Spurs Xtra
WELCOME to Spurs Xtra.
This feature will include all the extras happening around the club - behind-the-scenes at Spurs Lodge, exclusive pictures and stories from inside the camp.
It's all in the name - Spurs Xtra.
Your feedback is welcome too - email what's on your mind by CLICKING HERE...
For an archive from pre-season to the start of the season - CLICK HERE...
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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2009
CLIFF JONES stole the show - he should have his own show - at the recent launch of the 'Tottenham 'Til I Die' book at White Hart Lane.
The double-winner joined Pat Jennings, Clive Allen and Les Ferdinand at the launch of a book that provides a platform for Spurs fans to write about their experiences following the club.
The legendary quartet fielded questions from the 'authors' invited to the launch and Cliff was in his element.
The subject matter of the Q&A got onto David Ginola.
"I used to love watching David Ginola," he said. "He was a free spirit, like me.
"I often say to fans 'did you see me play?' and if they reply 'yes', I joke with them that they must be getting old, because I played here in the late 50s and 1960s.
"If they say 'no', then I tell them that I played in a very similar style to David Ginola.
"But there are two differences between me and David - one, I scored more goals and two, obviously, I'm far better looking!"
XTRA is after danger money.
We were back out in the wind and rain to get some exclusive shots of training on Friday morning - click on the arrows above for seven pictures.
It was towards the end of the session and after a lively match on a small-sized pitch, Clive Allen put on a quick shooting drill.
Always looking for that glory shot of the ball nestling in the net or keeper flying through the air, Xtra edged nearer and nearer to the goal but that bravery lasted all of a minute as shots whistled past left, right and centre.
The thought of being smacked on the head by one of the thunderbolts - how embarrassing would that be, by the way - meant Xtra beat a hasty retreat and was spotted doing so but no-one less than Pat Jennings. "Had enough already?" he smiled.
"Too right, Pat, too right..."
THAT shooting session reminded Xtra of another drill recently laid on by Clive and Les Ferdinand.
It was another shooting drill with the players involved firing in shots with both feet, all angles, volleys - everything was covered.
The final part of the session saw the lads grab a ball each and it was a competition where the last player to score has a forfeit.
Dorien Dervite was the player to suffer and his forfeit was having to retrieve all the balls used in the session.
The catch, though, was the players were allowed to kick the balls all over Spurs Lodge for Dorien to fetch and believe Xtra, they went far and wide - Michael Dawson's must have landed somewhere near Stansted.
THE EMIRATES hardly seems a place that would raise a smile to Xtra - not least after our last visit - but that was exactly the case after we wandered into the stadium down the road for some reason, Xtra forgets for now, a couple of weeks ago.
And of all people, it was Arsene Wenger that raised the smile!
Asked why he'd lobbed his jacket down in disgust in the second half, something caught by the TV cameras, he explained: "I couldn't communicate to the players because of the noise in the stadium. I'm not used to that."
Cue laughter from all of a Spurs persuasion!
FINALLY, thanks for all the entries to the Gareth Bale boots competition - look out for more exclusive competitions here throughout the season.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2009
FIRST of all, it's competition time again - and another Xtra exclusive!
Gareth Bale impressed everyone with his display against Everton in the Carling Cup and we've a pair of his signed boots to give away.
To have a chance of winning them - pictured above with Gareth - answer the question below...
From which club did we sign Gareth back in 2007?
A - Southampton
B - Southend
C - Swansea
To enter, email us your answer by CLICKING HERE and make sure to include your full name, address and a daytime contact number!
Answers to reach us by Friday week, November 6. We we will email the winner direct to confirm his/her prize. Editor's decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
Thanks for all the entries for the Jermain Defoe competition - this closed last week.
LOOKS like it was one of those weekends for Harry Redknapp.
First of all we had 'one of those days' against Stoke where we did everything but score only to end up losing to that late goal from Glenn Whelan.
The misery continued for the manager against guess who on Sunday? Yes, Stoke boss Tony Pulis!
Tony played under Harry when he was manager of Bournemouth and the pair remain good friends.
Anyway, less than 24 hours after they'd pitted their wits at the Lane, they were back at it on the golf course.
Harry took up the story. "I played golf with Tony on Sunday and the bad news is he beat me at golf as well. He lives down near me still and we played golf, with one of his staff, David Kemp. So I also lost money at golf. It was a bad weekend all-round!"
