Dear Ashley,
Wise words, my friend. You’re right, so right, I shouldn’t get worked up.
I paid proper attention to that comment in my last piece, because it was all getting out of hand, what with the tension of the last day of the season. I ate lunch during half-time of the Villa game and as the minutes passed, I felt like I’d be physically sick, such was my frustration at not scoring and fear that we would come away with nothing. Ridiculous. I’m a grown man, with hair- and waist-line settling into middle-age even if my enthusiasm for the good things in life lags two or three decades behind. Enjoy the game, the passion, the excitement and the downside that inevitably comes with it, but don’t allow it to take over.
Never have I needed such wise counsel as this week. I couldn’t shift the Doomsday Scenario from my mind. It had been coming for weeks and now it was almost here. Ar****l were ahead, Chels could just turn up, open up the deckchairs in the centre circle and still come away with a win. Abramovich could persuade fate to his way of thinking. RVP, the semi-final, Barca, all down to this; the gunners take third not on points, not on goal difference but on the odd goal scored. Chels then usurp our Champions League place as well as ram the trophy down our throats for evermore. In the 45 plus years I’ve been an active Spurs fan, this wasn’t just the ultimate indignity, this was the end of days.
These days I just roll with it. Thought it would diminish with age, fade away like the careers of so many fine players I’ve seen come and go at the Lane. Not a question of too late to stop, it’s a force beyond my control. I think it, dream it, talk about it, but it’s the feeling most of all. Visceral, all-encompassing, a physical and emotion reaction in time with the ebb and flow of our fortunes.
I missed half a season in each of several years in the nineties when the kids were young. That’s OK, priorities right and all, but the thing is, I still felt it. Felt guilty that I wasn’t there – hah! As if the club cared. Felt better when I was there. Can’t deny it. Still, on matchdays, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be. Trips to the park glued to the radio. Alone in my flat on a bank holiday weekend, kicking every ball as we fought relegation at Wimbledon.
Took my children as soon as they were old enough, whether they wanted to go or not. Oldest on my shoulders when we won the League Cup but he still kept his Liverpool shirt. Other son when he was 5 or 6. He told me later that because of his eye condition, he couldn’t see the game at all. Thought he spent a lot of time playing with the cord on his anorak. Daughter came along just so she wouldn’t be left out. Now my oldest has sadly gone but we three sit together. I apologised at full-time yesterday.
Kick-off was a relief. At least we were nearer to knowing. Sunny day, players with new hairstyles, committed, focussed, up for it. Noise rolling around the grand old ground, back in time to these seething crowds of 56,00o that had me under their spell. Never found the antidote, but then again I haven’t looked very hard.
On the old BBC radio commentaries, Peter Jones used to cut in halfway through the second half to “welcome listeners on the BBC World Service, wherever you may be”. That really made an impression as a child. Football brings people together the world over like nothing else. And so it is with Spurs. Me, I’m grateful and mildly surprised that anyone reads this blog. Tottenham On My Mind because it is. Helps with the obsession. The obsession of a non-obsessive, non-addictive personality? Sounds damaging, that’s just occurred to me. It will always be niche but the new wordpress stats tell me not only how many people read it but where they live. People all round the world check in. People from countries I have never heard of. Wherever in the world they may have been, at 3pm their hearts were in N17. Their hearts were beating fast.
Kaboul ventures forward. Too early, a contender for player of the season but he remains impetuous at times. Or clever tactics maybe – push the spare centre half forward if Fulham only have one up front. No time to think about it. Ade to Rafa and back, perfect side foot, I’m right in line and leap to the skies before it hits the back of net. Beautiful football, the perfect start. If I’m a nervous wreck, the players must be calm. They were overjoyed – it meant something special.
The Lane is rocking, don’t bother knocking. Well on top and a rumour that WBA were 3-1 up kept us bouncing, but downhill from then on. We made and missed a few chances, Bale and Rafa but were performing well enough. Fulham, limited ambitions but we let them back into the game and twice Friedel saved us, the second a fine, fine save low to his right. If the game was a trial for Dembele, as far as I’m concerned he passed and we should bid.
