A Nice Cold Glass of Schadenfreude

As a magnanimous gentleman, could I please extend my congratulations to Tottenham Hotspur for their magnificent performance last night. Yes, the best team in North London lost, but it was by a mere one-goal margin and was to the famed Rubin Kazan, who are currently taking 6^th place in the esteemed Russian Premier League by storm.

Tottenham, bravely rotating their £213m squad, had to make do with a real paucity of talent: William Gallas, for example, has played in just one World Cup final! Roman Pavlyuchenko has a pathetic 45 caps at international level. In an act of true barrel-scraping, unknown youngster Jermain Defoe was even called into the team. It is testament to the fortitude and commitment of this group of players, North London’s finest, that the score was not in any way humiliating.

Tottenham have now played 4 of their group games in the Europa League (which Rafael Van der Vaart has described as Europe’s finest league), and are bravely clinging on to third place behind big-spending megaclubs Rubin Kazan and Panthessaloníkios Athlitikós.