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TOPSPURS |
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The thoughts and views on THFC
updated daily from Jim Duggan - Shelfside season ticket holder, White Hart
Lane resident & supporter since the early 1970s |
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5th May 2002 – Season Tickets (again) Names on Tickets: After renewing my season ticket online (something that the club can be rightly proud of introducing), I got a call from someone from the ticket office asking for a name for the other person for my other ticket. I asked him why and he said for safety reasons blah blah and while I agreed at the time as he said it did not matter for entry to the ground as the ticket can be used by anyone I chose to bring along with me – I wondered if this was one rule for one and not another as corporate season tickets do not have this? While the club should be rightly concerned about ticket touts – they do nothing to stop it. Touts openly stand by old bill offering tickets at all Spurs matches and tickets are widely available on the net at more than face value. Again, if the club were serious on all fronts about touts, I could understand the greater restrictions on tickets, but they are not – it seems just another attempt to piss non corporate season ticket holders off – as these are the only people who seem to be targeted. Cost of Executive Boxes: With all the Spurs season ticket holders being hit by disproportionate ticket price increases – I wondered what sort of increase our friends in the exec boxes have to put up with – and although I have not managed as yet to get a comparison between prices over the last few seasons and next season (if you have any info on this please email me at execboxes@topspurs.com)– one alarming difference between our season tickets and theirs is (from the official site): “EXECUTIVE BOXES Packages are valid for the following games under the auspices of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club at White Hart Lane involving the THFC first team: All 19 FA Premier League games, all AXA FA Cup ties and all Worthington Cup ties.” So why can they get all matches for a fixed price, while we only get 21! And if the club is so keen to raise as much money as possible, why not tap this lot who are paying over between £4500 and £2000 per person per match for money after the second cup tie? If you read all this stuff all the evidence points to the fact that season ticket holders are being done up by the club. The club have an agenda to remove all season ticket holders or to get them to actual matchday prices or prices that the ticket would fetch on the street. No reward for loyalty or for those with a genuine feeling for the club – just take the money from anyone who is willing to bid the highest. While we all want success on the pitch more than anything else, nothing has changed off the pitch – its out of the frying pan and into the fire from Sugar to ENIC.
End of the Wood
Green Spurs shop: Just a sad little postscript to say that the only
reason for dragging my arse up the local shops will soon be taken away when
the Wood Green Spurs shop is being done away with at the end of May. At a
time when we should be promoting and extending the Tottenham “brand” – a shop
in central London is an absolute essential!, we are cutting back. Just think
of all those unsold Garden heroes! On this day in history: 1901 - At the FA Cup winning party, Monica Cadman the wife of the vice chairman of the club hung white and blue ribbons on the FA Cup, something she repeated 20 years later in the Jinking Jimmy Dimmock final of 1921 and something that remains a tradition to this day. On this day in
history: 1985, only
16,711 turn out to see the current management (Hoddle &Hughton) score a
goal each alongside a couple from Falco to see Spurs beat Coventry 4-2 and
keep us on course for our joint highest league finish in my lifetime (3rd).
Spurs lost 5 of their last 8 home matches that season which should have been
our first championship since you know when – but just look at that crowd
figure – for a team 3rd in the league with such stars as Clemence,
Hughton, Roberts, Perryman, Falco, Hoddle, Galvin – it just shows you what it
was like before a good world cup and the crackdown on football violence send
the popularity of football back up again. I assume ENIC are banking on a good
world cup….. as we don’t even want to think about the crowd for the
Birmingham City home match the following April, where I was among the 9,359
saw Chiedozie and Falco beat a young David Seamen for a 2-0 win. |
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2nd May 2002 – Site update problems and weekly round up BT: BT must stand for big tossers as for the second time this season a bit of rain knackered my phone connection over the weekend and kept the site without an update! Apologies again for all those looking for a 10 minute read to skive off work in the mornings! A good week otherwise: After the unrest in the lead up to the Liverpool game, it has been a great week since with a fine win over Liverpool and a potentially exciting signing of Milenko Acimovic – a top quality Slovenian International from Red Star Belgrade. Signing a good player is great and even better when he arrives on a free & lets hope he has good luck and a successful time at the Lane (and is injury free!). As good as a signing this is – we still need more before the start of next season – a couple of top quality forwards, a strongman in midfield and a bit more cover at wing back (as well as sorting out the goalkeeper situation). Lets hope ENIC can sweet-talk all the men that Hoddle wants over the summer. – Which has got off to a good start on the pitch with Redknapp and Acimovic. The Away season ticket: The away season ticket has gone up to £620 - that works out at £29.50 per game (including some daft service charge of at least £35), when as most away travellers know most tickets at other clubs are £22-£24. Ok so you get a refund – but what planet are the people on that make up these prices? Just another ruse to get people to go to the Jumbotron (sitting 100 yards away and watching the game on a patchy screen), via of course the club shop where we can all purchase our very own garden hero? The obvious retort is “If you don’t like it don’t get one!”, but why should I and 250 other people that go home and away with Tottenham be ripped off by our own club? Along with the stunt of only giving the meaningless 5% discount to members only – it makes you wonder if the loyal season ticket holders are surplus to requirements with ENIC, something they could “do without” as our seat prices are marginally lower than one off tickets. Do they think they could sell out WHL to 36,000 people who will just show up ever week? Replica Shirt Prices: Just got my renewal stuff thro the post and saw that the replica kits are £40! I have been told all season that the Addidas deal was negotiated badly by the previous administration so that the club only made a small percentage of the profit from the kits. As well as having a better