Defoe put us out of our misery, picking up a loose ball to settle if not totally quell the nerves. Before that, a polite version is that we played possession football, same after. Less generous assessment is that it was the dullest game of the season. A couple of beachballs in the Paxton but it felt like Margate on a rainy autumn day.
Plenty of time to ponder on what might have been. The January window, not who we didn’t buy but the lack of cover by letting Pienaar and Corluka leave. Injuries, to Daws and King in particualr unsettling a jittery backline, to Sandro, mighty alongside the excellent Livermore today and how we could have done with his drive and tackling. Stoke, points dropped at home, offside goals away. Chels at Wembley, goals and sendings off that never were, Norwich, rubbish (us not them), Villa rubbish (us and them), even after all the ups and downs just one more win, two draws even. Fourth is a good season, but the might-have-beens are an itch I can’t scratch.
I guess the blog is a form of therapy, Ashley. I can’t believe people take the time and trouble to join in. They read it it and actually bother to comment. I’m touched by it, each and every one, genuinely. Very emotional, see. Wept when we played gorgeous thrilling football earlier in the year, wept as we shouted, screamed for Muamba to live. Guess in reality the blog is all about one thing, why this wretched beloved team holds its grip after all these years. Some of the stories get the closest. Adriana tolerates but doesn’t understand, why it’s always on my mind.
Too late to change, so roll with it. Regards to everyone who reads Tottenham On My Mind and sincere thanks for the many kind comments I’ve received this year. I’m profoundly grateful, it’s kept me going. A busy week for me but a season’s round-up in the next week or so, a few more pieces over the summer, change of design but it’s all about the words so it will be, basically, exactly the same.
Time for a dip in the pool, Ashley, then a stroll on the strip with the models, poseurs and queens. Me, I’ll look forward to my next trip to Tottenham High Road. It’s where I belong. You’re a good man, have a cold one for me.
Kind regards,
Al
TOTTENHAM ON MY MIND 
Great read – many thanks my friend. Sometimes it really is just hard to explain even to ourselves why we love our club so much. The emotions we go through and live with on a daily basis are quite extraordinary. It effects every area of my life and im supposed to a responsible parent / business owner / role model. I know its nuts but its just the way it is.Tottenham til I die!!!!
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It is and they are. Our emotions in the hands of something over which we have no control whatsoever.
Regards,
Al
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Love your work. Who’s Ashley?
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Appreciate that.
Ashley is a regular correspondent – ex-pat in LA. See below.
Regards,
Al
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It is completely irrational, but there can be no half measures; you’re either on the bus or off the bus, as one of our American goal keepers once said. Or was it Ken Kesey? 😉
I recently found myself on a small island off the east coast of Malaysia; paradise it was. That was until I found out that the blue scum v us game was nowhere to be seen. Did I just relax, happy to be on a strip of perfect powder white sand next to a crystal clear sea? Like fuck did I! After much earache from the missus and many ringgit later, I managed to see the game by chartering a boat to the next island and coming back the next morning.
That’s just the most recent example of my sickness. I’m sure everyone who is obsessed has been completely irrational at least a dozen times. I wouldn’t even consider going on holiday until the closed season until I had to move away from England (that’s another story).
Alan, anyone who reads your blog knows that you’re ill with Spurs. If you weren’t, it wouldn’t be half as good. People should stick to writing what that know about, whether that be the madness of following Spurs, or about the phonies over there in la la land. Through reading, it’s easy to spot those who are, literally, true to their word.
Please, don’t get well.
