Welcome to another season. Tottenham On My Mind doesn’t usually creak into action during the summer phoney war of transfer rumours and pre-season tours, both of which combine to invariably create an unrealistic picture of Tottenham’s fortunes for the coming season. But this feels different.

The story so far. Last summer, an estimated 220,000 delirious fans swamped the High Road on a working day to hail the victorious Europa League winners. The sun shone, and players, manager and fans were never closer. Communal exultation was tinged with relief. A first trophy since 2008, we were at last released from carrying the burden of years of unfilled promise and countless missed opportunities, the wasted hopes and wasted money. Surely this was a corner turned.

So we appoint Thomas Frank, a manager with a reputation for organisation, motivating players and bringing out the best from both team and individuals. Daniel Levy is brusquely pushed aside as members of the Lewis family take more direct responsibility for running the club. They appoint a CEO, Vinai Venkatesham, to work sporting director Johan Lange, and we handle his Arsenal past because we sorely lack structure, strategy and direction at board level, and, well, look at them.

The club fills up with new recruits. At board level, people who supposedly know about business and big money. On the staff, new directors and heads of insert vaguely medical/fitness/recruitment jargon word. A few decent players too, although maybe not enough quality and experience….

So much has happened since then, it feels like a decade’s worth rather than a single season. I actually checked I’d got the dates right: I’ve become as ludicrous as the club. Last season was an interminable ordeal, a relentless progress down the table with indignity piled upon crisis, most of which was self-inflicted. Much of the football was nothing short of pitiful, the only signs of creativity coming in the varied and ingenious ways we found to lose football matches.

While the players should shoulder their due responsibility, this came from the top. The Levy era embedded a culture characterised by a lack of ambition and a failure to commit our financial resources to a squad worthy of challenging for honours in a highly competitive environment. Where the loyalty of fans paying some of the highest prices in Europe, fans who filled the ground every week and who packed out every away allocation, was  patronised and treated with contempt. By the end, fans were alienated and disillusioned. The divide between us and them had become an abyss.

I believe the board and senior staff thought the Europa League win gave us a season’s grace where in the safe hands of Thomas Frank, we could consolidate, settle and gradually develop the team. Certainly a top half finish, maybe a European place, then second season, we could move. This included committing resources in the transfer market over these two seasons.

It quickly became clear that this strategy reeked of complacency, an attitude which nearly led to relegation. Frank was unable to instil into the team any of the qualities he is known for, albeit with an injury decimated squad. In January, the club hierarchy – it’s not clear who was taking key decisions, Lange, Venkatesham or the board, and that seems to be one of the problems – failed to react to what every fan could see, denying the reality of our form and league position in what amounts to a scandalous dereliction of duty. Frank was dismissed at least a month too late, then we appoint a caretaker with no experience of the Premier League as manager.

The Fan Advisory Board meeting in March revealed the results of an internal survey confirming severe problems with the club’s internal culture and their relationship with supporters. It includes the damning line, “VV explained that there is now complete clarity across the Club that on pitch success is our number one priority and focus.” In other words, in the past, this was not the case. A football club where the team’s success is not the priority.

In the end, a combination of the new manager and another team with similar chronic problems on and off the pitch, only worse, got us a late and perhaps undeserved reprieve. 12 months on, the joy long since evaporated, the relief remained. The question of whether another club has lost so much goodwill, so quickly and when it was so avoidable is a valid one but for another time.

This was my worst ever season, without doubt. I’ve been a fan since the mid 60s, a regular at the Lane since 1969. Repeating a quote I’ve used before, Jackson Lamb in Slow Horses said that it’s not the hope that kills you, it’s knowing it’s the hope that kills you. I’m a fan. That will never change. Tottenham til I die isn’t a chant, it’s a way of being. I work in social care and we do these courses where trainers often ask you to introduce yourself in three words. Mine are, father, husband, Spurs fan. This is tricky in my world as potentially the last bit reveals me as insubstantial and trivial, but I say it because it is true. Being a supporter is, for me, a profound representation of self. It is fundamental to my identity and who I am. It is the sole consistent thread of my life from boy to man. Through several upheavals and tragic losses, the club is still there.  

