All the wrong choices

It'd be easy to declare that Spurs are in a crisis. A lot of fans would want to hear that and believe it. After today's defeat to Norwich, you could sell a Spurs fan anything that says 'We're doomed.' Except that we're not. Today's game just showed that when Ledley King has the rare horrible outing, we've got no chance. The exact opposite of why the team doesn't lose when he's on top of his game which is almost all of the time.

And that's got me worried a little, because I've never seen Ledley perform badly. I've gotten too used to his invincibilty. Today he looked tired and nervous up against Grant Holt when he's bossed around better strikers than him. He should have been taken off at half time for the sake of the team. If you ask me, he shouldn't have started the game at all. Redknapp shouldn't have messed with the Gallas-Kaboul partnership just when it was beginning to look good. But I don't believe Ledley's career is finished. He's just had one bad game. It's just too bad our best defender this season, Younes Kaboul, had to go off injured, hope it's nothing too bad and he returns at the weekend.

I'd like to remind Kyle Walker that he's a defender and should be concerned with mopping up his flank and leave the running around and trickery to Aaron Lennon (bless him), our best player on the field today. I blame Walker for the second goal, for backing off Ryan Bennett and allowing him to shoot when he should have been dispossed instantly. Walker kept putting in unncessary tackles near the panalty box, giving Norwich chances to rattle our aleady nevry defending.

On to midfield. Good to see Sandro on the bench where he belongs. Hopefully, he won't come anywhere near the starting XI until he sorts himself out. Somehow, I thought Redknapp underestimated Norwich slightly by opting for Jake Livermore when he had Niko Kranjcar at his disposal. I don't want to take anything away from Livermore's defence-splitting pass that led to Defoe's goal but he didn't seem to able to do much else.

Only Luka Modric knows the answer to what happened to the Luka Modric of last season. To be fair, he's working harder than ever but it's the absence of creativity that has fans tearing their hair out. But flair isn't the only thing he's missing the past two games. He's been making simple errors, misplacing passes, both short ones and his signature cross-field ones. Not something you'd expect from Modric. Whatever it is, I hope he shakes it off.

It was infuriating to watch Gareth Bale casually prod the ball goalwards after good work from Modric and Lennon when he what he should have done was to pick his spot an power it in. To be fair, he wasn't terrible, he came the closest to winning us the match. His near-misses were agonising. But I can sense just a little cockiness creeping into his game. He still can't defend to save his life but what really got to me today was that he just wouldn't track back to help out the floundering defence.

What we lacked today was inspiration, as was the case at Sunderland on Saturday. We can't seem to do anything else when the opposition won't allow us to play our swash-buckling game. The effort to think up an alternative is clearly lacking. I won't question the commitment of Walker, Modric and Bale but would like to know what's going on inside their heads.

I love Harry Redknapp but I can't understand his choices at times. To begin with, what is Loius Saha doing in the starting lineup and topscorer Jermiane Defore on the bench? The man's finally found his scoring form and you respond to that by playing him only when you don't have a choice? Saha hasn't done anything to deserve to start ahead of Defoe. Which brings me to Giovanni dos Santos.

Just what he did to fall foul of Redknapp nobody knows. Redknapp must come clean on dos Santos because he'll neither play him nor let him leave. To top it all, dos Santos is expected to digest this load to shit, “You have a future at the club.” He has as much a future at Tottenham as Wolves do in the Premier League this season. You know the answer to that. He's proved his quality whenever he's started and doesn't deserve to be a spectator. Daniel Levy and Redknapp have got to let him leave without trying to make money off of him. But there's as much chance of that happening as there is of Mario Balotelli signing up for behaviour-correction therapy. You can answer that one too. I'll never forgive Redknapp for wasting dos Santos and wrecking his career.

Ditto Niko Kranjcar. He's another man I feel very sorry for. He's shown to be capable of playing almost anywhere in midfield and should have been the automatic replacement for Tom Huddlestone. Kranjcar is unlucky that Parker, Modric, Livermore and Sandro (sigh) have pushed him out. But like dos Santos, he should be allowed to move to another club and revive his career. It would be criminal if he loses his place in the Croatia squad for Euro 2012.

There's got to be a summer exodus starting with those two. I wouldn't be surprised if Defoe hands in a transfer request too, seeing how he's been treated this season even after he brought a touch of respectability to the scoreline against Manchester United last month. I just can't understand what the three of them need to do to prove that they can perform better and score more than the nutters occupying their places. And since answers aren't forthcoming, they should be released. Time is also up for Hurelho Gomes, Sebastian Bassong and sadly, Jermaine Jenas seeing as they're never going to start again. Let them go and start from scratch, you've left yourself no other option.

It's also important to hold on to Modric and Bale for witbhout them, we're going to back to being nobodies. Maybe they just need convincing that Spurs won't ever again flatter to decieve. Winning the FA Cup would be a good way to do that. This is the best chance we've got since Pompey (rightly languishing in the middle of nowhere) stole it from us three seasons ago.

Saha must go and so must Adebayor, if retaining him means smashing out wage structure, he's not bigger than the club and certainly not sensational. Can't have him disappear during the big games. This is the best time to bring in the Academy boys. One of Redknapp's major successes has been grooming young players and Walker, Livermore and Danny Rose (to a lesser extent) have flourished in the senior team. Time to open the door wider and let in Andros Townsend, Harry Kane and Steven Caulker. I'm sure Redknapp would love to be remembered as the man who revived the Academy. The end of speculation on his own future would also help. We need to know if he's seriously considering the national call-up.

If we want to get something out of this season we'll have to do it the hard way now. Arsenal are not going to slip up and that coupled with our own self-destruction means that third place is going rapidly out of reach. Even better, Chelsea and Newcastle have closed in on us which means we'll have to hang on to Champions League football by the skin of our teeth.

In better news, we're on the right side of the excruciaitngly slow process of realising our potential. A third straight season in fourth or fith place is the kind of consistency we've missed sorely. A stable manager and consistent finishes around that part of the table will take us on the slow climb to the top. Until then, COME ON YOU SPURS!

And yeah, this week, SPURS ARE ON THEIR WAY TO WEMBLEY, so watch out Chelsea and give us everything you got. GLORY GLORY TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR!