On Tottenham Hotspur: Evaluating their 3-2 defeat in the Champions League against Young Boys.

First, some background: Tottenham Hotspur have never made it to the Champions League in their club's history. Harry Redknapp accomplished this for the first time for the club this season. But, there's a catch, they had to play one qualifier to get into the group stage. Shouldn't be a problem, right? They just have to get by Swiss club Young Boys. Wrong.

Today: In the 28th minute, Spurs find themselves down 3 goals in Bern. Let's look at why this happened:

1. No Ledley King. Ledley King is the usual captain of Spurs and the central defender who starts alongside countryman Michael Dawson. However, King has a bad knee, and the Young Boys' stadium is Astroturf. So manager Harry Redknapp decided to play it safe and not play him. A great move, I think. But, King is usually the one on the team after they get scored on to calm everyone down and get back to business as usual. With him not there, Dawson was the captain. And he took it upon himself to yell at Benoit Assou-Ekoto and King fill-in Sebastien Bassong. Which they may have deserved, but the effect was spooked defenders and more goals for Young Boys.

But let's talk about the defenders for a moment. Benoit Assou-Ekoto, I guess, used all of his "good" in the match against Manchester City. He got straight up beat in one breakaway that led to a Young Boys' goal, and really couldn't even complete a pass. Bassong saved himself with that goal, because the other two goals were completely his fault. Sub-par marking and a complete ineptness with the ball at his feet were his big fallouts. Dawson looked just as bad in the first half, but he really pulled it together in the second half and looked like his old self. Vedran Corluka actually got forward pretty well in attack and didn't have a half bad game. Other than though, a poor defensive effort from Spurs.

All this to say, Spurs will be happy to get King back on the field at White Heart Lane next week.

2. No Huddlestone in starting line-up. I'm convinced that Spurs are frozen stiff without Tom Huddlestone. The 6'3'' hulk dominates play when he's on the field, and they clearly struggled without him in the starting line-up. I know why he wasn't there though, he plays so damn hard that asking him to come back after playing on Saturday is just too much. However, he did come in for Assou-Ekoto in the 35th minute, and things went better for Spurs from there.

3. Poor performance from Modric. I don't know what Croatian Luka Modric is doing before games these days, but he looks less like the "maestro" he's reported to be and more like a stoner. He really doesn't do anything and gave the ball away multiple times. The testiment to how bad he was was that Redknapp replaced him for Niko Kranjar at the break, who had a great game. I think that Modric at his best is a definite need for this team, but when he's off, he's really off.

Also in midfield, Wilson Palacios didn't look like he had a clue all game. He was giving the ball away left and right, and just didn't seem to know where to position himself on the field. Maybe Redknapp will consider using Jermaine Jenas next match.

4. Astroturf. English boys like grass better. Nuff said.

5. Strikers. Jermain Defoe and Roman Pavyluchenko (before his 83' goal) were struggling, big time. Defoe couldn't get on the end of anything and looked like he had bricks attached to his cleets his touch was so poor. Pavy just kept diving for fouls and was basically worthless. It wasn't until Robbie Keane came on that things really started clicking. He's so good at linking play between the midfield and attack and he did that so effectively late on in this match. It was his pass that put Roman on his way to his thunderous goal. Crouch needed to be rested in this match, and probably wouldn't have done well in this match anyway because of the Astro and the lack of Aaron Lennon. Which brings me to my next point.

6. No Lennon. Aaron Lennon is a speedy little bastard, and he's got pretty great service too. Any side would miss his pace, and this was a team that was constantly struggling to find a final ball. When they found one, such as Gareth Bale's service from the left, things seemd to be going well. But on the other side, Corluka and Dos Santos just couldn't quite get it right. Lennon will be a welcomed return next week at White Heart Lane.

This is what I think went wrong in Berne today, hopefully things will go better next week for Spurs. The good news is, they got two away goals. So really all they have to do is win by at least one next week at White Heart Lane to win in the aggregate score and advance to their club's first Champions League tournament.

On Today: Transfer battles, disgruntled management, future commitments and more!

So today was kind of absurd on the football news front, so I thought I'd just do a rundown of what happened today. So without further ado:

1. Robinho ordered back to Manchester City. This story combines two parties that I am not a fan of: the (in my opinion) cry baby Brazilian striker Robinho and the spend-happy, cocky-player-having, cocky-in-general Manchester City.

Robinho left last season on loan to play for Santos in Brazil after literally pleading to return to play in his home country because he hated Man City so much. He was never particularly impressive in my book anyway, people just go crazy over him because he does a lot of step-overs and dances with the ball at his feet. Other than that he's a pretty mediocre striker, in my opinion.

Anyway, news came across the wire today that Manchester City were "ordering" Robinho back to Manchester to settle his future. Something tells me he still won't be keen on staying in Eastlands.