Thankfully, things picked up on Tuesday!
JONATHAN WOODGATE is officially in Xtra's bad books this week.
If you recall, 'Woody' told us recently about the latest horse in the 'Woodgate Family' ownership called 'Jonny Mudball'.
The horse ran well in it's first race and was expected to follow up with another impressive performance.
Anyway, Woody popped into the Xtra office at the Lodge on Tuesday and asked 'did you see it?'
Naturally, we all thought he was referring to his clash of heads with James Beattie, so we responded sympathetically, as you do...
"Looked a shocking clash, Woody."
"Great defending, though..."
"How's the face, you okay?"
But Woody stopped us there. "No, the horse, did you see the horse?"
The answer was no, and Woody then went on to describe how Jonny Mudball had romped up at Lingfield on Monday - it had won by about 10 lengths at 5/1!
Xtra pointed out that we'd missed out on our usual 50p each-way bet and that he better remember us next time!
Xtra blames it on the concussion...
WORDS of wisdom from Jermaine Jenas when he paid a visit to the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation's half-term soccer school at White Hart Lane Community Centre on Thursday.
In a Q&A session with all the kids, he was asked what advice he would give to these youngsters, all aged between about 7-11.
"Always work hard, do you school work, stay out trouble - and listen to your mum!" he said.
Short and sweet - and true!
LOVELY one-liner from Peter Crouch on Thursday.
He'd just popped into the Press Office here at the Lodge to do an interview.
He timed it so as he walked out of the office, people were coming in.
"You'll have to duck under that door," said the person coming in.
"I have to duck under every door," said Crouchy.
The timing was immaculate.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2009
AS A number of their team-mates were involved in a training ground match against Dagenham & Redbridge and a few more spent time in the gymnasium, eight of the lads took part in a sequence of four-on-four matches in training on Tuesday.
It was Heurelho Gomes, Tom Huddlestone, Jermain Defoe and Sebastien Bassong against Carlo Cudicini, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Jermaine Jenas and Wilson Palacios on a small-sized pitch.
The star of the show had to be Benoit Assou-Ekotto, who played a key role in the 'Greens' winning the final match against the 'Blues.
It was 1-1 when it was declared that 45 seconds were left and in that time, Benoit set-up Wilson for 2-1 and then picked himself up from a blatant trip from Tom to race down the left and dink home a delightful clinching goal over Gomes.
It was smiles and high-fives all round for the Green team - and you can watch Benoit do his stuff in the latest, exclusive video at the of the page.
We've also a few pictures from training below...
OUR LATEST Xtra competition to give away three copies of October's hotspur magazine signed by Jermain Defoe certainly triggered happy memories for a fan Down Under.
Tom Salter from Georgetown, New South Wales, emailed his entry with the following story...
'...I stay up to watch my beloved Spurs until all hours of the morning (drives the missus insane). I believe this game against Hull (gives the answer away, somewhat, never mind) was a 7.45pm kick-off, which meant I had to wake up at around 4am before work to watch!
'It worked out well because we played really well and I had a bit of a wager that JD would be first goalscorer in the match! Of course he was, and I ended up pocketing $550aus for my efforts! Thanks JD!'
Tom is one of many entries for the JD competition, which is open until this Friday, October 23.
All the details are under the Thursday, October 15 entry below.
BANTER, banter, banter - we all love it and footballers excel at it.
The latest exchange overheard through Xtra's open door at the training ground was between David Bentley and our Croatian contingent Luka Modric, Vedran Corluka and Niko Kranjcar in the car park after training on Monday.
It was all over clothes and it would appear 'Bents' was getting a bit of stick because he was wearing what, it has to be said, looked like a pretty cool hat.
His response was along the lines of..."You lot are the tracksuit kids, you always look like you've got your pyjamas on!"
Love it!
INTERESTING little insight into life living away from home on loan when Ryan Mason popped in for a chat with Spurs TV Online this week.
Ryan is down in Somerset at League One side Yeovil with his Spurs team-mates Steven Caulker and Jon Obika.
Ryan, Steven and Jon all live together in Yeovil and, naturally, your caring, sharing Xtra wanted to know how the coped with, well, life.
For instance - who does the shopping? "We all go together, to be honest," he smiled. "I can't imagine what the local people think of the three of us dragging around a shopping trolley."
Surely, Xtra kindly pointed out, they forget things - we are talking about a 17, 18 and 19-year-old here!
