Winning Harts and Minds

It's back!!! And so am I.

Sitting in the local pub, I enjoyed what I can only describe as a 45 minute mauling that didn't have a finished product. But that will come in time, surely it won't take too long for the likes of Defoe, Keane, Crouch, Pav to find their shooting boots (or find there walking boots out of WHL and into the clutches of another team *SPOILER ALERT*)

I thought we were phenomenal in the first half. Dominant, confident, free flowing - it was magical to see Bale decimate Micah Richards (still want to sign him?) Huddlestone have the likes of Barry, Yaya Toure & DeJong in his pocket, Crouch getting on the end of everything - I could go on.

City looked awful in the first half, a group of stars without a leader, any direction or any idea WTF they were meant to be doing. Mancini clearly played for a draw, playing three defensive midfielders across the middle and Tevez having to run the show on his own without any support. Kind of felt sorry for him.

It's time to mention what every other Spurs/ Man City blog have been talking about; one of the best goalkeeping appearances I have seen for some time (since Gomes v Arsenal in fact.) Some of the saves made - in particular the BAE deflected shot, were superb.

Joe Hart equalling another Spurs attack.

But enough on that.

To put this post into four words, I would go for More of the same. Keep playing the way we did against City and the goals will flow.

Young Boys next. On a side note, did any of you catch Andy Burton on 'soccer am' on Saturday be involved in one of the most awkward pre-match interviews I have ever seen? Lets just say, there was a link between 'Young Boys', 'Internet' and 'Studying'.

Line.Stepped.Crossed.Spat On.

Young boys will be a bigger challenge than you all think. They knocked out Fenerbache for Gods Sake, quite a good team. Shame they play in a town called 'Wankdorf'. OK OK I'll stop.

To dare is to do. COYS.

So.. What happens now?

I was so nervous I could of punched someone. Just to take my mind off the last 5 minutes + ET against City. I just knew they were going to score..... Wait??? FINAL WHISTLE?!!! GET IN!!!

Celebrating one of our proudest moments in decades.

*****The next day*****

Some of you are nursing hangovers, I for one am.

So, we did it. We made it to the promised land after all these years, what can I say? We truly deserved it, for the first time in God knows how long, I really think we got the result we deserved. City were tough, Tevez looked lively, with De Jong holding the midfield line pretty damn well. I have to give the credit to Dawson and King. They were immense at the back, really gave it their all to cope with the threat that is the City attack. Kaboul kept Bellamy in his back pocket from start to finish, which you don't see very often - especially when City are at home. Let the parties begin all over the land! CITY CAN'T BUY 4TH PLACE YET....

Back down to earth. We have had a tremendous season, so I will now highlight some of the key games/ points in the season which effected where we are today (in no particular order):

- Beating Liverpool on the opening day: OK it might not be the most important game and it feels like such a long time ago but people actually started to take notice of us. We were seen as some sort of understudy to the inevitable 'Man City' tidal wave and remember, this is when Liverpool were considered to be the best team in the league; many had them down as PL Champions in their pre season predictions (as well as me.) It was also the first time we really saw Huddlestone and Palacios work well together. This shaped our season....

- Bale getting that FUCKING omen off his back: Again, not the most important thing now its been mentioned, but the media do love a great statistic. Yes Bale has not been on the winning side for Spurs in the PL since he arrived (I think it was 23 games in total before he did, don't quote me on it though) Just look at what happened when he did. Remember: we were also meant to be shipping him off on loan to Nottingham Forrest at the beginning of the season. Yipes!

- Dawson playing out of his skin: What a fucking legend. He has truly come alive this season. Capello will be a MUG not to take him to South Africa. Fuck, he'll be a mug not to start him after the season that our two 'best' Cb's have had...

- Beating Wigan 9-1: I don't really need to say much on this. So i will just say... Defoe (5).

- The defeat to Sunderland (03/04/2010): You might laugh, but that defeat REALLY opened our eyes. We really couldn't get away with shoddy defensive work or having one eye on the Pompey match a week later. It was a shambles and we got what we deserved. IMO if we got something out of that game, we would of lost to Arsenal & Chelsea. Harry gave the players the ear bashing they deserved and we buckled down to put in two of the greatest performances I have seen in a VERY long time.

