly refused to use Pavlyuchenko in any match of any importance this season. But I wonder which big clubs will want to take a look at the Russian, and perhaps take a gamble on him, when they know his propensity to moan to the press whenever things are not going his way.

Pavlyuchenko's great advantage is that he hasn't played European football this year, so he could be picked up by a side that has progressed to the latter stages of either the Champions or Europa Leagues. However, I struggle to see any side in either of those competitions where Pavlyuchenko would walk straight into the starting XI, something which he seems to think he is entitled to.

Rumours have been surfacing all season about potential moves to the likes of Roma, Liverpool and a host of clubs back in his home country. It seems like a move back to Russia may be his only option because surely he would not be content to warm the bench at another club in the same manner as he has been doing at Spurs this season?

A big part of me feels that if Pavlyuchenko had handled his current situation with more dignity he would be a more attractive prospect for big clubs, and may have found himself given another chance to prove himself at the highest level. After all, even the very best players occasionally suffer from a transfer to an ill-fitting club, and rejuvenate their fortunes by moving to a more suitable side. However, the striker has been so obsessed with speeding up his exit from White Hart Lane, that he might just have severely limited his future options.

Player power is of course a big part of the game today. Players enjoy a large amount of freedom in moving between clubs, and are entitled to request permission to be transferred, or to speak with another interested party if they wish to leave their current club. Of course they have benefited from this free market immensely in financial terms, and now have the right to seek the best deal for them. However, in cases like this would it not be more beneficial for the player to show a good attitude in the public domain, and quietly air his grievances to the club behind closed doors?

Engineering a transfer through communicating to the press (either in person or through an agent) is the most messy way to leave a club and often significantly damages the reputation of the outgoing player. Is it really the way to go about your business? If you're a Ronaldo or Berbatov this may not matter as you have another big (or bigger) club to walk straight into. They may have had poor attitudes, but they had the form to fall back on as evidence to potential buyers. But for the likes of Pavlyuchenko, displaying a poor attitude to go with poor form, the future does not look quite so bright.

Aston Villa, Spurs, Man City: who will break the top 4? Part 2

All this week The Good of The Game is bringing you their own insight into the teams pushing for a top-four Premier League finish. Yesterday, Aston Villa's chances were unpacked by our columnist, and found to be showing great promise but perhaps suffering from an overly-pragmatic approach which may prove to be simultaneously their greatest strength and the biggest weakness. Today is the turn of perennial under-achievers Spurs, who have grown from the ashes of Juande Ramos's ill-fated reign to being one of the most eye-catching sides in the country under the guidance of Harry Redknapp.

Tottenham Hotspur

Spurs invariably provide the Premier League with more entertainment for your money than any other side. For supporters, Spurs create great moments of euphoria and belief, followed by troughs of humiliating defeat, indignation and doubt. For the neutrals there are periods of exhilarating attacking football, and more than enough slapstick comedy to keep them as the most talked about side never to have qualified for the Champions League.

This season so far has been typical of the roller-coaster ride that Spurs almost always promise to deliver. From the unusual excellent start, to the helplessly elevated expectations of supporters, to the humbling against great rivals. From emphatic victories to frustrating defeats, Spurs have kept us guessing all season.

What's true about Spurs is that their first XI is undeniably bursting with talent and is at times a joy to watch. In Luka Modric and Aaron Lennon Spurs have two of the most exciting attacking midfield players that the Premier League has seen in years. They mix the creative elements of electrifying pace and scheming short-game that characterised Arsenal at their greatest, and are comfortable playing a skewed midfield with only one genuine wide man because they have players who are comfortable interchanging positions during the course of a game in the tradition of the great Dutch sides of the 1970s.

Spurs have the in-form striker of the season in Jermain Defoe and while Peter Crouch and Robbie Keane have been subjected to criticism this year, they bring something different to the table and show enough glimpses of brilliance to justify their places. Goals have not been in short supply this season, but defensively Spurs still look vulnerable at times. Of course, any team would miss the defensive duo of Jonathan Woodgate and Ledley King, and while Michael Dawson and Sebastian Bassong have proved as able deputies as you're ever likely to find in the Premier League, still there is a nagging feeling that Spurs are one slip away from conceding a goal at any point in any given game.

