The highly esteemed Blackburn Rovers Football Club Supporter's forum got in touch and here's what transpired.

The first chunk is their man Phillip's 'pre match prattle' so to speak - and if you click on the link beneath that you get the relevant page on their forum and so their responses. 

I thought the 'who needs Eurostar when you have Tottenham Hotspurs - our portal into Europe. Bring 'em on' was good...

"When the Premier League fixtures for 2008/9 were announced in mid-June I wonder how long the odds were against the Spurs v Rovers fixture on 22 November being a relegation 6 pointer pitching 19th against 18th? Something pretty astronomic I would imagine.

Spurs at the time had done a lot of early shopping including snaffling the destroyer of England's Euro08 chances, Luka Modric, one of the hottest properties in Europe. There was disquiet surrounding Berbatov but Spurs seemed to be in reasonable control of the situation and the club was more famous for its embarassment of having an excess of £10m+ strikers than being in danger of having no target men at all.

Equally, Rovers were being linked with calibre of Manager targets befitting a club regularly qualifying for Europe from the world's richest league- Advocaat, Ten Cate, Laudrup et al as well as the most recent England boss and the guy many had tipped to have been an English England boss although the fans were totally disdainful of both McClaren and Allerdyce (me included!). And the transfer fund of £10m whilst nothing to disturb the Premier rich boys league was significantly more than Hughes had spent net during the whole of his time at Ewood. There seemed every prospect of it being boosted by the £5m compo yanked out of City before they could talk to Hughes and another £3m donation from the Walker Trust. Bentley was being a drunken fool in front of the Sky cameras on the Costa Lampard but surely a new Manager of sufficient gravitas would be appointed to sort that idiot out?

In the event, both Bentley and Berbatov departed and Robbie Kean jumped ship as well leaving both clubs looking at how Villa had managed to ride the Barry storm (and pinch Friedel which prompted the other Spurs/Rovers trade bringing Robinson to Ewood). More poignantly, when the dust had settled at midnight on 1 Setember, Rovers and Spurs stood alone in the transfer league table having made substantial and surely wholly unintentional profits from the previous two months' window of trading activity/inactivity.

Those of an economic bent would argue that both clubs' disinvestments in footballers alone would qualify them for tumbling from Euro tyros to relegation sweaters but as we all know, there is much more to the story than that.

Harry Hotspur (http://www.oleole.com/blogs/harryhotspur), a doyen of the football club blogerati and at times total pain in the side (and other parts of the anatomy) of Tottenham's owners and management and other Spurs' fans has kindly agreed to help enlighten us following on from Rovers' abject surrender and Gomes' special at Craven Cottage last week-end (and despite of, or perhaps inspired by, a bad chest infection):

1) Does 'arry walk on water?

HH:  No, but he does occasionally skim across the surface like a well propelled flat shiny thing.

2) How could Ramos be so fantastically good in Spain and a complete dud at White Hart Lane?

HH:  Despite a decent CV, that guy had too many things not going for him. He was as about as interesting to listen to as Stephen Hawking and his people skills were non-existent. Motivationally he had the midas touch in reverse. Never undervalue the fact that where he came from they didn't put the kettle on.

3) It must be so frustrating to be the best financially managed club in the Premier League yet you famously buy rubbish players every transfer window

HH:  Untrue. In the main, we historically buy good players and fail to get much out of them.

4) How is David Bentley?

HH:  He's stuck on level 6 of Dragon Quest SwordsThe Masked Queen And The Tower Of Mirrors.
OK - He's happy Ramos is gone.
My guess is he's looking forward to settling in, assisting more, scoring more and establishing himself as an England player.

5) You are the archetypal marzipan layer club- you wrecked Rovers' team by buying our best player but Man U and Liverpool do the same to you. Are you going to join the cake mix or the icing?

HH:  First of all I want to make it quite clear I hate Jane Asher and when she was voted out of Maestro that was a happy day in our house.

There's a food chain alright. And it's built on the desires and appetites of the players.

I haven't got any time for the idiots that say a Chairmen shouldn't have sold Player X or Player Y.  Contracts or not you can't MAKE someone play for you.
At the end of the day clubs are at the mercy of the whim of their players.

