Match Preview: Brentford v Spurs, new season, but without Kane

Match Preview: Brentford v Spurs, new season, but without Kane

I've been incommunicado most of this summer… part of it was spent in the hospital, having a knee operation and then recuperating in the good hands of Janette, who played nursey… nurse's uniform was optional!!!!

Kane, Ange, Levy and the future.

A new manager takes over, Kane leaves to win trophies and find glory, and no doubt Levy will squirrel away any profits that come his way through this sale. Nothing changes, just winds blowing in different directions.

I have no doubt that once Ange puts his challenging top-four team in place – that is, a trophy-winning top-for-place formidable team– and has painted his picture, he will turn to the fans and say, "Can you guess what it is yet?" And we all shout back in unison with something encouraging. Like good Spurs supporters do… until they find out that they've been hoodwinked by Levy again, and the shit hits the fan all over again… same old, same old chorus comes up from the seats as it swirls around the stadium in a deafening raw… Anyway…

… to the Sunday game…

Despite a free-scoring pre-season, promising exciting times to come under new coach Ange Postecoglou. He brings a winning mentality to the club after successes in Japan and Scotland; recruiting James Maddison, Guglielmo Vicario and Dutch defender Micky van de Ven to boost his options for the months ahead, with more players to come (???)… and a few leaving.

After Kane's four-goal haul helped Spurs record a second straight 5-1 win when we met Shakhtar Donetsk earlier this month, our final friendly game of the summer saw us beaten by Barcelona in Tuesday's contest for the Joan Gamper Trophy. Oliver Skipp bagged a brace, but that didn't stop us from falling to a 4-2 defeat, with Kane conspicuous by his absence.

While that may not represent the perfect preparation for Sunday, we have at least lost our opening league game just once in the last seven years, winning on five occasions.

Brentford

Ivan Toney is unavailable, and first-choice goalkeeper David Raya will soon depart.

Spurs

Richarlison is available to lead our line this weekend after brushing off rumours of a serious injury sustained in training. Our front four should comprise James Maddison, Heung-min Son, Dejan Kulusevski and Richarlison.

Micky Van de Ven is short of match fitness due to a disrupted pre-season; therefore, our centre-back pairing should be Ben Davies and Cristian Romero, with Guglielmo Vicario making his Premier League debut in goal and fellow Italian Destiny Udogie in contention for the left-back spot.

Rodrigo Bentancur (ACL) joins Ryan Sessegnon (hamstring) and Spanish winger Bryan Gil (groin) on the sidelines due to injury.

Brentford pre-season form:

DLLDD

Tottenham Hotspur pre-season form:

LWWL

My possible starting lineup:

Vicario; Porro, Romero, Davies, Udogie; Bissouma, Hojbjerg; Kulusevski, Maddison, Son; Richarlison

My prediction…

We say: Brentford 1-3 Tottenham Hotspur

Well, that is it, folks… to be honest, we really don't know what to expect. When Ange started at Celtic, he lost his first three games and then hit the road running… will the same happen here? Your guess is at good a mine. But we definitely start a new season with great optimism. As we have done every year since Levy and ENIC took over… 

As I said, optimism... dream that dream of dreams, that is of trophies and a top-four finish… sadly – as it normally finishes up – we wake up as if we've just had a bad dream… while in the corner of our eyes, we see a diminutive figure stealing our hopes (yes… the impish small figure is none other than Daniel Levy!). But until then...

Up the Spurs,

Glenn