This past season, for the very first time, I thought it had all become too much. The intensity of my commitment was harming me. There was no benefit, no release, no time out from anxiety provoking life events, certainly no enjoyment. I was angry, anxious, despairing. Sleep disrupted, irritable with others, low mood. All of which is self-induced. I don’t have to be there, but I have to be there.

This sounds bewildering to the non-fan. I was sharing this with a close friend. She listened, and I know she cares, then she said, ‘remind me again which team you support.’ It was so refreshing. Everyone I know asks me about Spurs, which is fine, but it didn’t matter who I supported. Free from Spurs, just for a moment. I hope too that this sounds odd to authentic supporters whose emotional commitment is more balanced and can put being a Spurs fan into a better, safer place than I can. It’s much more healthy.

But this is me, too old to change now. I talk to lots of Spurs fans, and I know I’m not the only one. There are many problems in the relationship the club has with supporters, but the most significant is that they simply do not grasp the profound, lasting meaning of being a fan. They think they do but they don’t. How for many of us, being a Spurs fan is inextricably intertwined with identity, with family and friends, with how they handled major life events, how we make decisions about our future. About who we are.

I can deal with mediocre football, disappointment and unfulfilled promise. I learned that early on, as have my son and granddaughter who I now sit with. Disillusion passed down the generations. Even the trophy winning teams of the 70s and 80s did not play consistently to their potential in the league. I’ve experienced relegation, plus the following season where remember we very nearly did not make it back at the first attempt, squeezing out a dodgy last game draw to go up.

But two seasons not just of awful football but the doing nothing about it really got to me. Obvious flaws ignored amid the stench of complacency and decay, the missed opportunities over two decades, the club hierarchy’s aloof isolation and steadfast inaction when the team was crumbling. That was what did for me. Being with family and longstanding Spurs friends saw me through and I will always be grateful, because that is the true nature of being part of the crowd.   

I’ve been writing Tottenham On My Mind since 2009. The club could have saved a fortune in consultants’ fees by reading it, because I long ago reached similar conclusions. But now we move on – or do we? Regular readers, of which there are many, and I sincerely thank you, will be familiar with paragraphs that consider the state we’re in, and begin with the words ‘but surely’. As in, but surely things will change now. But surely the club must address these problems. But surely the club can’t let this state of affairs carry on, and sure enough, they do.

But surely, this lot are paying attention. One positive consequence of being awful is that the hierarchy have come to their senses and don’t want to be awful any more. Against type, we’ve gone big and early in the transfer market. Tonali and Fernandes will revitalise our central midfield and bring out the best in others, those that are still around that is. Because my wife’s family are diehard Hammers (and I confess things were a little awkward at times in our household towards the end of the season), I watch them a lot and can vouch for Fernandes as a real talent.

We have some money and PSR wiggle room, partly because of our income, partly because we’ve not invested as we should over the three year PSR period. It’s pointless asking if these players are worth the money because they are worth it to us, and if these are the men we want, it is right to go for them. Also, we’ve had to pay the twat tax, the money you have spend to put right an avoidable mistake. In my case, it’s to pay for a professional to rectify my DIY mistakes, at Spurs it’s a different level but the same principle. Combined with this approach is a salary structure heavily revised upwards. Again, these are market forces that the Levy regime wilfully ignored, and have enticed Senesi and Roertson, both sound arrivals.

These are welcome signs of positive change. Less clear cut is the debate about our selling policy, in particular, the sale of promising talent such as Vuskovic and Lankshear. This too implies a change of policy. Recruitment under Lange, and for periods in the past, seemed most comfortable in identifying young talent. Now, it seems we have run out of patience. We can’t wait for this talent to mature, so instead we are buying proven top class players.

Partly this is to free up funds for other purchases that are ready in the here and now, but as ever it’s more complex than that. Partly, like you I’ve become attached to young, skilful players like Devine, Lankshear, Phillips and Donley, and I’ve wanted them to succeed. I though they had a chance, and they’ve not had first team opportuntites, but the reality is that they may have reached their level as good championship players. PL teams are not coming in for them. Later, they may rise into the PL but the reality is that we want players at a high level.  