6) Paul Ince- should Rovers keep him or fire him?

Fire him out of a cannon.

Ever heard of the Peter Principle?
Your problem is who you would lure if he went?
I mean, we're frequently as rubbish as you, but we're never linked with the Ian Dowies of the world.


7) Who is going to get relegated this season?

HH:  West Brom are gone. West Ham would be nice and I always wish it on Fulham.
The mathematicians will start drawing up their shortlist at Christmas.
Newscastle would be hilarious and if their home form collapses they're gone.


8) Any special memories of playing against Rovers in the past? (I can think of one in Cardiff)

HH:  Would you be very deeply offended if I said, "None." ?


9) How many are you going to beat us by?

HH:  That's a generous question but I think a messy 2-2 draw is on the cards.
A game of two goalkeepers, perhaps?

Ah well, that's me told re my persistent criticising of Ince for selling Bentley or perhaps Harry is toeing the WHL party line.. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

My recollections of Rovers at WHL include some cracking wins for Rovers not least the 3-2 at WHL which I think was the last appearance of the SAS together (albeit only for the 5 mins Sutton appeared as a late sub but enough to set up Shearer for a fulminating late winner), the 4-0 season ticket confetti game and Samba's wonderful late strike last season. But I can remember two very honourable 3-2 defeats in which Rovers played the Spurs off the park and still lost; 1965/6 and 2005/6 (the Bellamy/FSP double act where we maintained 85% posession for 20 minutes).

I also remember the 4-0 thrashing we took in the old second division in Jim Smith's wonderful season at Ewood and fear that is the precedent for Sunday as surely Gomes will be dropped.

In truth I can scarcely see an honourable defeat let alone a Rovers win this coming week-end. But if we do win, it will feel like Cardiff all over again.

Finally I asked Harry what prompted him to start the blog?

HH:  I wanted a wall for the wise and the witty and the winos to write on.


The pleasures and pitfalls?


HH:  The pleasures are endless.
The mob that contribute and make the blog what it is and are exactly the the sort of degenerate superstars you would want to talk to in the pub about your club.

The pitfalls are as in real life.
Dull people.

What does the club think of your blog?


HH:  I'm sure senior personnel at The Lane couldn't care less about me. I'd like to maintain that relationship.


http://www.brfcs.co.uk/mb/index.php?showtopic=20215&st=0&#entry693370

  Just thought that this was worth a share.

More reasons for the Yid in the street to thank the sweet Lord and all his infinite mercies for the straight talking 'Arry Redschnapps. 

'So Harry, are these are nailed on or my money back piccies of the new Spurs stadium?'

My reply is that these are good. Very good indeed. And certainly head and shoulders above much of the rubbish that has been floating around. Therefore passed on in good faith.

The new public square that welcomes spectators to the venue will feature the roof truss of the previous stadium attached to two concrete columns acting as a memorial wall, remembering the history of the club.

Symbolically, it will act as the gateway from the old into the new.

As you can see, the bulk of the new stadium is much larger than the current white hart lane but the height is only slightly increased. The overall visual impact will change significantly, but the design prevents a giant towering and overpowering structure at the site, in terms of height. The translucent roof reduces the impact of shadows on the surrounding structures.

The roof concept is the same as this one, except this is an olympic athletics stadium proposal. The roof structure is not final, but its a lighter structure than this one, and smaller, so I don't think engineering is challenge.
 

Steep tiers close to the action

Allianz Arena
Tier 1 24 degrees
Tier 2 29 degrees
Tier 3 34 degrees

Spurs Stadium
Tier 1 25 degrees
Tier 2 30 degree
Tier 3 35 degrees

I think the design is still quite intimate given the steep tiers.
I'm more of a floating roof kinda person. Thats the aim of this roof i.e. to appear as if its floating above the stadium bowl.

Furthermore, its almost an indoor stadium since the roof opening is quite small and covers part of the field too.

Make no mistake, the team selected by Mariachi Man was an error of judgement and has cost him this competion. By contrast, Redschnapps sidesteps another potential banana skin and compounds his reputation as the Miracle Man.