"Those two are terrible," he added. "They have shopping lists and everything. They write it all out and tick things off as they go along."
Better than forgetting the toilet roll...
NO SURPRISES that the Seve and Tiger of our Security team - Terry Giddings and Dave Carter - are simply not letting last week's defeat to Michael Dawson and Carlo Cudicini go lightly.
If you recall, 'Daws' had a stormer as the first team pair had the better of it at nearby Woollaston Manor.
Terry was straight on the email to Xtra, pointing out that Daws had gone off an 18 handicap and was two-under after six holes!
Always the peacemaker, Xtra went straight to Daws and told him Terry simply wasn't having it. "What can I say?" said Daws. "It was the round of a lifetime. I've never played so well. I must have been 10 shots worse when I played the next day..."
Not sure if that's helping, Michael.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2009
FIRST OF all, apoligies for a later update than planned - this is due to more technical problems on the page.
We now have an archive of entries from the launch of Xtra in July until the start of the season. CLICK HERE...
Anyway...
WE KICK-OFF our latest entry with an exclusive, Xtra competition.
Jermain Defoe has signed three copies of this month's hotspur front cover and we're giving them away to three lucky fans.
To have a chance of winning the magazine - pictured above with JD - answer the question below...
Against which club did JD score a hat-trick in August?
A - Hull City
B - Huddersfield
C - Hull KR
To enter, email us your answer by CLICKING HERE and make sure to include your full name, address and a daytime contact number!
Answers to reach us by Friday week, October 23. We we will email the winner direct to confirm his/her prize. Editor's decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
JONATHAN WOODGATE is a happy man at the moment.
And it's not just his return from injury - he's pictured above in a practice match at Spurs Lodge on Tuesday - that's got him smiling.
Woody's latest horse - Jonny Mudball - made an encouraging debut recently when it finished fourth in a 6f race at Windsor and he has high hopes for the three-year-old.
Enough about that, though - Xtra wanted to know how the horse got his name.
Woody wasn't giving much away and simply told us 'it was a nickname a few of my mates gave me when I was a kid'.
DAVE CARTER, top man on security at Spurs Lodge, rolled his eyes after Xtra asked him how his form was on the golf course.
It appears he and team-mate Terry Giddings, also on security at the Lane, were on the wrong end of a hammering from Michael Dawson and Carlo Cudicini at nearby Woollaston Manor GC.
"What can you do when you are carding pars on holes but still not winning them?" he said in the manner of, well, someone who had just been hammered on the golf course.
'Daws' later confirmed the drubbing. "It must have been the round of my life," he smiled in the canteen. "And it was pouring down."
To add insult to injury, Daws was then heard shouting over to Dave in the car park: "I was rubbish when I played the next day..."
Never mind, Dave, never mind.
TURN THE clock all the way back to that fantastic win against Burnley and Robbie Keane had the gathered media in stitches.
Keano was naturally in good spirits after his four-goal haul and after talking to TV and radio - including a live chat with Stan Collymore - got around to the newspaper men.
Towards the end of the interview, he cracked up everyone with an exchange along these lines...
Press: So, Robbie, do you have days when you know it's going to be your day?
Keano: Yes, sometimes, you just get up and everything feels right.
Press: Was it like that today?
Robbie: Er no, not really...
Priceless.
XTRA had the pleasure of interviewing Giovani dos Santos recently from, of all places, his car.
Happy and smiling as ever, Gio talked about his injury and his hopes for Mexico qualifying for the World Cup in his absence - as we all know now, they delivered for him and he'll be off to South Africa next summer.
Even more impressive, though, was the car itself.
This was no 20-year-old's car though! It was spotless! Where were the empy drinks bottles? The chewing gum wrappers? The mud on the floor?
It even had one of those paper floor coverers that you only get when you have your car MOT'd (or is that just Xtra?).
Anyway, Gio soon let the cat out of the bag. "It's my mum's car," he admitted, half-way though being praised for it being so clean.
Heaven help him if he messes it up!
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2009
AFTER the fine win at Preston, the sun was out and it was all smiles at Spurs Lodge on Friday.
It was of course the final training session ahead of Burnley and the lads were all in good spirits.
The session included a fast-paced, 10-a-side one-touch game on a smaller pitch and the ball was pinging around, the competitive nature of the players there for all to see.