Anyway, selling young players has moved into new territory. Making a £30m profit on a player who has never appeared in a competitive Spurs first team game is a hint that times are changing. Loans are not the only development opportunity now. PSR is a fact of football life we can’t ignore, no matter what we feel about the players concerned. For example, on social media many Villa fans have demanded to know how we can spend this money when we’ve finished 17^th twice in succession. League position isn’t hugely significant given our finances, so partly this shows those posters know nothing about football finance, but partly it’s frustration that although their club’s owner possesses a fortune, they have less PSR room to manoeuvre because of previous spending and high income to salaries ratio, much higher than ours, which is (or was) amongst the lowest in the division.  

The trend is to sell and get some cash now, and build in a percentage of any future selling on fee and matching rights. If, for example, Lankshear or Vuskovic become the stars we need, we have the option of buying them back. Nobody ever knows the path of a young player’s development but this is some of the best insurance, and to repeat the obvious, because of our past failings we have big problems to solve here and now if we want to be contenders.

It does leave unanswered the question about the pathway to the first team for young men. I can’t say with authority how good Tynan Thompson might become but at 18 he was keen to move away. Does he see more opportunity at Old Trafford, or did they offer more money? At Spurs, Moore, Williams Barnett and Byfield all look good to me and I hope we can find a way to keep them at the club. At a higher level, the same goes for Gray and Bergvall, with for me Gray being the real prospect.

All this means a change for fans too. We get attached to our young players and want to support them on their journey to the first team. ‘One of our own’ is truly meaningful. Maybe that’s becoming a thing of the past too, a forlorn hope in a football landscape dominated by globalisation and capital, where players are commodities to trade. It’s another diminution in the supporter experience. It’s hard to see how that will change, but as fans we can do our level best to ensure that Venkatesham and his hierarchy stick to another promise made at the FAB, that he addresses the “growing disconnect between the Club and its supporter base.”

So probably this piece is a long-winded way of saying I’m looking forward to the new season and writing about it. Thanks for sticking with TOMM, and I’ll keep a watch on how he gets on.

Tottenham On My Mind has always been free to read and always will be. If you have any spare cash, my fellow Spurs fan Jim Brigden donned his Spurs shirt and cycled up to The Open in aid of charity, here’s his page: https://golffoundation.enthuse.com/pf/jim-brigden

There was an odd atmosphere on Monday night. The on-pitch burners reminded me of the ultimate pointlessness of life itself, but the tifo set us up and the crowd got going. This faded as anxiety took over, rekindled only when we scored. I can’t go away but it sounded as if the fans at Villa gave everything to get behind the team. It doesn’t feel like a do or die atmosphere at home. Partly this is anxiety, but also there’s something niggling away at me about a degree of resignation. Not acceptance, but somehow fate will decide and it’s out of our hands as supporters.

I thought Frank’s organisational and motivational powers would meet the needs of a squad with unrealised potential. At Brentford he got the best from his players and made them better, as individuals and as a team. Ange’s approach was wonderful when it worked but too frequently he was outwitted by the PL norm of hard running, disciplined and well-drilled teams.

In reality, he clearly wasn’t able to take that step up. It felt as if in his head, he was still managing Brentford, only the players somehow looked different. The team became disorganised and disillusioned. Those in charge (I use this term because it’s not clear whether the board or the Venkatesham/Lange combo were taking these decisions, although I’m pointing the finger at the latter) acted too late. They then showed their disconnect with the situation in general and presumably with the mood of the players by appointing Tudor. He appears, in public at least, to have employed the tough love approach. I paraphrase, but as he said in answer to the question what’s wrong, ‘the defence, the attack, oh and the midfield.’