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TMWNN, LOL, we’re not all phonies over here (besides you learn to handle what you’re dealt with and just get on with it, mate — you must’ve had some bad encounters, sorry or maybe you’re just speculating?). Anyway, hope you’re kidding/being ironic, but difficult to tell with you, some of the awful stuff you say about Harry on DML is just plain awful — he’s a man with a family and kids, like you, he has his moments of “doubt and pain,” he twitches because he was the only survivor (fellow passengers were killed) of a car wreck caused by a drunken driver, no manager has gotten us 4th twice (if Bayern does the biz, not even Billy Nick got us in to CL/old Euro Cup twice I don’t believe!)…How’d you like people to publicly excoriate you. I’m sure I wouldn’t want it. I’m a Spurs fan through and through, named my first pet, a budgie, Jimmy after Greavsie (who I met & got his autograph outside Ninian Park in Cardiff when England invaded). I’ve seen Spurs in two FA Cup finals at the old Wembley, we won one and lost one. I even have some small shares in THFC. But having covered pro sports most of my writer’s life — been to World Cup, Stanley Cup & NBA finals, World Series games, etc. — I’ve been blessed to see sports from both a fan and insider’s POV. I’ve co-written an NBA blog for Playboy with a LA Lakers star every week right through to the dressing room celebrations. I’ve interviewed people from NFL & NBA & NHL MVPs, and owners and the FA’s Secretary Ted Croker, my brother is a consultant to FIFA. So I’ve learned to see things objectively as quickly as possible. And what I’ve learned, IMHO, is that we can’t often control what happens to us, but we can control how we respond to it. I choose to celebrate Tottenham wins and tough draws and I don’t sweat the losses (too long). I celebrate that I will be a Spurs fan till my last breath. I don’t talk ill of my team or manager or ownership beyond constructive suggestions — e.g. my fellow Welshman Bale does have a right foot, surprise surprise, but he could practice using it more and make himself as good as Greavsie. And, I don’t spread negativism, it’s contagious and gets into the ether and is like poison. You think you’re going to fail or your team is going to fail, guess what, you will fail! I’ve never read Blogs much (but TOMM, along with DML and AANP posts are entertaining and incredibly well written) prior to this season, so it’s been quite an eye-opener to read so much poison by the respondents. I don’t know if it’s a factor of still living in the Brit (and most of dad and mother’s families still live your way) in such crummy weather or it’s just a Brit thing to deride and tear down people who rise above. Over here, the inclination is to celebrate individual success. But in short, I have so enjoyed Spurs this season. Scintillating at times, tough at other times when we just didn’t have enough at the sharp end to break down stifling 10-men defenses. Or just didn’t get the rub of the green. I even put a bet in Vegas before the season, figuring we’d finish anywhere from 4-6th (I didn’t think in my wildest dreams, we’d come 3rd — it was unreasonable given the wealth and power and money of all our competitors) so I bet 4th, and guess what, I won a little bit, lol! I have a sense that when Bayern beat Cheatski (should I place a bet) on Saturday, and we get our second CL shot in three years, that certain fans will just never be happy. More fool them, I suppose! But that’s just my humble take, now I gonna have a cuppa under the palm trees outside before the LA Lakers game comes on! Cheers & COYS!
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Ashley, LOLer, your post reads like a CV come self help book set to the music of ‘Kumbaya’. You ought to be careful; I’ve heard about those hippy sects over there out west and what they get up to. 🙂
I don’t think you’re a phony. Judging by your posts, you’re probably an oasis of rationality and truthfulness in a desert of the crazy and disingenuous. Your writing and Spurs supporting credentials are also not in question. If you choose the ‘Pollyanna’ route of support, that’s fine by me, but there are others, like me, who from experience expect the worse and are usually not disappointed. A lot of these types can also distinguish between negativity on-line or down the pub and positivity inside the ground. Unless the players and manager (a self-confessed illiterate) actually read all this guff, how can it affect them?
Hands up though, my post likening Redknapp to a cancer that needs removing from the club was out of order, and way over the top. I do believe he should be sacked though. If there’s anything that never fails to wind me up, it’s the Bill Nick – Redknapp comparison, so well done there. The two should never be mentioned in the same breath. Nicholson spent more time at Spurs than this chancer has been alive. I don’t think some have realised what a great chance this season was. After being repeatedly battered by the Redknapp low standard stick, it’s actually seen as success by some.
Enjoy the sun.
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And please keep posting here… thanks my friend, reassuring to know we can suffer together, and that is a cracking story.
Best wishes,
Al
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Well I can only call myself a passive fan compared to some of you chaps. But I am tucked away here in a foreign land and my only connection (apart from automatic phone text scores) is this blog. Being too tight to rent Euro-Sky or whatever I haven’t seen a single ball kicked this season. Well not by Spurs anyway. But I have to say I feel like I have. Through this blog I feel like I’ve lived through every high and every low, the glory and the gloom. I just want to thank you again Alan for doing this. You are a brilliant writer that is for sure. If you ever feel like giving up … don’t!
