Until Sunday evening, there was consensus across pundits, sports writers and fans alike: Tottenham Hotspur were definitely going to win the World Cup. However in true Spurs fashion, Jermiane Defoe’s last-grasp penalty miss in a World Cup qualifier against Everton, prompted red-faced bookies to lengthen their odds on Tottenham’s success in South Africa next summer.

With the tournament still six months away, Newcastle’s failure to qualify for the tournament this time around, has passed the weight of expectation onto a Spurs side that until recently had been expected to not only win the tournament, but along the way pick up the Ballon D’Or for Defoe, and inadvertently cause unintentional but irreparable injury to Christian Ronaldo.

Following the draw with strugglers Everton at the weekend, it seems the national seeds of doubt surrounding manager Harry Redknapp’s team selection have been sown, grown and fully blossomed. “Harry knows that little Jermaine has stopped drinking his magic juice supplements because the media has him convinced that it’s all about his silver shoes,” commented lofty forward Peter Crouch, subtly trying to hide an ulterior motive by waving his arms and showing reporters his ability to kiss the ceiling. Reports suggest that Harry Redknapp has since fined and verbally abused the striker for bringing his tactical know-how into question. “He’s about as agile as Nelson’s column, and he owes me five grand for a thing in Dubai we did once that is completely not a bung or anything,” commented Redknapp while outside of Spurs’ training ground complex this morning.

Looking forward, Tottenham – the birth place of the modern game – has already made an audacious bid to host the upcoming 2018 World Cup. Spurs even have tubby former defender Gary Mabbutt on the board to help the bid. Tottenham are hoping that success on the pitch in the first tournament to be played on African soil, will aid their cause off of it, and having been drawn in a group alongside the USA, Algeria and a province of Yugoslavia, Spurs are expected to progress without even breaking into a sweat.

One man who certainly won’t be on the plane to the southern hemisphere next summer and is unlikely to ever pull on a shirt for the three cockerels ever again is Darren Bent. “I’ll be spending my monies in a bookies on Wearside,” commented a crestfallen Bent. The sometimes red-hot striker, who has earned himself five Spurs caps in the past, added that he already has three grand riding on Harry Redknapp to lament the ‘curse of the metatarsal’ (15/2) as an excuse for his team’s shortcomings next summer; twenty-two thousand on England to play a rigid ’4-4-fucking-2′ formation (1/1) irrespective of who the opposition is; and a tenner on Darren Anderton to get a late call up to the Tottenham squad (350/1) before the finals.