Had the good fortune to run into Tilly and Brush at last night's Daggers game. Great blokes the pair of them, and they were more than happy to have a chat. I don't think anything they said was told to me in confidence, so I'm happy to share...
On Gary Hooper...
T&B were at Dagenham to see him play. Both of them see Hoops as an excellent player, but are struggling to see what the solution is. He's failed to score for us in numerous games, yet the moment he goes out on loan, he starts tucking them away for fun. T&B wanted to see whether it was the standard of football, or if there were other reasons they should know about. For me, the standard of football on show last night was poor, and I hope we never fall back to that level. Hooper was, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the best players on the pitch. The other quality player on show was Hooper's partner, Macdonald. T&B said that they'd tried tapping up West Brom for some decent players, but Macdonald's name never came up.
On Charlie MacDonald...
Charlie was injured in the reserves game yesterday. They expected him to be out for about ten days, so he won't feature in the next couple of games.
On Walker and Barnard...
While we were talking about Hooper's loan arrangements, I suggested that the replacements T&B had brought in didn't look too shabby at the moment. They both commented that Barnard seems to be an excellent finisher - we've seen that for ourselves, and his record for Tottenham's reserves backs it up. When speaking about Walker though, it was clear that both see him as a truly exceptional talent, and one that's going to go some way in the game. Both gave the impression that we've done really well to get this player at the club. Like Barnard, I think we've seen some positive initial signs. Let's hope they're right long-term. It all explains why Tilson thinks our forward line is the best we've had.
On Zoltan Liptak...
I asked them about the situation with Zoltan, and the thinking behind him needing six months to adapt to our game. The biggest problem, it seems, is one of communication. He's only 21 years old, and training/playing with a club overseas was always going to take some adjustment. T&B both see the need for our centre-backs to be vocal, and Zoltan is still a million miles away from that at the moment. They can barely get a peep out of him. It's partly a language barrier, but he also seems to be quite a quiet lad anyway.
On Gary Hooper...
T&B were at Dagenham to see him play. Both of them see Hoops as an excellent player, but are struggling to see what the solution is. He's failed to score for us in numerous games, yet the moment he goes out on loan, he starts tucking them away for fun. T&B wanted to see whether it was the standard of football, or if there were other reasons they should know about. For me, the standard of football on show last night was poor, and I hope we never fall back to that level. Hooper was, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the best players on the pitch. The other quality player on show was Hooper's partner, Macdonald. T&B said that they'd tried tapping up West Brom for some decent players, but Macdonald's name never came up.
On Charlie MacDonald...
Charlie was injured in the reserves game yesterday. They expected him to be out for about ten days, so he won't feature in the next couple of games.
On Walker and Barnard...
While we were talking about Hooper's loan arrangements, I suggested that the replacements T&B had brought in didn't look too shabby at the moment. They both commented that Barnard seems to be an excellent finisher - we've seen that for ourselves, and his record for Tottenham's reserves backs it up. When speaking about Walker though, it was clear that both see him as a truly exceptional talent, and one that's going to go some way in the game. Both gave the impression that we've done really well to get this player at the club. Like Barnard, I think we've seen some positive initial signs. Let's hope they're right long-term. It all explains why Tilson thinks our forward line is the best we've had.
On Zoltan Liptak...
I asked them about the situation with Zoltan, and the thinking behind him needing six months to adapt to our game. The biggest problem, it seems, is one of communication. He's only 21 years old, and training/playing with a club overseas was always going to take some adjustment. T&B both see the need for our centre-backs to be vocal, and Zoltan is still a million miles away from that at the moment. They can barely get a peep out of him. It's partly a language barrier, but he also seems to be quite a quiet lad anyway.
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