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That’s great, and a very kind comment. Amazing that so many people follow Spurs through this and other blogs – thank you. I began the blog by writing previews and match reports but without a real plan (no plans here at TOMM) realised that it was about not so much who kicked the ball but how it felt.
Regards,
Al
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Hi Alan,
I’m an ex-pat residing in Scandinavia so never get to the lane these days, but through the wonders of technology and the generosity of the Swedish football channels I see lots of our games live.
Middle aged and generally mild mannered, just ask my missus and kids how much I change as kick off time draws near.
My body may be in a foreign land, but I feel every emotion as I did when I saw my first match in 1971.
Chivers, Peters, Gilzean and England, ghosts of players who left such an indelible mark on the soul of an eight year old that they forged an unbreakable bond.
My kids are Spurs, naturally. But they will never know the old west stand, the shelf and the enclosure, how could they?
This season has stretched my emotions to breaking point, “If they make you so angry why watch them”? people ask.
The answer is easy, Bale, Vdv, Modric and Kaboul, all from the here and now and just as thrilling.
I love Spurs, sad, Isn’t it?
Swedish love Spurs.
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Thanks very much. Did you see the Swedish flag in the Park Lane on Sunday? Right behind the goal.
Lots of love for Spurs in Sweden, I get many hits from there and a couple of people, one English, one Swedish, stay in touch. You’re a damn fine father, if you ask me. Bring them over before they knock the old place down.
Regards,
Al
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I’m an Arsenal fan, but strangely I like this article. Perhaps, because it is a well written, truthful, account of being a football fan. You’re not the only one it takes over, trust me. On Sunday I was a bag of nerves, but I never lost belief we would win. The tension was unbearable, wasn’t it? Oh, you’re probably wandering why an Arsenal fan like myself is commenting on a Spurs blog, well I like to read other fans opinions about things- even if most of the time it’s unwarranted bile and venom. I love Arsenal, and I don’t like Tottenham, but ultimately we’re good for each other… even if we hate to admit it.
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What a remarkable post from a Gooner no less!!
Have read a few blogs in the last few days from the Spurs fan sites and there does appear to be more poetry emanating from these that shows the true culture and intelligence of our fan base.
But thanks too for the last post. I’m still sick to my stomach to lose third to the Dial Square lot but yes, we need each other.
So, nerves and knees wobbly for Saturday .
COYS and COYBM
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Alex, mate, you’re not here in LA? Alex the Arsenal fan I know and sometimes work with? LOL! I have a number of people I work with who are Arsenal fans, including Gale Ann Hurd one of the biggest producers in Hollywood, and I’d rather wish the best for both of us, than have a hate-on. I-point difference this year, the gap is definitely closing (the season before, we got a draw and win from you, this season we split the league games) but I still got to hand it to Wenger and what he’s done over the years with outstanding talent like Bergkamp and Henry — and I’d take RVP in my side any day!
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Funnily enough I do have the occasional visitor from the dark side here and most are (and this is incredible!!!) just football fans like me!! Phew, what an insight… A couple of my pieces have been picked up by gunner blogs and not in a bad way. Appreciate that – agree we can’t do without each other. Although there have been times I’ve been tempted. Think we have more in common than we would care to admit, as I said in in the article on ticket prices – it’s listed in ‘Recent’ Pay Now etc
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A lovely blog. Keep it up. Next season will be better 🙂
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Are you Ally Gold in disguise?
Great article epitomizes sSpurs fan at his best.
You can’t fake true feelings.
Regards
Rajspurs
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Cheers Raj. Can’t fake it, never will. Regards, Al
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Thanks for the shout-out, Al. Nice wrap up. We all have passion for our team but as I said earlier, in life, love, work and our following of Spurs, we often can’t control what happens to us, but we can control the way we respond to it. I just prefer the Monty Python/Life of Brian take on life, love and Spurs. One, two, three, four…”Cheer up, Brian. You know what they say: Some things in life are bad. They can really make you mad. Other things just make you swear and curse. When you’re chewing on life’s gristle, Don’t grumble. Give a whistle. And this’ll help things turn out for the best. And…[cue music] Always look on the bright side of life.” Cheers and thanks again, mate! Ashley
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Glad you like it, Ashley. Deeply appreciate your visits to the site, enjoy the sun.