Another game where the energy, the resilience and desire of Tottenham shone through. Our counterattacking was swift and largely unforgiving. This Liverpool tean wasn't the best, but we played who they put before us and we did 'em by two clear goals.

Huddlestone was exciting to watch. His ten yard passes were as useful as his twenty yard ones. We were dying for him to shoot.

So we survived. More than survived. When 'Arry took over we faced an immeadiate run of Bolton, Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool and naffing Liverpool again. Who could have predicted just how well we would account for ourselves? The next league run consists of Fulham, Blackburn, Everton and West Ham.

BIOYC!

Gomes 5 Fearless and nuts. Let's hope BJ and Honeycut can fix him up.  

Cesar 7 An outstanding save. Didn't look too shoddy at all.

Corluka 8 Calmer than a calm thing, more composed than an art student's picture of a bowl of fruit.

Hutton 6.5 Not outstanding.

Bale 6 Needs to get a plan. This one isn't entirely working.

Dawson 6.9 Looked re-invigourated and about 100 IQ points better off from his last appearance.

Zokora 7.5 This guy does impressions! Last night it was a 'Defensive Midfielder'. Astonishing gig.

O'Hara 7.2 Grafted.

Huddlestone 8 MOTM. Looked terrific. Creative, hard tackling and deserved a goal. Wunderbar.

Lennon 7.5 Motored all night.

Campbell 8.1 Intelligent kid. Ran all night and took advantage of a second rate Liverpool.

Pavlyuchenko 8.1 Doesn't muck about. Supercalifragilisticromanpavlyuchenko [repeat til fade...]

Boateng 7 What was that Madness lyric? 'Bring back the Prince..' Looked very useful.

Torrent for entire game HERE and first half HERE and HERE and second half HERE and HERE

It's all upbeat when it comes to 'Arry so far. And with the revitalised performances he's been serving up only rightly so.

Here's some gold from within the hallowed walls that may go some way to explaining where the feel good factor has come from.

In one of his first gatherings with the players, 'Arry said, "You boys look hungry" ...and proceeded to plant a bottle of ketchup on the table.

Huddlestone is being kept on a slightly shorter leash as 'Arry is determind to keep him 'lean and mean'.

This backs up what I was hearing from another source recently who told me that the Ramos food regime was so oppressive that a number of players were on more than one occasion sneaking off to a McDonalds after training.

'Arry was dumbfounded by the atmosphere in the dressing room. He felt the banter was 'criminal' and took immeadiate action. He instructed Pavlyuchenko and Modric to 'start taking the piss' out of the English players.

On player development some great news!

Lennon has been told not to worry about scoring. 'Arry wants all his attention on his final ball.

Bentley is well regarded. 'Arry sees him almost in the Ronaldo mould - going past players and the dead ball specialist.

Gareth Bale has had a bit of an earful. His development is a key concern. 'Arry is more than aware he hasn't been producing like he was.

Corluka has really caught 'Arry's eye and his progress viewed as a real positive. Hutton has not made such a good first impression but still very much being worked on.

That's all good in my book.

Viva 'Arry.

 SIGN THIS!

http://www.petitiononline.com/tr4n5f3r/petition.html

Word just in from the training ground that Jemaine Jenas is very unlikely to feature in tomorrow's Carling Cup game against Bindipper FC. 

The problem is toe shaped and one that has required holes drilled into the nail in order to release the pressure build up. Dependent upon how he responds to treatment it is felt he could even miss the Fulham game too.

Elsewhere, the most heavily substituted knacker in the history of substituted knackers looks certain to be benched by Benitez.

"People talk about big names playing but it is more important to talk about good players and we will have good players playing in the Carling Cup." said the most successful Mariachi player to have ever managed a Premiership side.

Yes Piltdown man, he means to rest you and unleash the proven and consequently feared Torres on us.

SIGN THIS!

http://www.petitiononline.com/tr4n5f3r/petition.html

This will be a really interesting fixture and it must have been a while since anyone has said that and actually meant it.

Playing City was always a bit like facing Villa. The only guarantee was 90 minutes of pretty joyless hard work and with one lapse of concentration you could be you on your way with no points.

How times thankfully change. This game will present instead to rather revitalised teams and we might just might find ourselves promoted from the comedy tag item on Match Of The Day.