He was right but that’s not the point. His approach was never going to turn the team around, not in the time available to him anyway. Our decision-makers misjudged the mood of the squad and this could prove to be fatal. They failed to understand let alone address a fundamental question that applies to any team in any sport at any level – motivation. They researched Tudor’s ability to turn things around in failing clubs without digging into how he achieved this and whether his methods fitted the needs of the Spurs squad. Also, Tudor the temp wasn’t going to be around for long, so this limits the players’ investment in him and his methods. Plus the fact that all these players could get a good deal at another club. This disconnect wasted precious weeks and points. It is a crucial error, avoidable if the decision-takers had done their jobs properly.

What did our players have to play for? One answer is, play for the shirt. Another is professional pride, but these are abstract concepts. Most people in any job need something more tangible, and usually that boils down to two things, money and colleagues. At Spurs it’s not money because they are well-rewarded, so you play for your teammates and your coach. They may hold the badge up to the fans, but that is a tangible sign of team spirit and their loyalty to their manager.

De Zerbi knows this, and this is what he has achieved in a short space of time. The players have, I assume, little automatic fidelity to a club that has messed them around. They see all too clearly the problems we’ve faced in squad building, transfers and the managerial churn. In saying this, I’m not excusing them totally because they are professionals and their effort has at times been lacking, but this is the modern world, where players expect to be coached into their patterns of play. De Zerbi has given them this and a degree of positivity. It’s hardly original, but he’s buoying the players up in public and private by all accounts, treating them as individuals and developing their confidence. Men like Gallagher, Bentancur and Paulinha are shining because he gives them responsibility and plays them in roles familiar to them. In a remarkably short space of time, the defence and midfield are organised, working hard and playing as a unit.

There’s hope there, which I guess is all we can wish for right now and is an emotion I’ve not experienced since mid-January. I’m conscious that I’m down about this season but we have those two points and goal difference in the bag.

However, at the same time the improvements have brought the problems into stark relief. I’ve already discussed the biggest one, the decision makers’ dereliction of duty. The other is that our front line is poor and we lack the creativity to make enough chances to increase our sense of security. Tel is a promising young player -what a beautiful goal – who lacks the poise and nouse that hopefully comes with age and experience, except we need something now. Richie had a game to forget on Monday, while Muani provoked a vigorous discussion on Bluesky as to whether he is the worst loan signing the club has ever made. Good judges went for Gedson but at least we could hide him out of the way in midfield or on the bench, whereas Muani is crucial to our goalscoring aspirations.

One move from Monday summed this up. Tel facing his own goal was trapped on the ball, again, and ended up wildly hacking the ball across our box, fortunately just missing the attackers. It ended up with Muani, who in space proceeded to botch his move with a mindless run and dreadful control, so we lost possession. Then Tel did what he did, when calmer heads should prevail and we let slip the valuable two points that could have meant safety.

It’s in our hands. There’s hope, but sadly there’s no trust. You simply can’t trust them. Danso solid but makes the injury time error. Tel does what he does. Richie misses in front of goal. We give the ball away easily, still. On countless occasions we destroy an attacking opportunity for want of decent ball control or an accurate ten yard pass, which is not asking much. The most predicable element of our play is that we will make a key mistake.

But hope lies in our redemption stories. Kinsky shows remarkable courage in overcoming the Athletico debacle, where other keepers more experienced than he have seen careers disintegrate after such a confidence destroying game. His fortitude spreads from the back into the rest of the team. And Maddison made an immediate and discernible impact in the short time he came on. He probably won’t be fit enough for 90 minutes before the season ends so the decision is whether or not to use his limited minutes from the start or save him until later.

I would describe myself as mentally and emotionally resilient, thanks to my caring parents, although I did not realise this at the time, to me it was just normal. As a Spurs fan this helps successfully navigate the ups and downs, a perspective where the highs feel more exhilarating than ever because they are so precious while the lows can jog on, there’s always next week.