Regards,
Al
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Yours is always a good read as your say what you feel. Please feel priviledged that you can actually go to WHL to see the matches and experience the atmoshere there. I was born in the hospital just a few blocks from the ground but my family emigrated to Australia in 1951. I have always, since I can remember, been a Spurs fan. Today I am able to watch every game on cable and get to see away fixtures, and cup and Euro games – never miss a one, even though some require getting up at 2am for kick-off. That’s a long way from my schooldays when the only information came via one or two paragraphs in a Monday afternoon newspaper – 2 days after the match was played! Living in luxury today!! Now I can plug a set of headphones into the wide screen TV and I am almost there! Keep up the good work.
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You’re welcome, and I certainly do feel privileged even though simultaneously I know the club are exploiting the fans with their high ticket prices. More stupidity there but as the article, says, too far gone. Many many loyal Spurs in Australia, and of course over here we can’t see every game without resort to dodgy internet streams.
Regards,
Al
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I actually live in England but can I join this love-in (well, except the Ashey/TMWNN spat- honours even chaps) to say how much I have enjoyed the blog this season. An oasis of civilisation, insight and pleasure in what now seems a increasingly disturbed online world. While I accept TMWNN’s point that most people can distinguish between online negativity and in the ground positivity I do feel that the bile against Rednapp on some sites sometimes goes too far. He has done far more that is right than wrong and his league record proves it. Yes, we blew a big lead over Arsenal but so did United over City and no-one in their right mind thinks Fergie is fool (or worse).
We’ve seen some fantastic football in the season and with any luck we will qualify for the CL that so many crave.
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It’s only handbags between Ashley and me. I actually wish I could be more like him sometimes rather than the pessimist I am (mainly Spurs doing).
You’re right, both Ferguson and Redknapp blew a big point advantage to their nearest rival. The huge difference is, one’s a winner and one’s a loser. Guess which one is pissed off and which one is overly pleased with himself?
Do you think Ferguson and United fans see losing out to their rival on the last day and finishing second any kind of success? People don’t think Ferguson is a fool because they know he’s a winner and that he won’t try to convince himself and others that their season has been a success.
We not only threw away a 10 point advantage, but also got thumped at Wembley by the blue scum. If you’re happy with that, then fair enough. It hasn’t been a disaster by any stretch (unless the blue scum win on Saturday) but we’ve only achieved the absolute minimum given the circumstances.
TMWNN’s season’s verdict – must try harder.
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I agree with much of your sentiments when comparing Utd and us and Fergie’s reaction to failure. However, unlike when I started to support Spurs in the sixties, you have to accept that the two clubs are coming from completly different places. United have had unprecedented domestic success in the last twenty years while we have watched others including our nearest neighbours leave us in the dust. However unpalatable I find Harry’s “You’ve never had it so good” attitude to us “idiot fans” (and believe me I do) there is a kernel of truth in what he says. If you come across any Gooners on that exotic island of yours (I say enviously) ask them. Someone once said a man should be judged by the quality of his enemies. Well Gooners don’t laugh at us any more- they are watching their back.
Yes I am a Half Bottle Full kinda of bloke but the club is going places and Harry will be gone within a year in my opinion.
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Redknapp keeps hiding behind the fact that Spurs aren’t competitive enough financially, and he’d be correct in general. With an ‘on song’ blue scum, scum and even the scousers, we’d have no right to expect to finish in the CL places, and if we did, it would, to some extent be seen as success (even by my high standards 🙂 )
I’m under no illusion here, unless more money is pumped in and/or the new stadium is built, it’s going to be very difficult to get into the top 4 again, and even then there’ll be no guarantees. Many, including me, didn’t expect to do it this year, hence the overuse of “I’d have taken 4th at the beginning of the season”, but who was to know both the scums and the scousers were going to be so poor? Even Newcastle finished above the blue scum and Liverpool. The scum’s worst team for an age lost 10 games, yet we still couldn’t finish above them with a team that was being talked of in the same breath as the double side. It’s highly unlikely we’ll see those teams play that poorly again.
