Evening, Morning! Game day and I hope we have better luck this time round. We were awful last game. Miserable at times so unlike us. Nevertheless, we shall strive. Included in this snippet our injury list and snip of Lamela happenings. God Bless and good luck to us all.

League goals in 2017:
Harry Kane (5)
Dele Alli (5)
Burnley (4)
Hull (4)
Southampton (4)
Palace (3)
Boro (2)
Leicester (0)

DELE ALLI
We signed Alli Feb 2 2015.
– on my birthday!!!

Frank lampard didn’t score 10 league goals in 1 season until the age of 25, Dele Alli has already done it twice at 20.
– oh lampard, we have videos of them. u want it?

POCHETTINO
Pochettino doesn’t want injuries to disrupt Spurs rhythm ahead of crucial month February. Jan Vertonghen, Erik Lamela and Danny Rose are all set to miss at least some of those fixtures, in a situation reminiscent of when Spurs struggled to cope without the likes of Harry Kane, Toby Alderweireld and Mousa Dembele in the autumn. Tottenham then bowed out of the Champions League, lost in the EFL Cup third round and registered only one win in 10 matches. Now we have Premier League, FA Cup and Europa League.
– I reckon we will bow out of Europa

Tottenham take on Middlesbrough five hours after Chelsea kick off against Arsenal. Pochettino will watch the clash at Stamford Bridge but said neither his tactics nor selection will be affected by the result.

“No, no, I am not a manager who thinks ‘what happens now?’I had a manager (Jose Antonio) Camacho who was an international for Spain, spent more than 10 years for Real Madrid, big player, big manager, now with Gabon at Africa Cup of Nations. We were playing (at Espanyol) for the Europa League in a very good position but it started to rain a lot at lunch-time. Before the game he told us the starting XI but then said if we play the game and it rains, we play this guy, but if it stops raining, we play this guy. The problem was that the game was cancelled. The player that was going to play (in the rain) said, ‘oh f*** off’. If I not play next day, I never play again. Some managers change their mind if it rains, if it’s cold, if it’s sunshine. But not me.”
– thats interesting. i love these snips.

HARRY WINKS
Harry Winks says Scott Parker, Ahmad Ali and Luka Modric are his Spurs inspirations. Ahmad Ali because he shares the same birthday. (last line was a joke)

LAMELA
Lamela is back in training with the first team. He had been linked with a move to River Plate. Pochettino believes Erik Lamela is finally on the road to recovery after speaking to the attacker earlier on Friday.

“We were joking, there were some rumours about him going back to River. I asked him if he wanted to go back and he said: ‘I want to play for this club, be in England and play football. He is now very focused on his recovery to be available as soon as possible.’ That is a massive improvement in the last few days. It is very powerful, because if you believe, we are all capable – if you are focused on recovering from your problem.”

I had wanted to do a special write up on whats going on with Lamela u know like investigative reporter but after Pochettino’s comment above, I guess I just list what I have which is not much really. (be too late when i really do it hehe)

Lamela has not played for Tottenham since October 25. Was it over the penalty incident with Son? From what I gather, Son was the one who should had been disciplined because it was Lamela to take. He had a hip problem which kept him on the sidelines. He was with us recovering but scans show no issues. Hence he requested for second opinion to go to Roma. He spent much of last month working with physio Damiano Stefanini.

Lamela’s pics on his social media are about him and his dog and at times family. Seriously what else can one put. It may show that he is an introvert somewhat but i really doubt that he wants to go back. He had 2 seasons which he could have gone. And contrary to media reports, his dog passed away months ago. While recovering, his brother suffered an accident in the pool and is wheelchair bound at the moment. Pic attached. The other brother was involved in the car accident May last year but wasnt injured. Argentinian shares a close knit family unit and these affected Lamela. He was given time off to go back to clear his mind.

He went back to Roma to undergo further treatment on his hip and also to recover from probably depression. I remember reading athletes suffering from depression thus we should treat this as an injury. However, these cases, mental health “injuries”, are usually kept hush hush and from how the media drumming about Lamela’s dog and his brother, i understand why now.

Late last month, I had posted his tweet about him coming back. He had thanked everyone that had been encouraging him. He said that he was in Rome to recover and not for any other football matters.

Poch’s last line somewhat summed up what I’ve written above. Lets hope that bae gets better physically (I doubt this) and mentally (he sounds focussed). Poch was not clear on his return by I reckon end of this month.

Well I hope Ive enlightened u guys on Lamela’s case.

vs BORO
Rose is out till dunno when. Scanned done and seeing specialist on Monday. Unsure why it takes so long. Probably a polyclinic in Singapore.

Vert is still out but back for light training. Thats good news.

TIP : ‘sprained ankle’ = ‘ankle ligament damage’. Strain = torn muscle. The scan is to determine which ligaments are damaged, and to what extent, and to check for any additional damage to the joint capsule.