No wonder we lost...look at the size of the ball

Well, no Europe next year then, leaving Harry Redknapp to concentrate on ensuring mid table mediocrity for another year.

Give Tottenham credit they did play better than the supposed best team in the world for 120 minutes. OK United were a bit better for the first 20 minutes, but after that I thought Spurs were the better team. All credit should go to some outstanding Spurs players today. King and Dawson were stellar in central defence. Lennon and Modric were great going forward. Zokora and Jenas both played really well in the centre of the park, both tenacious and basically dominated the midfield for large parts of the game. O’Hara and even Bale were pretty good when they came on. It was a pity so many of Tottenham’s other players were injured or cup-tied because if they had the likes of Defoe and Keane up front I think Spurs would have won.

As it was we had Bent and Pavlyuchenko leading our toothless attack. The Russian has been playing for about 10 months straight right now and must be knackered. I just think the big stage was a little too much for him today and he was pretty awful, although I think next year he will be much better. Bent on the other hand was handed another opportunity to shine and disappeared for 110 minutes although he almost snatched a winner in overtime. But he didn’t. Assou Ekotto had some good moments but then did a lot of what he does best – giving the ball away and standing around at important moments.

The there is my absolute favourite player — David Bentley. Players like King and Dawson, Lennon and Modric had run their hearts out for an entire game and Bentley comes on and is walking around; jogging here and there standing around waiting for his extraordinary talent to burst forth. He again cocked up his….oh why go on? His final kick was to miss a penalty in the shoot out, effectively ending it for Spurs. He missed the net completely. What a hero. What a legend. If I was Harry Redknapp I would have told him he would never play another game for Spurs again. Harry probably gave him a hug, because it is all about self-esteem don’t you know.

Kudos to those players who made the effort. I hope Redknapp keeps those who showed some heart and drive today and ditches those who can’t be arsed to play. With no FA Cup, no UEFA Cup it is just 12 games left to avoid relegation and no European football next year. Although the way Harry blew off this week’s Euro matches it is probably a good thing.

Still it was a good run and they deserved a win.