But I am exhausted by this, this mess, this shambles, this self-imposed purgatory. I’m not motivated to write as often as I used to. I just want to write, it’s awful, awful, awful awful. I don’t want to think about it but think about little else. Tottenham always on my mind after all. I’ve never demanded success or trophies, they will come our way if we play decent football and hubristic expectation is not part of me being a fan. Loyalty, family, being there, the camaraderie of good friends and those who sit around me, that’s what matters. If we go down, that remains and will sustain me. If we’re useless, I can handle that too, but this is all so avoidable and that’s what undermines my long-established coping strategies.

I’ll handle the banter and the comments, although currently they come from all sides. Friends (albeit it gently), comments from strangers if I wear something with the badge, topical comedy on the radio and TV, it’s ok because I know what being a fan means to me and that will carry on regardless of the outcome. It’s my club that has got to me. Years of negligence, of lousy decision-making in the transfer market, the arrogance of those in charge who thought we could manage, whose cursory disregard of supporters is unforgivable. Whose sloth in taking remedial action at the beginning of the year could take us down.

The true heart of Tottenham Hotspur beat at half time when the club showed a montage of those fans who died this year. Ten or more minutes passed as we applauded their smiling faces, one by one, wearing navy blue and white, each one representing a lifetime of support, some long, some tragically brief. I wish their families long life.

On Monday I met a long-standing season ticket holder who goes to every home game. Well, almost every one. He’s missed two this year, family stuff, which means he’s not seen Spurs win for 13 months. But he’s still here and so am I. I say I rise above the banter, but as my son pointed out, on the last day W Ham, AFC and Palace are all playing in London. For those of us who live in town or journey home through central London, that could be fun. And if those in charge ever made that journey on public transport, ever had to come out of their bubble, ever talked to those who have passed and truly listened, Spurs would never have reached this point.

Ah, the blessed relief of not watching Tottenham play football. Not a sentiment I ever thought I would write. The club has been integral and essential to my life, my identity, since the late sixties, but I have easily been able to do without it for the past couple of weeks.

I’ve not watched any football at all since the Forest defeat. Not intentional. I feel so disenchanted that it felt natural to ignore it. Listening to BBC 5Live while I got on with the household chores felt like muscle memory – I was doing the same things I usually do but unconsciously, without feeling anything. Then, I watched the Liverpool PSG game this past Wednesday. It was somehow otherworldly, certainly not football as I have come to know it at the Lane this season. 

Apologies for the gap in TOMM posts. I was busy with life, then I found no motivation to write anything, anything coherent anyway, or anything significantly different from various pieces I’ve written over a decade or more as well as this season, warning about the dire consequences of the club’s negligent disorganisation. And here we are. The club’s hierarchy, then with Levy, now with Lange, Lewis and Venkatesham, have much to answer for and should be held to account however this season turns out, but let’s leave that for now.

All I feel like writing is – this is so awful. Awful. Painfully terrible. Over and over again, like writing lines at school. Punishment for being a Spurs fan. I’ve got nothing any more. I’ve passed through the stage of anger to reach resignation and bitter, lasting resentment that it should come to this.

People know I’m a Spurs supporter, so they ask me what’s going on. All I can do is shake my head and intone, ‘this is so awful’. Friends and acquaintances have mostly been kind. You won’t go down, they say. We’re doing our best, I reply. You don’t watch them every week like I do. 

Fans often kvetch about the media’s poor treatment of Spurs. I’m never sure that’s entirely true. I strongly suspect all fans say the same about their teams. This season, the media have been relatively kind to us, not that we deserve it. People saying to me that we won’t go down reflects the coverage of the club, which is that we’re not good but can turn it around. 

In the past few weeks, that has changed. There is a different narrative as the media gleefully latch on to what we fans have long perceived, that Spurs’ problems have long festered and now have come to a head. A fortune spent on transfers to produce an unbalanced squad with serious flaws in midfield and out wide. Two decades of under-investment in players and opportunities missed. Managers come and go, all they have in common is their unsuitability for the task they face. A club culture shaped from the top that encourages under-achievement and complacency, that has created a club amongst the ten most wealthy in the world only to waste it, over and over again. 