- Pavulychenko's run of 8 goals in 6 games: He came up top trumps when we needed him. We needed someone who could score, he did. We won games off the back of his form during that period. He went off the boil afterwards, but quite frankly - he is forgiven.

- Jenas being injured: That meant we didn't play him, he got fit towards the end of the season, Harry realised 'if it ain't broken, don't fix it' and by that he meant - DON'T FUCKING PLAY HIM.

- Lennon: Christ. What a winger he truly is. If we had him fit, 3rd would of been ours by now.

- The Octopus: Pulled out some of the greatest saves I've ever seen in a Spurs shirt. Immense goalkeeper. I think some of the applause has to go to Tony Parks for his incredible work on getting his confidence back. That save against RvP was what put him in the category of true Spurs legends.

- April 2010: What a month. Started against Sunderland & Pompey (already discussed) but ended with some of the greatest football I have ever seen at WHL. We were incredible against the Goons and Chelsea. Every player did their job, even exceeded their expectations (BAE) and our secret weapon was unleashed against cowering right-backs.

- Telling Keane to fuck off: It had to be done. I'm sorry to all Keane lovers out there, but he had to go; the team was NOT gelling, Keane was NOT pulling his weight as a captain, just waving his arms like a psychotic leprechaun dancing to funky house music in the late 90's. Let him recapture his form and sell him for profit. Done.

OK that will do for now, there will probably be more to come in the next few days.

I love this club. To dare is to do. CY out.

COYFS.

"As you can see, emerging from behind the sofa, startled and shivering, the common Spurs fan forages for food, yet does not know how to handle success. After defeating Bolton, 4th really is an option for these creatures, so behind the sofa is a safe place until all is asured on Wednesday evening. Once the clock strikes 22:00 on 5/5/2010, these creatures will reveal their true passion and relief to the other contenders, proving that they are the dominant alpha male team".

Ok, enough of that.

Welcome one and all to CY Blog.

Today, and today only - a happy blogger. Tomorrow, I will be staring at the clock as it ticks slowly towards 7:30, then 7:45 then GO! All hell breaks loose and I shit my pants for 2 hours. Continuiously. We have had a phenominal season, the best points haul we have had since the prem started. That alone is something to be proud of.....

An interesting aspect to look at: City have more at stake than us. We don't necessarily carry the weight of expectation on our shoulders, City do. They MUST get into the top 4, or the Sheik's will start having to cut throats and the inevitbale 'heads will roll' scenario will come into play. Mancini? One of the best managers in the league? No. Personally, I think Hughes did a better job. ANYWAY, back to us.

Every player has pulled their weight this season, played their own part. Great to see. We are not relying on one or two players to do the business for us (Jol era anyone?) and being hopeless in every other department. Except Jenas (sorry, I had to go there.) Harry has got the best out of our squad and we genuinely are playing well. Not a sight I am used to. We CAN do this. We have a great record at eastlands....

COYFS!

The Magic of Alan Wiley

Ohhh, a Wiley old fox isn't he?

I have deleted this blog post twice already, being heldback from unleashing the fury of the CAPS LOCK key when venting frustrations about what I will now dub 'Black Sunday'.

Picture the scene; you've been looking forward to this for well over a week now, a clear route to the FA cup final, something you would DREAM of and I would of snatched with both hands on the opening day of the season - but that's personal expectations eh?

4th or FA Cup?

Well... 4th now, I suppose.

We were dire in front of goal, Crouch missing what can only be described as 'Sandra' shots on numerous occasions. A half fit Huddlestone was bullied constantly, as was Modric. Grant played us well, frustrated our players, manager and fans and waited... waited for the golden opportunity (there were several for Pompey.)

We didn't show the spirit of a team that needed the win. We turned up with the mentality that winning was a mere formality... We all thought it, even though in the back of our minds we were ALL thinking "I've got a bad feeling about this."

Enough about the FA cup, its killing me.