2. Mascherano leaving Liverpool. Javier Mascherano is always the key man on whatever squad he plays for. He's 5'6'' but plays like he's 6'2''. This guy is the definition of tenacity and confidence and clubs love him for that. But the Reds unfortunately are not going to be able to hold on to him, as he will probably go to Inter from here to play with Argentine teammates Javier Zanetti and Diego Milito.

What this means for Liverpool is that they are going to be relying heavily next season on Italian youngster Alberto Aquillani. I personally like Aquillani, I think he plays with a lot of heart and is never afraid to take a shot. He also seems to be a clinical finisher and to that end is also a highly accurate passer.

I think that the move of a bored, unmotivated Mascherano could actually have a very bright silver lining for the Reds in this young man.

3. Aston Villa talk to James Milner. So what happened earlier this week with Milner was that the Villa manager who's name I don't particularly care to learn threw Milner under the bus by claiming that he was definitely on his way to Manchester City. What makes comments like this absolutely pin-headed is that sometimes contracts can't be agreed upon, so a player may stay at a club for a little longer than one might expect.

What this means is that the fans, as they did to Garreth Barry when his contract was being debated before his move to City, are going to be pissed at Milner. That means Milner will be sad and Villa will suffer. So today, I guess in an attempt to smooth things over with the recent breakout English national, Aston Villa sat down and maybe had some tea with Milner. Just so he knows that he's still their boy.

It's a nice gesture, but a little underhanded at the same time.

4. Luis Fabiano (pictured above) commits to Sevilla. This was kind of a disappointment for me because I was looking for Fabiano to make a Premier League move. However, I always respect when a star commits his future to his less than star-powered club. That makes me like Fabiano a little bit, though his play-acting and general lack of sportsmanship still make him one of my least favorite Brazilians, second only to Lucio, who would probably spike someone in the face if it was legal.

Fabiano could have gone anywhere, but the most recent (today) rumor I heard was Tottenham, which could have been awesome. As I said yesterday, the Spurs need a striker, and Fabiano could have been just that for them. This news comes as a bit more of a shock because Fabiano released what amounts to a "come and get me" statement to Liverpool and Chelsea earlier this week. But, I guess that's just the way it goes. I suppose Fabiano will keep netting 20 or more goals for a team that will continue to just flounder below Barcelona and Real Madrid.

5. Loic Remy, going somewhere, just don't know where. Can we just talk for a minute about how crazy rumors have been about where in demand Nice striker Loic Remy is going to end up? Every day there are headlines that Redknapp's sealed it for Spurs, then Hodgson's got a contract in the works for the Reds, then West Ham shows up out of nowhere today. This guy is wanted, and he's going to end up somewhere. If it was me, I'd hope for Hodgson, maybe they can get a dual striker set-up going, which may help ease the burden for Torres (if Torres is still a Red, which we'll discuss in a moment).

6. Rafael Van Der Vaart, professional flip-flopper. Yesterday Van Der Vaart was saying basically that he'd rather be at any team with Champions League football that could offer him first team status he was so miserable at Real Madrid. Today he's saying he's ready to stay and "succeed" there. Sorry Rafael, but you can't get on the first team with Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo in your spot. You might want to look somewhere else, because you aren't going to be playing first team football. Oh well, maybe he'll change his mind again tomorrow.

I guess I'm learning that players make these statements so that they'll get a new contract. Learn something new everyday, I guess.

7. Manchester City aren't done yet. City guru Roberto Mancini reported today that he's not only still eyeing a disgruntled Fernando Torres very closely, but that he's also getting ever closer to a deal with Inter youngster Mario Balotelli.

Balotelli is another one that everyone's been after this summer: United, Chelsea, Man City, Real Madrid. He keeps holding out though. I don't get it, the couple times I saw him I wasn't particularly impressed.

As for Torres, Chelsea has always been in my mind the most likely place that Torres could go. They can offer him first team (I'm pretty sure), a massive contract (50 million), Champions League football, and a little respect, for God's sake.

I think within the next 24 to 48 hours we could see a big deal go down in favor of Eastlands.

8. Stephen Ireland hoping to stay at Eastlands. This is yet another reason why I hate Manchester City. They bring in Kolarov and are still saying "oh Wayne Bridge, don't worry, you're still important to us!" Bridge is ready to fight for his spot, and maybe it puts some healthy competition in him, but how much confidence do you think he thinks you have in him now? It'd be one thing if you were just bringing in some new striker and telling Adebayor and Tevez to fight for it, but these are English nationals they are just repeatedly standing up at the whipping post.

Stephen Ireland came from Manchester City's own academy. He's been their boy forever, literally. Now with every deal they propose, Man City just shamelessly says over and over again "Oh, well we can give you Ireland if that'll smooth things over." And Stephen Ireland has been one of the most consistent, well traveled bastions that City have on their whole roster. And they're just throwing him to whoever will take him.

So today, poor Stephen issued a kind of "twiddling my thumbs" statement, that he hopes he gets to stay at the club that he's defined his career at.

These are my reactions to a very busy day in football news. Did I miss something? Let's talk.