"Hotspur" Harry interview.

***basskadet*** · 31-08-2009, 08:24 PM

I've been reading this month's "Hotspur" magazine & there is another Harry interview in it. However, I think there are a few more interesting questions/answers this time around, ones that are more relevant to the team. Here are a section of them:

What is your routine on a matchday?
HR: Away matches can vary but for a Home game, I'll usually head home after training the day before so I'll travel up nice & early and get to WHL at about 11:30am for a 3 o'clock kick-off. The players will have a pre-match meal at the stadium and I'll watch a bit of television before a team meeting that will take us up to 1:30pm. That;s about it really. It's then down to the dressing rooms and down to work!

How do you spend the last 30 minutes before a match?
HR: The players will be out warming up and I'll probably have a cup of tea in my office next to the changing room before they come back in. After that I'll have a chat with a few of the lads, give them a few tactical reminders, get them all gee'd up and then it's off we go.

When I became a Spurs fan back in 1963 the team had a 2-3-5 system. How do you think that would work nowadays?
HR: Football is always evolving in terms of players, tactics and formations, so it's a tough question to compare the playing systems. I always say though that players from that era would have been great players today, especially that Tottenham side of the early 1960s, the likes of Mackay, Greaves, Cliff Jones - they were fantastic

What's the thinking behind dropping the reserve team this year?
HR: It was difficult. We all had a chat about it and we felt that the reserve team games tended to come up at difficult times for us; we'd have a 1st team game in the same week so we couldn't get a team out and we just felt it would be better to play games at the traiing ground as & when we needed them, when it suited us better. That's all it boiled down to really. Don't forget, we also have a lot of the younger lads out on loan at the moment and that's important for their development.

Have you ever considered playing Vedran Corluka in a defensive midfield role?
HR: Yes, I have considered it, and it is not an impossibility. 'Charlie' is a great player, he's done well for us right across the back four.

Wilson Palacios looks in great shape - what are your thoughts on him?
HR: He's been brilliant and he's a great lad. Before our 1st game against Liverpool he played for Honduras on the Wednesday night in a massive World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica and he was back in training for Friday morning having flown all that way. He's the type of player that Tottenham have needed. I'm not saying he's a Dave Mackay because there will never be another Dave Mackay, he's the best player I think I ever saw and of all the great players who played here, he was incredible. Wilson is in that mould and even to mention him in the same breath is praise enough. I wouldn't compare anyone to Dave Mackay but Wilson's a terrific player.

What did you think when Benoit Assou-Ekotto hit that thunderbolt against Liverpool?
HR: It was a fantastic goal and Benoit is capable of that with his left foot. He can hit balls that dip and bend. I think we need to get him on the ball a bit more in and around the box because he can really strike it. He's impressed me, Benoit - he's got great potential.

**Pitseleh** · 31-08-2009, 08:33 PM

cheers bass, very interesting, especially the stuff about pre match routines

**kevfball63** · 31-08-2009, 08:42 PM

I Didn't see any interest in Cristian Benitez in that interview = lets hope we have that demon put to bed . Birmingham will let that rascal do the business this season , and we still have to play them at their place !!!!!

***basskadet*** · 31-08-2009, 10:09 PM

The interview is actually just a collection of questions sent in to Hotspur magazine from fans. It would've been done before the Brum game anyway tho Kev.

**SionTHFCRoberts** · 31-08-2009, 10:27 PM

Bass do you have a subscription to the mag? How much is a subscription? Cheers.

***basskadet*** · 31-08-2009, 11:04 PM

No, I don't have a subscription; I just pick it up from time to time when my local shop has one on their shelf & I have a few quid in my pocket.

However, it costs just under £35 for a year's subscription. It's quite a good read. They do a great club history section with old photos & good stories from over 100 years ago. In this edition they've published about 10 pictures that belong to a particular Spurs fan. The pictures are of his Spur supporting family following Spurs around the country way back in the mid-1930s. They're crazy pictures, to see what Tottenham fans dressed up like back then! Some have these sort of blue & white (I guess, as the pics are sepia) clown costumes & they carry these long batons with a football glued to one end, which in turn has what looks like a homemade cockerel stuck on top! I would give anything to fond one of those buried in a bric-a-brac shop! Another kid wears a top hat with "Play up Spurs" printed on it. I've never heard it said that way before. "Play up Pompey" or "Come on you Spurs" , nut not "Play up Spurs". Its not that surprising, but times have clearly changed.

You can get a subscription from here: Hotspur subscription