Breaking news: we were shocking against Forest. Tottenham On My Mind as up to date as ever. I haven’t got over it. Big game, let’s get up for it. Thousands of fans outside the ground to welcome the team, and massive kudos to people from Tottenham Flags and Return of the Shelf, amongst  others, who organised this. Waves of noise from the South Stand. But we are Tottenham, and we cave. Tudor’s ludicrous team selection. Let’s wang the ball up the pitch. That should do the trick. 

Bad defeats are always at their worst not when the winning goal goes in but in the remaining period when all you have left is time to contemplate how hideous it feels, until the sweet mercy of the final whistle. In those last ten minutes or so, I can’t recall feeling worse, comparable with the final minutes in Madrid in 2019. 

Previously, I ranked the Pleat caretaker season of 2003-4 as one where I felt similarly despondent, where we toiled with an aged midfield of Redknapp, Poyet and Anderton, or there’s always 97-98 where we felt safe only in May, beating Wimbledon away 6-2. Both seasons shared that same avoidable hopelessness, the outcome of bad planning and poorly directed investment. Curiously the season we were actually relegated, 76-77, did not feel as bad. Maybe it was because I was younger. Certainly, relegation did not seem as significant as it does now.

The shiny clean lines of our state of the art stadium can’t hide the stench of decay and hubris that pervades the club. Among the legion of avoidable errors Spurs have made this season, on and off the pitch, I will forever be incredulous at a board that looked at our league position and injury list in January and said, we’ll keep the manager who got us here, buy a box to box midfielder, sell our top goalscorer and not replace him. A reminder that in late February, the club spoke to the media about their plans to raise our self-imposed salary cap in order to attract better quality players. 

So anyway a couple of things on my mind.

De Zerbi arrives with a reputation for motivating and organising players. The deficiencies of individuals have been obvious as the season has progressed and the pressure has mounted, to the point where passing the ball between two Spurs players is apparently a virtually insurmountable problem. In the short time he has available, he needs to start with the basics of playing players in their right positions and staying with four at the back. Without excusing them, players these days expect to be coached into using their skills within a defined pattern and shape. I’ve lost count of how many formations we’ve attempted this season, so settle on this. It’s all we’ve got.

That said, I don’t think DeZerbi should have arrived at all. He is on record as excusing Mason Greenwood, who allegedly sexually and physically assaulted his former girlfriend, adding that Greenwood “paid a heavy price for what happened.” This is a shameful and shameless comment. Greenwood is a young, fit and rich young man who went unpunished and is able to continue his well-remunerated job. There is not a moment’s thought here for the victim. 

By appointing De Zerbi, Tottenham are condoning his disgraceful attitude. He said he is sorry if he offended anyone. This is the worst kind of apology because it’s not an apology at all. He’s not addressing his comments, he’s instead putting this back to the reaction of others. He could have accepted his mistake, spoken about how he now understands he was wrong, that he has learned from this. He could enter into discussions with groups who work with victims. He chose to do none of these things, because he thinks he’s right.   

The club are also sending a message that Spurs accept violence against women, that the experiences of women, girls and their safety are insignificant. Spurs have a sound record in working closely alongside organisations such as the Proud Lilywhites and Reach. These representative bodies plus Women of the Lane have all spoken out against the proposed appointment, yet they have been ignored. 

I am a member of the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust. Their report earlier this year noted that the club board agree with their Five Principles, which include ‘lead with integrity’ and ‘fans first’. They went on to praise the club’s commitment to ‘equality, disability and inclusion’. Not, it seems, when the expediency of appointing a manager takes precedence. There is a broader message here, that the club only work alongside supporter groups when it suits them and that their declarations of intent are worthless.  

I am intensely proud of the club’s heritage and defend this vigorously. The club frequently make pronouncements about the club’s history and DNA. Yet I fail to see how the club’s actions contribute anything positive to our culture. Also, our CEO was in a similarly senior position at AFC when they decided to regularly play a player on bail after a sexual assault allegation, to the point where he was allegedly offered a new contract. Is this the image we wish to project to the world – Tottenham Hotspur, the club that condones sexual assault provided that it suits us? Because that’s how it looks.  