The likes of Keano, Crouchy, JJ and Benoit took on a team including Jermain, Aaron, Wilson and Tom and it ended as a 13-goal thriller, with Robbie's team winning the day 7-6.
Spare a thought for JD though, he scored all six of his side's goals but still ended up on the losing team!
AFTER the main session finished, Gareth Bale, Tom Huddlestone and Niko Kranjcar spent a little while longer out in the glorious sunshine, honing their free-kick and shooting techniques, under the watchful eye of coaches Tim Sherwood and Les Ferdinand.
Some of their set-pieces were superb, finding the top corner in impressive fashion that no keeper in the world would have saved - but it wasn't always the case!
Tom, who you get the impression could knock down a brick wall with a clean strike, hit one so well that just cleared the bar - but it kept rising, clearing the perimeter fence at the Lodge, over the road outside and landing in the hockey club on the other side!
In the firing line was young Academy keeper Jonathan Miles - pictured below - who made a number of fine saves as the shots rained in!
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2009
IT'S competition time!
Heurelho Gomes has signed his recent front cover of hotspur magazine and we're giving it away to one lucky Spurs fan.
To have a chance of winning the magazine (pictured above), answer the question below...
From which Dutch club did we sign Gomes?
A - PSV
B - Ajax
C - FC Twente
To enter, email us your answer by CLICKING HERE and make sure to include your full name, address and a daytime contact number!
Answers to reach us by Friday, September 25. We we will email the winner direct to confirm his/her prize. Editor's decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
ANOTHER great story from Harry Redknapp.
The manager was at the official launch of works at our new Training Centre at Bulls Cross, Enfield, when he was asked to compare what will be our new, world-class training facilities with what he'd trained and managed on in his career.
He reeled off a story from his time at Bournemouth that involved being locked INTO the training ground and being stuck half-way up a fence!
The story in full is in the flash video at the top of the page.
IT DIDN'T take long for Peter Crouch to welcome Niko Kranjcar into the fold here at Spurs.
The striker has revealed that our newest arrival plus fellow Croats Luka Modric and Vedran Corluka have been on the end of plenty of stick since England's 5-1 demolition job recently at Wembley.
Revenge for 2007 has been sweet! "I'm pleased Niko joined as it's another Croatian to rib!" laughed Crouchy. "There are three of them now and they've all had a bit of stick.
"Deservedly so as well. Niko was rubbing it in a lot when we were at Portsmouth so it's nice to get my own back!"
SEPTEMBER 16, 2009
WEDNESDAY was a big day for the Club.
It was the official start of works on our new Training Centre at Bulls Cross, Enfield - works that will transform the current site into a world-class facility to house our First Team, Development and Academy squads.
Chairman Daniel Levy was joined by manager Harry Redknapp, coaching staff Kevin Bond, Joe Jordan, Clive Allen and Tony Parks, Ledley King and representatives from all our Academy teams including Under-18 skipper Harry Kane.
Following speeches from Daniel, architect David Keirle of KSS, Shaun Dawson of Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and Cllr Eleftherios Sawa, Mayor of Enfield, guests and media were taken outside for a photocall and mini-tour of the site.
Here are some more pictures from the day...
THERE WAS a touch of magic in the air at White Hart Lane on Saturday.
Rupert Grint, star of the Harry Potter films - he famously plays one of Harry's sidekicks Ron Weasley - and Spurs fan was at his first match at the Lane.
Rupert happily stopped for autographs and photographs - from adults and children (okay, mainly adults) - before giving an exclusive interview to Spurs TV Online.
Not surprisingly, spare time is somewhat of a rarity for Rupert, who has been part of one of the biggest film series of all time since the age of 11 - 10 years now - and is now filming the final instalment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, which is being made into two films.
So will we be seeing him more of him? "Hopefully this will become a regular thing for me, especially when I finish filming," he said. "I'll think about a Season Ticket then, hopefully."
Rupert had the chance to go pitchside and was bumping into Spurs legends at every turn - David Ginola, Les Ferdinand, Chris Waddle and David Pleat were all there pre-match.
SEPTEMBER 10, 2009
HARRY REDKNAPP was in great form answering the latest batch of questions for his popular 'View from...' feature in hotspur magazine.
Highlights included...
Question: If all the strikers are on form, how will you decide who to leave out?
Harry: "I think I'll throw a dart at the dartboard..."
Question: Is it true you bought your local Italian restaurant?
Harry: "Yes - it wasn't the cleverest thing I've ever done..."