So, what about the run in eh? Christ on a stick its going to be tough. Were made of stern stuff these days, I can see us absorbing the challenge from Arsenal and hitting on the counter. God I hope we get something out the the Arsenal & Chelsea games.

Man City will be key, that will be the 6-pointer. We loose? Were playing Lithuania's second best team...

Handheld: Welcome to the world of... errr 1989?

I think I made a mistake at the weekend. Well, at least an educated mistake. I bought a PSP 3000. I was drawn in with the shiney blue colour, the idea of playing some of my favourite PS1 games and some great PSP games too! I parted with £139.99 of my hard earned money and waved bye bye to the shopkeeper, grinning away thinking "Yes, this is a good day".

Then I got on the train home from my extended journey to the south coast, opened the box and put in the new Gran Turismo for the handheld (suprisingly enough called GT Handheld.) Graphically fantastic, love the crisp and clear image and for a handheld device the rendering speed of the game is suprisingly good too. No graphical lag whatsoever. I cant fault the game, except there's no career mode: more on that later.

Yeah, you knew there would be a problem, the second paragraph gave that away.

I would love the console, embrace it and maybe attempt to shag it - if I could use it outside of my house or during the day. If it's sunny out (I know this is England, but at the moment its actually quite hot) I cannot see ANYTHING on the screen. So, I bought a handheld console FOR train journeys, but cannot USE them on train journeys? Excellent purchase there CY. Well done.

For instance, this morning I was playing Metal Gear Solid (you know, the one on the PS1) and I wa going through the vents to find the DARPA Chief (note, this bit might be boring for you if you havent played MGS) and I actually got lost. THERES ONLY ONE WAY TO GO!!!!!

The reason for the title is this:

IF in 1989 the Game Boy didn't have this problem, infact ANY Nintendo handheld consoles then why can't Sony fix theirs? They have released about 6/7 versions of the PSP, yet they still haven't fixed this? The idea is PORTABLE but I cannot USE this outside my house. Ok enough ranting. This is not the way to sort it.

In a nutshell, PSP great console, fucking great laugh but only a tiny detail means I cannot see anything happening; even if so much as a mouse lighting a fart can cause a loss of ability to see what I'm doing then there really is no hope.

"It's Business Time".

9 League games to go, with one or more cup games left.

Thinking about it like that, it doesn't seem very long does it? If this was a FM10 scenario, I would play to the end of the season before I went to bed and spent the next day complaining 'feeling tired'.

News circulating around WHL is that Tommy Hudd and Bentley are close to returning from injury and might make the squad against Blackburn on Saturday 'Triffic as Harry would say.

However, being a Spurs fan - therefore I am doomed to the detremental effects of "This will be our season" scenario. There are some things that need to be factored into the business time of the season. These aren't necessarily Pros or Cons, just mere observations (of course from a biased POV)

1. We are in probably the best situation we have been for years. This can work either way. We have a habit of throwing games away when the sitaution gets a little pear shaped. However, Liverpool are pretty much out of the race (kiss of death, how are you?) so thats one less team to worry about.

2. FA Cup. The gift or the curse? We have the ability to win this and we wouldn't be meeting Chelsea or Villa along the way to the final, so we have got a GREAT chance to at least get a sniff of Wembley. However, a distraction from the league? You bet your arse it is.

3. Aaron Lennon. Will he be fit? Even more important, will he be playing well again? Probably will be, but thats still something to think about. Lennon has been hailed 'The new Messiah' this season, but putting too much pressure on the little lad might mean his form dips. We do need him fit pretty sharpish. If not, we could be staring at 7th.

4. The fixtures list. I was having a chat with a few guys from work and we worked out result by result who would finish 4th (this started last week) Liverpool got it. We were 6th. We have an unbelieveable 3 games in April, Arsenal (H), Chelsea (H), Man UTD (A).

Ill give you a minute to let that sink in.....

I can only see us getting any sort of result against Arsenal. Not being all 'rivals, rivals etc' with you, its just that we manage to get a decent game out of them. Provided we have a decent team available to us, I cant see any reason why we cant get at least a point?! Knowing our luck, Robin Van Persie will have his first game back and score a fucking hattrick.