Also on my mind is the increasing volume of noise in the media that the fans are to blame for our plight. This focuses on fan protests this season plus the booing of individuals and the team that is undeniably a feature of several home games this season. Now, I make it a rule that I don’t drawn into social media monetised concocted sensationalism or phone-in gobshites, but this has become part of the narrative surrounding Spurs.  One example is an article in the Observer by political journalist and Spurs fan David Aronovitch where he attributes our problems to injuries, fair enough, and “the boo-boys”. Other writers have given fans’ assumed sense of entitlement as the reason behind the booing. 

I don’t boo, opting instead for demented muttering that bothers only the very nice fans who I sit beside. I’ve berated some fans this season who have booed individuals, not that it did any good, because it doesn’t help them or the team. My own research revealed that many supporters complain bitterly that the club define them in a depersonalised manner as consumers, yet as Aronovitch insightfully points out, some appear to be adopting that role and complaining as disgruntled customers would to Trip Advisor. 

The problem I have with this analysis of entitled fans as a cause of our demise is what it obfuscates. Fans didn’t appoint a series of managers ill-suited to the club. Fans don’t allocate the transfer budget. Fans don’t create a club culture which a recent report highlighted as a major problem that needs to change. Fans don’t buy players who are not up to it. Fans don’t decide the salary budget that fails to attract top class players. Fans don’t decide seat prices that are among the highest in Europe. 

Booing does not help, but what else do supporters have if they wish to be heard? Levy’s regime was largely contemptuous of supporter representation if they wished to change anything of greater significance than the quality of the sausage rolls. Spurs fans are loyal to the core. Despite all the above and more, until recently the ground was always full. Away tickets are gold-dust, because we go all over the country and Europe in numbers. We do not bring a sense of entitlement because until last season, an entire generation of supporters had only a League Cup win to celebrate. There are no glory hunters at Spurs because there’s no glory. 

Such loyalty deserves praise. Booing is an expression of frustration, the causes of which could be addressed by the club. Fans have pointed out all of the problems above, but have been ignored. Also, the club could reduce the disconnect between themselves and fans if, for example, they reduced ticket prices, had better, cheaper deals for European games and worked more closely alongside supporter representatives. Or treated us with respect.   

My worst failing as a fan is that 5 minutes before kick-off, whatever I have said beforehand, whatever the club’s situation, I always feel hopeful. It’s irrational, given that I am nothing if not a cautious, rational man, but when was being a fan ever logical. I can’t help it. Seven games. I believed we were dead and buried. It’s up to the players to find something they have kept hidden from us for the whole season. I leave you with the wise words of one of the nation’s finest philosophers, Jackson Lamb in Slow Horses, who reminds us that it’s not the hope that kills you, it’s knowing it’s the hope that kills you, that kills you.

The Kelvin scale is one method of measuring temperature. Absolute zero is -273 degrees centigrade and pre-match that was how low I scored our chances of winning. This is the point where all molecular motion ceases, and therefore comes close to my assessment of some of our players.  

Like many of you, I hoped at least for some effort and application, and to be fair our first half was acceptable in that respect. The amount of pointing and shouting from the back three was noticeable from my position in the South Stand, implying that there was a plan and the players were committed to supporting each other to put it into action, again fair enough as the manager has only had a few days to work with this disorganised, undermotivated group.

Tudor prefers 5-3-2. For us, it meant playing a midfielder at centre back. Also, the midfield three allowed space for them to come down the wings and Saka drifted past our tackles with the ease of a slalom skier zipping past those poles. The lapse of concentration in not picking up Gyokeres did for us. They were not at their best and didn’t have to be. The whole club is streets ahead of us in the way they have allowed their manager to grow and backed him over several years to overcome bad transfer deals by spending big on high quality players. Exactly the opposite of the Tottenham Way, in other words. In the past on Tottenham On My Mind, I’ve written that they are streets head of us. I was wrong. It’s light years.

So welcome Igor Tudor. He has my very best wishes in handling the Herculean task ahead of keeping us in the Premier League. Handpicked by our hierarchy, which frankly is no recommendation given their record, he is apparently an expert in keeping teams up. I read he has never before lost his opening game after joining a club. Well, welcome to Tottenham.