Needless to say but I will anyway, a win will catapult us out of the bottom slot. A draw may serve as a credible part of the healing process, but will be of little use otherwise.

It's all about goals. City have knocked in twelve at home in contrast to the rather lonely brace of Spurs' net rattlers away.

City's 'dangerman' is Robinho, but Ireland, Elano and Wright Phillips have all scored three league goals a piece so far. By contrast, Benty has five with Jenas and Pav sitting on two each...

City will give us the space so it's a question then of how we use it. I feel cautiously upbeat. City are as useless as us. Which is to say they can flatter to decieve and the right team can go in there and collapse them. Huddlestone or Jenas could open them up and Bentley and Lennon could really cause some trouble. Could. What a word.

I fancy us to beat them by two goals. Bold as brass but there you have it. 0-2, 1-3 ...it's all the same to me. Huddlestone as an anytime scorer is 7/1, so it only makes sense to extend your loan and get on.

BIOYC!

Please don't get me wrong, four - nil against anybody is a good thing. And here's the 'but'. But be under no illusions this game needs to be filed along with the pre season friendlies in terms of form value.

Zagreb didn't really show up. Dinamo's fans turned up alright. They were the bare chested mentalists letting off flares and singing Wagnerian choral verses to the tune of Yellow Submarine. 

And a small group of Spurs fans will meet with the North London Sanity Commission today to explain why they felt the need to sing about Jermain Defoe when ...they had Darren Bent in front of them scoring repeatedly.

Oh how we chuckled when the issue of player confidence was raised...

Morale wise this game won on two fronts. 'Arry showed he could box clever and find the balance between Europe and the Premiership commitments. And for the squad, another cohesive performance and another game moving on from the Ramos quagmire.

And here's a torrent for the whole game CLICKY

Anyway, get your laughing gear round this. Ryan Mason, John Bostock  Dorian Dervitte are tipped, amongst others of course, to feature this evening.

Which will make this a game where 'Arry stamps his authority on proceedings and sends out a couple of clear messages. Our Premiership campaign will not be compromised by 'other' tournaments. And that we have talent beyond our first eleven which ought to be utilised.

Redschnapps told Sky Sports, "I'd love to get some of the youth team into the first team, that is the long-term aim. " Which is a far cry from Wendy's 'them and us' approach.

Of Bostock in particular 'Arry said, " He's on the bench and I'd love to get him on the pitch," Redknapp said. "He's only 16, a kid with terrific talent and a lovely left foot." I bet it's replusive compared to Miss Zagreb's,  but I digress.

'Arry's attitude is refreshing in that there is an air of openess and common sense. Not knocking him for a second bu saying this, but he's making the sort of decisions 90% watching the games would make. Despite the feel good factor we urgently need to stop mucking about and get out of the relegation zone sharpish.

'Arry is on the case. "I've never seen a tighter league and it may take more points than normal to stay up.

"At the moment the ambition is to make sure we get out of the bottom group of the table, then you can relax and play with less fear."

So to the game itself. Stats bore me be here's a goody.  This lot have never won on English soil.

I had a bit of luck with my last Lennon anytime scorer bet so we'll revisit that happy hunting ground this time out at 10/3. Score? Heart says 8-0 obviously, head says 2-1.

Oh yeah and the press to give Gomes a break.

COYS!

Paul Barber was emailing people two days ago saying, "I can confirm that at this stage we do not anticipate any live television coverage of the above match on either satellite or terrestrial channels."

The THFC Press Office added yesterday,"The Dinamo Zagreb UEFA Cup game is not being broadcast live on any UK channel. There will shortly be an announcement on coverage via Spurs TV Online."

The transmission only costs £1.99 and you can always cancel immeadiately afterwards if you feel it isn't for you. And no, I'm not on commission.

The implication from the Official Site is that as they haven't sold the transmission rights to this match so will be no conflict ...and subscribers will be able to watch this game regardless of their location. There has been a fair amount of disinformation floarting around on this fixture so I hope this sheds some light on things for everyone.

Do you know anywhere showing the game?

CLICK

Do not post links to streaming sites here. Thank you!