I've got the faith. I genuinely think we can grab 4th and hang onto it till the end of the season. Man City will be the only withstanding problem though.

Hang in there fellow Spurs fans.

Oh and to update my FM10: I am now AC Milan, 5 games in my 3rd season on the game and I'm 7th. In a transition period, getting rid of all the old fuckers and replacing them with younger and better players. It will take time......

Layout-Ness

Well, considering I said yesterday "Gone are the shite pictures..." they are, too an extent.

I've decided to put 3 of the worst ones I did in some form of 'mini-banner' for the blog. Thought it would look kinda cool. It doesn't and now I cant be arsed to change it.

Like it? Good.

Dont like it? Good.

INDIFFERENCE. That's my middle name. Ok, thats a lie - its George.

I pay in blood

While I'm here, if there's anyone who wants to guest write for this blog - drop me a mail at twista.moh@graffiti.net. I'll see what you can do and we can go on from there!

Decent graphics wouldn't go amiss on here either, so if you want to do some design work for me that would be great.

Also, I am up for linking to websites if you want - so if you have a website that wants to be put in the links area (christ knows why...) or some form of affiliation then drop me a line and we can have a chat from there about it.

I pay in blood. It wont be yours and like fuck will it be mine but it would be a nice gesture. Put simply, no I aint paying you for it.

"My Names CY and I'm an Addict, but I have no idea Why".

Cliché title. Apologies.

Gone are my shite blog title drawings too; in all fairness its down to laziness. I cant be bothered to create more and the ones I already have are pants. Anyway, back to the reason why I am writing this blog today:

If you read this, you will probably be aware that I was going to buy Heavy Rain. In fact, in my last blog I stated "I am getting it today". No. No I didn't. And here is the reason why....

FIFA 10 Ultimate Team. *sigh* I am addicted. I have spent too much money buying card packs for no valid reason. Infact, so much bloody money that my games budget for the month has been overspent (I'm moving house soon, got to save what I can...) But the main question to be had from this is WHY?! WHY do I spend SO much time and some (yes some, not all) of my hard earned wages on cards for this game?

Hmm.. I seem to have gone off at a tangent. Lets start this bit again:

EA Sports have decided that it would be a great idea to milk more money out of the cash cow that is the Fifa series. Apparently, dressing up the game with new kits and slapping an incrementing number every year on the box still isn't enough for them. So the last game (surprisingly called FIFA 09) had a new patch at the end of Feb known as 'Ultimate Team'. The idea for this is to build a team using coins or money from your XBOX LIVE/ PS3 Network cash accounts to pay for individual players on cards. To get coins you must win matches online or offline through single matches or tournaments. Or another way is to browse their version of ebay for individual cards, using your coins to bid for the player. This also works in reverse, as you are able to trade players you don't want or who don't fit your formation. EA Brought this for FIFA 10 a week or two ago now. There is more to it than that, but It's already complicated as it is...

Now we're back up to speed... WHY?! WHY do I spend SO much time and some (yes some, not all) of my hard earned wages on cards for this game? I'm sure many others are in the same boat. The simple fact is, it brings out the childhood in you. Remember Football stickers? Remember spending your pocket money on trying to find the Tottenham Badge Shiney? Ok maybe that was just me, but you see where I'm coming from. It the same as tearing that old packaging for your football stickers with your teeth, getting that fresh sticker smell... then ultimate disappointment when you look through the cards saying:

"Got, Got, Got, Got, Got, Got.. Mark Bosnich?? That fat bastard AGAIN!?! Thats the fourth time this week!?!"

I have actually done this when getting gold card packs on Ultimate Team:

"Got, Got, Got, Another 90 contract..., Another 90 contract..., Another 90 contract..., Another 90 contract..., Armand! I got him again? Fuck sake". This is indeed the 5th time I have got this player...

But every once in a while, you find the gem. The glowing happiness when I saw the 84 overall rating sticking out of the side of the pack... the anticipation "Julio Baptisa!!!!" I actually danced when I got him (he fits perfectly into my Brazilian team)

OK OK OK... Enough fanboy-ism's

In summary: I hate spending money on it, but I fucking adore the addon; it brings out the excitable yappy child in you from back when you collected Football Stickers and Pokemon cards. Except in Ultimate Team, you actually do something with the cards instead of look at them wondering "right, now how the fuck do you play this game..." (reference to Pokemon trading card game of course there...)