This has been proved when points have been dropped at home to Stoke and Wolves, while a soft goal conceded away to Aston Villa in November made hard work of a game that Spurs really should have won. The feeling is that Spurs are perhaps one or two central midfielders away from being genuine contenders this season. Wilson Palacios has vindicated the decision of the Spurs board to splash out £14m on him almost a year ago, but he has at times been rendered helpless by the lack of defensive support he receives from those around him. Tom Huddlestone can produce sublime moments of skill and technique, but there are still doubts about his desire to win and he certainly doesn't impose his considerable physical presence enough in key games. Spurs look likely to address this problem in January with the signing of the Brazilian prodigy Sandro, but whether he is able to adapt to the English game quickly enough to make a positive impact on this season is open to question.

Yesterday Aston Villa were described as perhaps overly pragmatic in their approach to the game, but there are lessons that Spurs could learn from their sometimes cautious approach. It is hard to think of a more markedly different approach than that seen by Villa and Spurs, which was clearly on show when the two sides met at Villa Park last month. The old saying goes that "fortune favours the brave", but the eagerness of Harry Redknapp to throw a spanner in the works against top sides this season, by changing the Spurs system, has so far proved fruitless.

Redknapp is not afraid to make big selection decisions and mix his team up in order to try and keep an element of surprise about Tottenham's play, but it is arguably when Spurs have a settled starting XI that they are at their most effective. When Redknapp arrived just over a year ago he found a side struggling for any kind of form and seemingly lacking both a sense of what was their best XI and any kind of tactical approach to the game. Redknapp quickly sorted this problem out and Spurs went on a terrific run to pull themselves out of the mire.

With Luka Modric returning from injury, perhaps Spurs will once again return to their tried and tested formula, though it would be a travesty to see the excellent Niko Kranjcar dropped given his current form. Many will point to the fact that Spurs have a squad with great strength in depth, and that they should use all of the tools at their disposal, but if you remove three or four of those tools, as Redknapp is expected to do in January, then the squad starts to look a little lacking in depth. This could be a blessing in disguise as it will force Redknapp to pick his best XI every week, but could Spurs regret moving those players on later in the season? Aston Villa have shown last season what happens if you lack genuine squad depth and have addressed the problem this term. Spurs would be well advised to heed that warning.

So we look forward to seeing which Spurs side will show up for their next game away to Blackburn, and remain secure in the knowledge that all is as it should be at N17 - completely unpredictable. Tottenham will continue to impress and frustrate in almost equal measure, but looking at the strength of the challenge posed their rivals, they may just have enough to propel them into the footballing elite this time round.

Check back tomorrow (19/12/09) for The Good of The Game's evaluation of Manchester City's chances of gaining a top-four place this season, in the last of the series.

Aston Villa, Spurs, Man City: who will break the top 4? Part 1

As a round of midweek Premier League games again provides compelling evidence both for and against the case for a new team breaking the so-called "big four", The Good of The Game jumps on the bandwagon by - over the next three days - offering their own insight into the debate that's being dubbed "the new can-Lampard-and-Gerrard-play-together?".

There seems to be an almost unspoken consensus amongst those who follow football - and indeed, those who write about it - that Liverpool will this year fail to finish in the Champions League qualifying places for the first time since they won Europe's top prize yet finished only 5th in the domestic championship in 2005. This of course leaves the door open for a team outside the cartel to break up the party and shake up the stagnant and predictable pond that is the English Premier League. To even the most casual of observers it is evident that the three teams best equipped to launch an assault on the summit of English football (or at least a plateau just below the summit that Sky has told everyone is the top), are Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City.

All three sides have shown glimpses of exactly why so many people are backing them, but they've also shown evidence of both mental and technical weaknesses that suggest if one of them does manage the "seemingly impossible", it will owe more to the missed opportunities of the other contenders than to their own superiority amongst the best of the rest.

Indeed, even those who are paid to offer their unrivalled insight and wisdom on the game to the wider public - the journalists and pundits - seem to swing wildly from backing one team one week, to another the next based purely on the previous week's results and performances. This is perhaps symptomatic of the fickle nature of those who follow the game, even those who are paid to do so.

So, The Good of The Game has decided to throw it's hat into the ring and offer the definitive guide to each sides chances of finishing 4th or higher this season. Let's start by looking at the team currently in possession of that elusive 4th place, Aston Villa:

Aston Villa

It seems fashionable these days to herald Martin O'Neill as some kind of footballing messiah, a man of almost alchemic powers to transform average teams to very good ones, with his understated and likeable demeanour winning him many supporters amongst football's cognoscenti. The truth of the matter is that he has turned Aston Villa into very real contenders, and a side capable of producing eye-catching results against the very best. Only this season they've managed to upset Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool and have placed themselves in a strong position going into the crucial Christmas period which will see them take on Arsenal and Liverpool, and give us further insight into their credentials for a top-four finish.

