21 March, 2005

"Attempting to Turn the Tide"

I have been seeing Tottenham play since the 1988-89 season; I have seen great players come and I have seen them go; I have seen nine different managers; to say my life supporting Tottenham has been a transition period is something of an understatement.

There have been few highs but plenty of lows and for a club of our history, stature, support; that is quite simply unacceptable.

The real turning point in Spurs fortunes goes back to the financial crisis that hit the club in 1990. We finished the season in 3rd place and had it not been for a poor start to that season we would have been close to winning the Title. Gazza and Lineker were buzzing, Samways, Stewart and Allen were producing in Midfield and there was no reason not to believe that the 1990-91 season wasn't going to be our year - by November we were sitting pretty in second place with games in hand and then the bombshell was dropped by the board that the club was in financial crisis.

Everything had changed; talk of having to sell Gazza, Lineker, and Venables was going to leave had provided a slump in results as the uncertainty of the clubs future played on everybody's mind; we ended up finishing mid table and won the FA Cup which to fair really secured the clubs long term future.

It took a year or so to sort the financial mess out when our saviour Sir Alan Sugar put his money where his mouth was and saved the club - Sugar has received a great deal of criticism over the years but I will forever be grateful for saving the football club and building the stability that now exists at the club.

While we began the rebuilding of the club, other clubs who were financially stable were taking advantage of the new wealth that Sky had thrown at football and enhanced their squads - this meant we were on catch up from day one as we used the Sky money to stabilise our club while other teams like Man Utd who we were below us at the time had overtaken us and we all know how they went on to dominate the 90s. If only our finances had been secure so we could have kept hold of Gazza and then added extra quality to our squad; who knows how our fortunes may have turned out. We had clearly missed the boat.

The proceeding years would see us throw obscene amount of money to try and recapture our status in the top six where we belong but unfortunately bad managers bought in poor players and slowly the gap between us and the top sides was getting ever greater - it is amazing that in the last 10yrs we have spent more money than Arsenal, and have never been in the top six in the Premiership.

It is a statistic that is depressing for all Spurs fans to take but I feel finally after a decade of false dawns with crap managers and mediocre players the club is starting to turn itself round and it's all down to Frank Arnesen. He has rebuilt the club from top to bottom; got rid of the shit and bought in some exciting young talent that will no doubt serve us well for years to come; it is quite remarkable to think that in his first season and with the turnover of players we have had, we look like we are on the verge of finally finishing in the top 6 of the Premiership and playing the style of football that our club branded.

You see a lot of people that come on this site who don't understand our club and the traditions we try and uphold; they don't understand the great players we have had, I mean you put an all time Spurs X1 against an Arsenal X1 there really is no competition. The difference is Spurs have to win at all costs playing with a certain style that the crowd demands while Arsenal over the years have the adopted the win at all costs style which has seen decades of dour dog shite football; if only the plastics you guys have acquainted over there; you know your Mehdi's of this world could understand where they came from and what their club stands for in the footballing world.

I would like to close this little column by saying how great it is to be associated with the New York Spurs Supporters Club; all of you have great opinions and views and understand the principles and traditions of our great club. I cant imagine what it must be like to be so far away from the action but the effort you make to watch games and seeing snippets of matches here and there has to be commended.

I have enjoyed the banter we share with rival fans however I do find it sad that persons of other supporters club feel the need to belittle the NYSpurs efforts to find themselves a new home where they are not restricted in singing the songs that add a bit of authenticity to proceedings – considering what the bar is suppose to stand for; the decision to ban you guys from Nevadas astounds me. Talking about our little friend Andy; does anyone share my opinion that he reads articles from newspapers and passes their views on as his own for his column? A classic example being his recent assessment of Ryan Giggs. He claimed that Giggsy was only playing well because he is after a new contract; I had read this same article in many English newspapers a week before his column was released. How can a so called Man Utd supporter be so disrespectful to a player who has been one, if not their best player in the last 15yrs and agree with the views of gutter journalism who are trying to undermine the professionalism and integrity of one of this countries greatest ever players. I may be totally wrong by assuming this but I bet I'm not.

NY Si, I hand the next Column over to you - thank you for reading.