Heavy Rain - New dimention of gameplay?

A while back, during a dull and seemless lecture - Heavy Rain was brought to our attention. We were shown a sequence in which a female character gives a thorough monologue about a cheating husband; fantastically scripted with graphics to give some people a wet dream (cough... not me.. cough) over. After watching this, I decided "I MUST HAVE THIS GAME".

Strangely enough, the sequence we were shown is not anything to do with the game whatsoever, just an empty teaser which brings nothing to the plate apart from a "Yep, this is what our motion capture imagery is like. Look at the shiney shiney light reflections off the rain, beaten face of our character". That's fine, but at least give us something more. Thats what we all wanted. More.

It took me a while to get over that sequence. I even forgot about the game for sometime, but I found some vids on Youtube of the actual gameplay and was hooked once again. More! More! MORE! Again, only fragmented gameplay sequences. Nothing to sink your teeth into. Was that the reason for it? If so, its a fucking good piece of marketing. Bravo. Anyway, back to the actual reason for this blog.

Heavy Rain was released today in the UK. The demo has been available for sometime, but due to previous experiences with Demo's (GT5 Prologue, hmmm £19.99 for a demo... fuck that) I have vowed to never touch them again. Reviews have been great, however it looks as though its one of those "Love it or hate it" scenarios.

Love: Graphics, immersion factor, storyline
Hate: WTF do you actually do?, Controlls seem alittle strange, It is now a pointy-clicky adventure game, mixed with QUICK TIME EVENTS.

There are pro's and cons, but ultimately this is definately a ground-breaking theory to gaming. Having said that, Mirror's edge was a 'ground breaking theory to gaming' and now I can find it for £7.99 in the Blockbusters bargain bin... I'm buying it today, as will many others - so you wont be able to fault the sales figures come next month.

I'm reserving my total judgement of Heavy Rain until I play it fully and experience the 'interactive story' for myself. From an outside perspective, this game really does look like it breaks the mould but we will see.... We will see....

Stagnated Appeal- Supporting a team the Spurs way.

The 'nearly' boys are almost being considered the 'ordinary boys'. explain.

Well ok, this isn't too difficult a question: The debate that is being flung around like shit off a shovel today is that "Spurs are boring. They don't play real football. Route one, Route one." blah blah blah.

This is just grade A bollocks. Brad Friedal (sp) in all fairness, a player I have a great amount of respect for, apparently took a pop at us after the 0-0 on Saturday about our style of play - which to me is laughable. This is coming from a team that were under constant pressure from the start (apart from Gomes' great double save) and pretty much 'parked the bus'. Stoke also took a pop, but in all honesty.............. exactly. Nothing to say about the likes of Stoke.

We play great football, to quote 'Arry "we pass the ball to death" but at times seem to be lacking that killer edge to put teams to bed. Is this down to our style or play when Crouch is playing? Would we have as many goals if we had Pav playing regularly? double edged sword... Take Crouch out of the equation and Defoe will not get the close service that he needs to put it away. Playing Pav in the Crouch position will give us a better overall striker and will probably score more than Crouch, but Pav's hold up play is "Bent" at best, therefore Defoe will suffer.

Crouch won virtually everything in the air on Saturday and did all you would want from him, but can you expect him to score week in week out? no of course not, thats not the type of forward he is.

Solution?

Try the Defoe/Crouch pairing until the 60th/70th and if nothing works then actually CHANGE something and bring Pav for the last 20 or so. Gives us a greater attacking option....

Great to see Bale and Bentley playing well once again. I always said they would (oops.......)

"Shut the Window, the Heats getting out!!"

I have been thinking about how to address this for the past couple days, hence why I haven't really bothered to write it yet.

The January Transfer Window.