The rest of season isn’t about yesterday’s performance. It’s about how we do against teams further down the league. Let’s call this Tudor’s pre-season: two weeks training, one practice match, then down to the real business. The best that can be said about yesterday is that he now has a fair idea of what he is up against.

We believe fondly in the positives of the new manager bounce, less so in the reality of the newcomer exposing the deep-rooted problems that characterise this Spurs side. We have been poor in the league for at least a year, arguably 18 months. Last season we finished 17^th because we deserved to. The supposed remedy for this – new manager, new club hierarchy, new players – has proved to be toxic rather than healing, and nothing has been done to cure the virus that will bring us to our knees, complacency. What truly hurts is that all of this is so avoidable.

For many years, the club hierarchy has been distant, aloof, all their entries channelled into self-preservation at the expense of the team and the fans, literally in the case of matchgoing supporters. Being average becomes acceptable, opportunities to build on success are allowed to pass by and they choose to look away when confronted with the requirements of creating a successful team, which after all is their stated aim. A life in football and they have learned nothing. Whether it be through the official channels of supporter feedback, through blogs like this one and podcasts or through protests outside and inside the ground, the hierarchy have been warned by the fans. We have seen it coming, they wrapped themselves in self-delusion. Supporters boo because they are not otherwise being heard.

This board have chosen a different route, to appoint several senior officers to manage all aspects of the club. However, they too have succumbed to this complacency. I have no idea what Venkatesham is doing to develop the club. He, the board and Lange (presumably, we don’t know) decided we didn’t need a short-term fix in January, when short-term, we were playing badly and decimated by injuries. They declined to spend money (Gallagher’s fee was offset by the sale of Johnson), when we know the club has funds. They chose not to make these available.

Lange and Frank are close. In fact, what we needed was a director of football (or whatever his job title is) at arm’s length, committed to the club but able to stand back with a degree of objectivity. So Frank stayed longer than he should have. Last week Heitinga left the club. He started work on or around January 15^th. That means, on January 15^th the plan remained that Frank should be supported to stay in post. 27 days later, he was sacked. This shows once more the disorganization and lack of planning at the highest level. It is disgraceful.

A long-held theory of mine is that the club hierarchy would behave differently if they mixed in the same circles as supporters. If they had to endure the stick Spurs fans are getting currently from all quarters, then they would perceive the situation very differently. Senior staff in business and commerce purposely isolate themselves as a form of self-protection. They think they know what’s going on, whereas in reality they fall victim to complacent group think. Apply that to your work if you are part of an organisation of any size. From my experience, being open and accountable is a strain but it’s essential to effective management. This is why the hierarchy’s distance from fans is a significant factor in our decline.  

And we fans are on the receiving end of constant ridicule. I wonder if they can imagine what young Spurs fans have had to put up with in the playground this morning. But they don’t care about that. They don’t care about that part of the Tottenham family.

We are in real trouble. Two wins at home all season, 9 games without any win. The players look demoralised and physically tired. Most of the injured players won’t be back until at least next month, and even then it will take time to become match fit. In the meantime, we’ve let the youngsters with lower league experience out on loan, so are left with a bench full of 17 years old to fight a relegation battle, then to support a period of playing three games in seven or eight days when we’re back in the CL. Our rivals Forest and Wham are not playing well, but they are already set up to be organised and fight (Forest have a new man but his tactics won’t be significantly different from Dyche), whereas we have no pattern to fall back on.

Tudor seems up for it. I just hope the players believe there’s something worth battling for, that the badge genuinely means something to them, or would they rather spend time on the phone to their agents, searching for an escape route. Romero could be a bellwether here. He’s a fighter, a leader, if he’s in the right frame of mind.

If the negative tone of this and recent pieces grates, well, I’m writing from the heart and being honest. We are in a terrible mess and I’m pessimistic about our chances. But there’s potential for change here – if they are up for it. Good luck Mr Tudor, good luck.