He then went on to say that on a couple of days break in the recent international break, he stepped into a restaurant in Spain and...'we'd only been in there a couple of minutes, not that many people in there when who walks in? Alex McLeish! He came in with his family and sat at the table next to us. Three days earlier we'd been sitting next to each other on the bench at White Hart Lane!"
Look out for the feature in full in October's hotspur, out at the end of the month.
NIKO KRANJCAR seems like a top bloke having met him for the first time at the Lodge on Thursday.
Perhaps it's because Xtra couldn't quite bring itself to mention what had happened at Wembley the night before...
Anyway, here he is pictured in training today.
THE AWARD for best contributed photograph to Xtra so far - and feel free to send your own - goes to the Edwards family.
Sent in by Bob Edwards, the picture shows brothers Billy, Jack and Alfie Edwards with their magnificent creation that took two hours to complete in a day out at Frinton-on-Sea.
Bob told us that there were no tide problems to ruin the lads' work but a family of West Ham fans were ready to pounce.
"We were all sharing good-natured banter - the usual stuff - but the boys were champing at the bit to flatten it, so the minute we left they probably did," he said.
Luckily, thanks to Bob, we've photographic proof.
As we said, feel free to send in your own photographs - any photograph will be considered (as long as it's Spurs related!) - email in a jpeg format by CLICKING HERE...
POSSIBLE conversations at Spurs Lodge.
Wilson: What happened with that penalty you won for Mexico that ended up beating my Honduras side in our World Cup qualifier on Wednesday?
Gio: Er, well, Wilson, it was like this...
Sure there were no hard feelings!
SEPTEMBER 3, 2009
FIRST of all, apologies for a slightly later update to Xtra than originally planned - this was due to technical problems when we were updating on Friday.
Anyway...
GREAT to talk to Luka Modric earlier today.
He's taking a positive view as he recovers from his injury and was all smiles on Xtra's suggestion that we should perhaps include some sort of chequered pattern in any new kit designs to pay homage to the Croatians now at the club!
No sooner said in jest though when Luka reminded us that Croatia's famous kit was red and white...
ROBBIE KEANE was in the press office for an interview for Spurs TV Online last week and he wasn't going to get away with Xtra not asking about his comments on Michael Dawson's dress sense in the latest issue of hotspur magazine (out now, by the way).If you remember, Robbie was asked 'the strangest thing I have seen at a game was...', to which he replied: "Michael Dawson's gear in the dressing room before a game when he's injured!"
Anyway, Robbie was happy to talk further on the subject - see our latest video above...
THE lads have been out in the community visiting some of our many Soccer Schools that take place in the school holidays.
Michael Dawson was the star attraction at Stanford le Hope, Luka Modric went to Tiptree, Peter Crouch visited Chigwell and Kyle Naughton was joined by club freestyler Billy Wingrove in Broxbourne.
Billy is pictured doing his stuff below...
TRUE telephone conversation...
Xtra: Can you put me through to the Press Office, please?
Doncaster: Post Office? There's no Post Office here. This is a football club...
TALKING of Doncaster, must admit to a cracking night all round at the all-new Keepmoat Stadium.
All the key aspects of an away trip fell into place - no traffic problems, stadium easy to find, great pre-match food in the Press Lounge (pork pies galore!) and, most importantly, we won!
Add to all that a great guy we'll just call 'Mr Biscuit', a local commentator who spent most of pre-match dishing out biscuits in the press box. We're talking Jammy Dodgers, Jaffa Cakes, those little chocolately/jam teacakes, all sorts. Okay, a lack of dunkers there but otherwise, biscuit heaven!
There was even a rainbow, see below!
XTRA feels vindicated - of sorts - for what we'll call 'stadium-gate' from our first trip to Hull's then-new stadium a few years ago.
Vindication comes in the shape of an email from Anthony Goodmaker, who says 'just thought I'd say the note on Hull away made me laugh - we made the very same mistake last season!'...
In your defence, Anthony, at least you can say you were in the dark last season (although, having said that, lack of floodlights might have been an issue...)
Anyway, as proof to how easy it is to make such a mistake, here is a photograph taken of the 'stadium' from the road while travelling to the KC a couple of weeks ago.
See, it's a stadium! (except it's a wheelbarrow warehouse).
We now have an archive of entries from the launch of Xtra in July until the start of the season. CLICK HERE...
