Spurs or England?

Tuesday, 21/02/2012

by James Willis, Shoot's Tottenham blogger

Imagine this: England travel to the European Championships this summer and surprise critics in their opening fixture by beating France 5-0.

The country is happy and perhaps, for once, looking forward to the knockout stages already.

Not long after that (at least not in international terms) England travel off to play their opening fixture in their 2014 World Cup qualification campaign against Moldova. They stumble to a 0-0 draw.

It sounds like a familiar problem and one that many people will believe that Harry Redknapp is the answer to. Then again, there's another way to look at it.

Tottenham faced high flying Newcastle United in the Premier League and, although it was expected to be close, Harry Redknapp's team ran out 5-0 winners...

Perhaps you can see where I'm going with this now.

Just a week later, that same manager in charge of the same team travels to Stevenage in what should be a pretty one-sided affair, only to scrape a 0-0 draw.

I'm not trying to be dismissive of Redknapp's ability, nor am I wanting to appear to be a gloomy Spurs fan.

Personally, I'm expecting Spurs to win the FA Cup this season. With Redknapp in charge of such a quality team it's more than possible.

That comparison was only meant to suggest that we judge potential England managers on all of their results instead of just their highlights, like has so often been done before.

The most optimistic of Spurs fans may have struggled to pull too many good points out of the performance against Stevenage.

Tottenham did have the ball in the net at one point, but the goal was ruled out for offside after it hit Scott Parker on the line.

By the letter of the law it was the correct decision, so any fan would be hard pressed to moan about the decision, even if there was very little direct interference that affected whether it would have been a goal or not.

The replay is scheduled at White Hart Lane for the evening of Wednesday, March 7. It seems like a game that Spurs could have done without, but Stevenage's performance in the original tie was easily deserving of setting up a replay, and now they have a money-spinning tie.

Tottenham will now turn their attentions to the North London derby this coming weekend. With Arsenal struggling to find form once again and Spurs still flying in the league, it seems like the match has come at an opportune time for the lilywhite half of North London.

With both teams going through important seasons, the North London derby now has even more importance than just the fierce rivalry.

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