You might see it as a glass half empty attitude, but for my money, this team, in this season has underachieved, not overachieved as Redknapp would have it.
Nice chewing the fat with you.
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ps Unfortunately, I was only on holiday, and actually live in the land of the team we’ll all be supporting on Saturday.
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Great read Alan. Thanks for the entertainment over the season. A pleasure to sit close to you and your family at the Lane
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You’re more than welcome. Is that the entertainment in the blog or when I start waving my arms around in frustration like a flesh and blood version of Robbie the Robot? Reveal yourself, madam or sir. Kind regards, Al
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I’m Steve. The father of the 2 who sit next to your son and the girl who sits in front of you and i’m afraid the entertainment i mentioned is your blog and NOT the demented way you react to some disappointments on the pitch although that has its amusing times
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Demented is exactly the word. Told you I was too far gone…A pleasure to sit with you and your family, Steve, see you in August
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What an up and down season. My falling in love with Spurs was something of an accident but there’s never a moment where I would rather support any other club. My weekends are going to be mighty boring without the Lillywhites.
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I find the redknapp thing a pain, without doubt he has overseen our best years in the last couple of decades, and for that I thank him, however he has for the past two seasons sat on monumental collapses, one can be an accident, two is a total lack of insight, a third would be totally outrageous.Of course, if it were just that then another year might be worth risking, however last year he called the fans of this club idiots, when we win he takls about we and me, when we are losing Tottenham becomes they and them.
Ashley you are right to say negativity spreads, last season he also said this is a good as it gets and low and behold Modric gets his head turned by the offer of better things, he should never accept less than 1st place, if he is a winner.
But worse is the way that he blames others for their mistakes but never puts his hand up to confess his own, Bent was castigated for missing an open goal “Sandra could do better”
And even “others told me to do it even though I knew it was wrong!” talking about the system he got the players to play. well how about just admitting that the england job took his eyes off the job, the first mention he made positively about spurs was when it was obvious that Roy Hodgson was the FA’s pick.
Redknapp supported Woolwich as a boy and despite training at WHL played for the spammers, he is not spurs, ferguson is manu wenger is woolwich, abramovich is che£ski, not haveing that money we need a manager who is spurs.
Rafeal Van der Vart said that there is no tactical training or discussion, well that may work when your winning but will never enable one to see what to change when your losing. Football is not just a business nor even just a sport, it is a creative endeavor and to be creative one needs a technique, that is tactics in team sports. Managers and coaches get ridiculed for not having a plan ‘B’, it is possible that the other teams in the EPL have realised that Redknapp doesn’t have a plan ‘A’ in which case 15th could be a high as we get next season.
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thanks for the chance to write this Alan. enjoy the summer and COYBM
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Mal, I’m the one who should thank you and other correspondents for such lengthy and erudite comments. I’m toying with writing an end of season Redknapp overview as I did as part of the blog’s conclusion to last term, or feeling that it has been done to death by me and many other blogs. I’ll ponder, meantime, thanks again, Alan
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Alan, do the wrap up and I’ll respond in my Monty Python “Cheer up, Brian…” sort of way. BTW, I’d have drinks with the lot of you — a shared love of our Spurs conquers all, no? New training facilities, new kit, hopefully some new blood, fresh cut August grass, what’s not to like, just around the corner?! 🙂
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Ashley, if the writing work ever dries up, you ever considered politics? You could put spin on a dollop of turd.
Enjoy the new kit. 😉
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Hard not to love life, mate, when it’s sunny nearly every day and breezes & parrots in the palm trees, when there are gorgeous ladies (one MFA theatre grad sat right next to me today at cafe, so I had to chat her up, tough job, I know!) here there and everywhere, and I get to do what I love — it ain’t paradise, but it’s a simple life and not ‘alf bad. And personally, I’ve got this mantra, If you have the courage to translate every event into a positive, empowering experience, you will defeat those gremlins of doubt, self-loathing and worry. Albeit, it ain’t easy, but more people should give it a try. I’d rather smile and engage someone than add more misery to the world. Hollywood is tough enough to crack without feeling sorry for yourself as well. And I’d have a drink with you mate, if you ever visit! PS I also avoid turds whenever I can, I do have standards, fellow Yiddo!