Oh yes, the shining beacon that is the January Transfer Window. In recent years, Spurs have made the window work in their favour. For instance, signing those last minute players who have helped us on course to another season of mediocrity. However, the boot is on the other foot this time. We are in a position where we don't necessarily need to buy any players whatsoever, only to sell a couple of the fringe players just to put their career's back on track (Bentley, Pavulychenko, Hutton) so what do we do here? There are of course, the likes of UTD and possibly Liverpool who might be sniffing around Modric and or Lennon, but a swift and simple:

"FUCK OFF"

- might be necessary there. We cannot under ANY circumstances afford to sell any of our top players. No matter what the price. We do that and our economic dreams of CL football are over as quick as it took Robbie Keane to hop on a train back from Liverpool. Right now, we are in a stronger position than this time 05/06 season, on the basis that we actually have a strong TEAM, rather than teams falling apart around us

Even the Goons are having a good season (which they didn't in 05/06) so we cant exactly say that its not our own fault. This time around, we are chasing a genuine target, rather than 'just having a pretty decent season'. We are in a GREAT position and we actually have 11 winnable games coming up, until we reach the 3 of the 'top-four' so I cant see why we shouldn't be up there come March/April time. However, this transfer window is crucial to us. We sell ANY of our first team and we've had it. No if's, no but's had it. I would be shocked to see a sheer lack of ambition within the club and it would become ever obvious that Mr. Levy (Chairman) is more concerned with lining his suits with gold bought from season tickets than seeing us progress from a 'nearly' club to the good ol' days before I was born (lol)

So to summarize, Levy DON'T sell anyone key to the squad. Utterly pointless. Keep what we have, just hang on to what he got til Feb and CY will be dancing his way to 4th Spot come May.

And its Go, Go, GO!

Apologies for the drawing, it really is ment to be a XBOX 360. Honest.

So, the topic of today is Forza 3. I picked this up when I got my 360 but didnt get round to playing it due to the addiction that is Modern Warfare 2.

Having played the original, I wasn't really that impressed. The graphics were somewhat wayward and GT3 was still a much MUCH better game. I never played the second, probably for reasons to do with the first Forza, but I was turned by the rave reviews and friends egging me on to 'Stop being such a tight-arse and fucking buy it'. I saw it for half price and went for it.

For the last couple days I have been truely hooked on it. It is immense. The level of detail that goes into each car, be it mechanically (handling) or aesthetically is sheerly breathtaking. Even the 'unofficial' tracks are brilliant, with clear thought put in to every single corner. Another interesting way of looking at this is from a novice (noob) perspective.

In this instance I'll be picking on my Girlfriend (sorry babe.) She doesn't play many games, hasn't been that much of a fan of racing games full stop- but picked the game up, shoved some assists on (racing line) and adored it, beating me in split screen mode on more than one occasion. All cars are accessable, provided you have the cash- which I think actually improves the game. You do loose the element of surpise that the Gran Turismo series gave when winning races and gaining unknown car prizes, but hey... I'm not one to look at minor details like that (oops.)

Now, I have (always) been a true fan of the GT series. Since GT1 (ohh yea, PSX baby) I have been an avid fan of the series, with the effort and sheer aesthetic beauty that showed off what the PSX and PS2 could do. GT5 (prologue) however... Didnt. annoyed me that Sony would release a game (at £19.99 I might add) that is only about 1/4 finished? Yes, its one of their flagship games and did sell quite well (me included) but it just didnt look like a game that was worth having. I played it for 25 minutes then got pissed off and didnt play it again.

I dont think it's possible to mention Forza 3 without the car design aspect. My friends, this is what clinches it for me. For those of you that dont know this, using set shapes (squares, circles etc) and other forms such as gradients, paint splashes and so on - you can create your own custom paint job for your car. Even I have had a go (pictures on facebook) with the Jaguar I picked up off Forza3 auction.

Ok, enough about it - this is how it is.....

If you like racing games and cant be fucked to wait God knows how many months until the arrival of the 'Full' Gran Turismo 5, then buy Forza 3. You might even forget about GT5 by then, who knows? If you dont like it, then buy it anyway... You might be swayed into liking racing games...

PS: In responce to my FM10 post I made a while back, I gave it another go. Starting to enjoy myself and got little Crawley Town to the depths of League 1! More to follow...