I used to think that ITK skeptics like me were in the minority, but after the success of the January ITK article, it became clear that a growing number of people feel the same way. Therefore, I thought I'd take some time to reflect on the 2011 Summer Transfer Window. However, instead of just taking the piss like last time, we here at WeAreTottenham.net have taken a slightly more analytical approach. Throughout the months of May, June, July and August, our eagle-eyed members scoured all the major Spurs forums looking for that most blessed of things... the 'ITK':

itk (or ITK) abbrev. 'In The Know'.

n. A person claiming to have privileged access to otherwise undisclosed information, activities and on goings at a professional football club. Often displays delusions of grandeur, fantasies of power and status, narcissistic tendencies in believing they are the most important/more well informed than others, low self-esteem leading to desperate attempts to attain attention and a sense of belonging, mood swings and angry outbursts when challenged, hypersensitivity to criticism, obsessive compulsive tendencies i.e. inflexibility and refusal to back down when patently wrong.

We've compiled all of our findings in one easy to scroll through ITK Thread on our Main Forum. Feel free to take a look.

As the final whistle blew at White Hart Lane last night, two things struck me; firstly an overwhelming feeling of relief, and secondly the realisation that Sandro Ranieri Guimarães Cordeiro is a hell of a player. The big midfielder had followed up his impressive display at the San Siro with an even better one in the home leg. Indeed, it was only a matter of time before ‘Sandro’ was trending on Twitter (along with ‘White Hart Lane’ and ‘WHL’ due to yet another electric atmosphere under the lights in N17) and it seemed as if everyone who watched the match was in agreement that the young Brazilian had turned in an individual performance of real quality... well, everyone that is apart from Matt Hughes of The Times who awarded him 5 out of 10 for his performance and said of him:

“Left out of Tottenham's 25 -man squad for the group stages, he looked out of his depth, giving the ball away frequently and conceding several needless free kicks as his side were overrun.”

Apps: 28
Goals: 0
Highlight: Calling Wayne Rooney a 'dirty prostitute shagger'.
Lowlight: Getting subbed at half-time against Young Boys.
Average We Are Tottenham Match Rating: 6.24/10

Love him or loathe him, Benoit Assou-Ekotto is (and has been for the last two and a half seasons) one of our most consistent players. He is not a great player, but he is a pretty good player. On the downside, he occasionally gets caught out of position when the team are on the back foot and is liable to concede the occasional silly penalty. But on a more positive note, he is comfortable on the ball, stronger than his size would have you believe, good going forward, a good crosser, a more than competent passer, rarely gets injured, an accomplished defender and everything he does is done with style. Not to mention the fact that his career was nearly ended by injury and he has fought his way into the team after a couple of years in the wilderness.

If you think about it, good left-backs are somewhat of a rarity - perhaps this has something to do with the fact that there are considerably less left-footed players around... I dunno – but we have one and we should be grateful for that. Put it this way, without him we’d be a bit fucked. So let’s take this opportunity to give some recognition to arguably the best left-back Tottenham have had for a couple of decades at least. Yeah he’s not perfect, but who would you swap him for in the Premier League? Ashley Cole? Patrice Evra? Maybe an in-form Clichy? Alas, I fear that he will be more appreciated once he is gone.

In summary, Ekotto’s had a pretty solid season overall and we should have no real complaints. Keep up the good work.

Grade: B