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You’ve convinced me. Where do I sign up?
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Drinks it is, then, although it’s less likely to be round the pool and more like huddling round the spilt tea by the Colonel’s burger van in the Park Lane.
It’s a date. Can you bring the theatre grad with you?
Regards,
Al
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Great sign off Alan, tho’ I’ll look out for the sporadic pieces in the summer, as ever there’ll be lots to talk about at Spurs. Many thanks for an erudite, passionate and insightful Spurs blog.
It’s been a good season, we’ve played some super stuff and had some fine fine days as well as the “trad” collapse in the home strait. It’s a big opportunity missed, tho’ it will be eased considerably if Bayern win. Mind, this means a play off place rather than the CL proper and if we play a better team than Young Boys we might not be so lucky if we get things so badly wrong from the outset.
I like Spurs in Europe and if we are in the Europa league that will excite me too, as long as the manager takes it seriously…
Whatever way I approach things, Harry’s done well, but we should have done better in both the last two seasons in the league with the squad at his disposal, the position we were in both Februarys and the form of our near rivals. Sadly, I think Harry’s limitations have been cruelly exposed and the FA would have been mad to choose him to manage an International side. We’ve never had it so good? He’s never had it so good, and it shows.
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Well you had another good season Alan.
I think the spat between you and Ashley and TMWNN is unresolvable because we can’t will or choose our response. We are victims of our own personality which determines our outlook.
TMWNN can’t make himself content over this season’s outcome and nor can I.
Whatever we would have been happy with at the start of the season is irrelevant.
Two goals up against Arsenal and looking at a 13 point lead, what followed was a disaster
whichever way you look at it.
Not entirely Harry’s fault and he should continue as manager.
Do the Redknapp review; it’s not what you say but the way that you say it.
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Jimmy G — we can’t often control what happens to us, but the one thing we can certainly control is our response to it, at least that’s my approach. And apropos of nothing, In vino veritas, or something like that!
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Ashley I agree totally with your sumation of what we can and can’t control.
Remember redknapp walking out of court a free man, remember capello being forced to leave the england job remember the media’s self-opiniated crowning of redknapp. and what happened next?
Well redknapp has got ONE year left on his contract, so come january anybody think he eyes will be elsewhere?
Options ?
A new contract or bye bye!
Well, apparently redknapp and Daniel don’t get on, so Daniel, smell the coffee and say bye bye!!
Because whether or not Daniel can arrange / make Modric stay or not this time he will not be able to a third time.
And if this team of players is a good as they are capable of showing on a season long basis then the manager we seek only needs to have a plan A and a plan B, myself I give it to Billic, he will not be expensive and will definately bring a winning mentality rathe than a “this is the best “YOU” have had…..
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Fellow THFC fans I’ve just discovered this site, via our fellow Yids in Dubai (my ex location).
This discovery was AFTER MUNICH so you can imagine the despair/opinions/vitriol/praise etc being uttered via the ongoing email exchanges!!
Firstly, I do not do blogs etc but I have to say having found this one its been good to read (only two items so far) and to see some logical, entertaining, enlightening responses and general banter.
Secondly, I like our Ashley’s view of life/Spurs/ etc and we shd all try and attain that Nirvana but that might be a touch difficult for some when you haven’t got the ideal job or palm trees/parrots/ students, et al as ‘neighbours’!!
Thirdly, keep up the good work Mr Fisher and keep us going through the summer of doubt until all things THFC are sorted and we know our fate for next season’s team/management etc!!
Fourthly, does anyone know if Mr Lewis and Co have a plan/strategy, apart from the new stadium, for making us into one of the elite clubs in Europe or are we just meandering along as another investment for his group?? This to me is key because as many people have said it is becoming harder every year to compete with the money at the other EPL places we all love so much!!
Florida Yid.
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