There is no doubt that Martin O'Neill has now assembled a squad which contains sufficient depth to sustain a challenge throughout the course of an entire season, putting them immediately in a more favourable position than last season where their squad deficiencies were exposed in the second half of the campaign. Signings such as Richard Dunne, James Collins, Habib Beye and Stephen Warnock in the defensive area drew raised eyebrows in the summer for their apparent lack of ambition, but they have once again proven O'Neill to be an astute judge of character and ability as all three have brought valuable quality to the Villa squad. Dunne and Collins in particular have turned in imperious performances in the very biggest matches to make Villa - along with the evergreen and good-as-ever Brad Friedel - a defensive force to be reckoned with.

Going forward Villa boast an embarrassment of English riches, with Stewart Downing added in the summer to an already impressive attacking arsenal containing World Cup hopefuls James Milner, Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor. Add to that the muscular physicality of John Carew and the much maligned yet extremely effective Emile Heskey and you have an attack that offers dynamic options and an imposing threat on the break and at set-pieces. Milner has developed this season into an integral piece of the jigsaw, while Downing's recovery from injury and subsequent promising performances have only strengthened Villa's hand.

There's clearly no doubting the tools at Villa's disposal - they have a squad that many Premier League managers would kill for. However, there are still those who are critical of the side and what many consider to be an overly pragmatic approach. The great debate over form against function, the aesthetic versus the pragamtic, is one that has dominated tactical debates for over half a century, and it is one that will be again addressed in part two and three of this series as it plays such a crucial role in analysing the three teams in question.

For Villa and O'Neill, the foundation of their success so far this season has been defensive solidity. It was hailed as the reason behind their famous victories against Manchester United and Chelsea, and provides their attacking players with the platform to break at pace and counter attack against sides worn down by the dogged determination of Dunne and his defensive warriors. However, this pragmatic approach has also been their weakness at times.

In displays against Tottenham (when they played more like an away side at Villa Park) and Everton (where they failed to create enough against a side who had lost three and drawn two of their previous five games), Villa dropped points when those hoping for them to break the top-four would have expected more. Against Spurs in particular it was the manner of the performance that planted seeds of doubt in the minds of many. Villa sneaked an early goal despite barely showing the desire to pressurise the understrength Tottenham defence, and were then happy to sit back and absorb the pressure. Spurs eventually grabbed a point, but to all who observed the match, clearly deserved all three and Villa defended for their lives to keep hold of that solitary point.

If Aston Villa are to break into the Champions League places this season, shouldn't their supporters - and indeed their players and manager - expect to be doing more to take their chances? After all, it is unlikely to be the points gained against the very top sides that decides where teams like Villa will finish this season, but those against their immediate rivals and those below them. Last season Spurs had the best record against the "top-four" of any side in the league, but finished 8th due to poor results against weaker sides.

Surely Villa could be doing more week-in, week-out to mark themselves out as clear contenders for 4th place? They certainly have the tools at their disposal to do so, but it remains unclear whether Martin O'Neill will use those tools to their greatest potential. They may grab the attention of the country with eye-catching results, but in truth it may be the performances that give a more accurate glimpse of Villa's chances this season.

Click back to The Good of The Game tomorrow (18/12/09), when we'll be looking at Tottenham's chances of finishing in the top-four this season.

Lennon and Defoe make Capello's job easier

Jermain Defoe and Aaron Lennon moved yesterday to end the debate over two of England's so-called "up-for-grabs" places for the final squad to take to South Africa.

Of course, this was only one performance against a Wigan side so woeful on the day that you wondered quite how they could beat anyone in this league, let alone Chelsea as they did just a few weeks ago. Of course, there is a long season ahead and plenty of opportunities for other players to impress, as well as chances for Lennon and Defoe to fall down the pecking order.

However, this display by the pair was so emphatic that I doubt it will be surpassed by any of the other England hopefuls this season. Lennon notched up a goal and three superb assists, and appeared to silence the critics who have slammed his ability to deliver accurate crosses, while Defoe went some way to burying the debate over who is England's best goal-poacher with a stunning display of his finishing talents.

Whatever Mr Capello's thoughts on the matter, it is clear that Lennon and Defoe have thrown down the gauntlet to their challengers, and the likes of Walcott, Wright-Phillips and Milner, and Owen, Bent and Agbonlahor will be hard pushed to make a more convincing case than the diminutive Spurs duo forwarded at White Hart Lane yesterday. This was the kind of football that gets people off their seats, the kind of football that is a credit to the game, and the kind of football that fans will want to see of England next summer.