designed kit, one of the benefits of the Kappa deal was that they would be able to sell them at a lower cost – like the £35 Blackburn currently charge for their Kappa kits. Not surprisingly, this has not come true and the kits, complete with Red logo, are up for £40. Perhaps we should be happy that they have not been subject to the usual 10%+ increases! They better not put up our already most expensive programme from the £3 – but you would n’t put it beyond them. Perhaps a fans charter is what we need – one that deals with not being ripped off rather than the technicalities of getting tickets out – but you can’t imagine them wanting to cramp their style with something like this. While it has been a good week regarding the transfers – I’m still regard ENIC with suspicion. I am not against them & hope they are a major success on the football field, but while some of the stuff they have done since they have taken over has been good but some of their other actions have been openly antagonistic towards the loyal supporters who go to matches and has given cause for concern. |
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28th April 2002 – Liverpool & the end of home season party Match report – click here: We rode our luck in the first 20 minutes with some fine saves by Keller but grew stronger in the game and ran our deserved winners thanks to Poyet’s 10th league goal of the season – not bad for a luxury player, who is now leading scorer in the league. It was a great occasion at the Lane, as was the post match party in the Northumberland Arms when we were all celebrating the massive odds on Spurs as highlighted in this column on Friday. The win was special for everyone, but it was great to see Tony (GeordieSpur) McVeigh down from North Shields (someone who will not forget the 15 minute ticket scramble prior to kick off in a hurry), Den & Lisa across from Dublin – nicer people you could not possibly hope to meet & Boris from Skopje, Macedonia who’s two previous games this season were against Chelsea and not much fun – so the win was great for him. As long as we match West Ham’s result against Bolton (and if we both lose, hope Villa do not win at Chelsea), we will be top of the crap in the Premiership in 7th place – equalling our highest League finish since the greed league began 10 years ago. Add to that a cup final and some good football, we can say its been a good first full season for Hoddle & provided he is not impeded by the Club’s owners, I think we can expect him to deliver Tottenham back to the top 3 within the next 2 to 3 seasons, and go on to be mentioned in the same breath as Rowe and Nicholson as great players and managers of our famous old club, but whatever happens it is great to have him at the helm & we wish him all the best & remain 100% behind him. |
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27th April 2002 – ENIC & their control of THFC ENIC: It has fair to say that in the last week the tide has most definitely turned against ENIC (Bollocks to writing the THFC board as controlled by ENIC), its Levy and his little men who have the executive power at the Lane, and they are doing nothing to convince me that we are better off post Sugar. In effect the season ticket price increase should change nothing in relation to how we currently perceive ENIC. It has always been the case that ENIC’s performance should first be reviewed at Dec 2002 at the earliest as that will have given them more than a season and a half and two pre-seasons to show us what they are all about, but you cannot help think they are on one massive confidence trick.
ENIC’s money raising actions have almost exclusively been against the Season ticket holders and to a lesser extent the members – the lifeblood of the club, the 20,000 that turned up against Torquay, the 28, 000 that turned up for Bradford after the 2001 semi. We are the most price insensitive section of the market and they are hammering us for it in the knowledge that we will take a lot of shite before we give up the season ticket. I season ticket holder has emailed me today to say that only members get the 5% discount with our red logo travel company – one more up yours to the season ticket holders and another contradiction from Levy who was quoted as saying "Not only is it a great financial injection into the club but will also see our fans and staff being able to benefit from the sponsorship. We are negotiating plans to make some fantastic Thomson initiatives available for them.” As long as you are not a season ticket holder. Naively, I always thought that season ticket holders were fans and while we’re at it, what sort of discount is 5%! And the members don’t like it either. Apparently their
discount in the Spurs shop has disappeared and he sums up what a Spurs
membership gives you “so for £25 (£27 if new
applicant) i get the privilege of being able to And while we’re at it – what about the management of ENIC. I was wondering over last weekend why they announced the season ticket prices earlier than they said they would and with one home game to go, and then it dawned on me. The day they were due to come out (May 5th) could have been a day after Arsenal have just won the double. I’d like to comment that it was a nasty but shrewd bit of business timing, but there are a number of gaffes that they have made while at the helm which do not inspire confidence on that front. It does not take too much imagination to realise that the Thomson deal – complete with Red logo fiasco - was done a week or so before the Kappa deal was officially signed. I just wonder what Kappa thought of 1,500 fans a day signing the no to the red logo petitions? A case of putting the cart before the £15m deal horse that could have quite easily come unstuck. Maybe they are not astute business people; maybe they just want the easy money of selling unfulfilled promises to Spurs supporters? And this is added to the bad negotiations regarding poor old Richards and holding on to Rebrov til his value plummets. Moan Moan Fucking Moan
– so what’s the answer then? The only part of THFC that is a big club at the moment is the contribution of the fans. We get charged premium rates to watch a below the best players, and have been for years. We are still the 15th largest club in the world by turnover – it’s all there, its just needs to be used properly. I appreciate that this decline has been happening for at least 9 years this summer if not 11 if we are being really harsh and it is not all ENIC’s fault. ENIC have ground to make up to take us back to the top – but they knew this when they invested in the club. So why did they invest? To help Tottenham get back to the top by innovative business solutions to enable the manager to be able to compete for the best players? Or did they just take over the cash cow of the massive Tottenham fan base that have remained loyal despite all the crap we have had to put up with? It is difficult to get away from the evidence that it is the latter and we are being spun a yarn, but what can the club do to persuade us otherwise? With our hands tied, the least we can expect is for ENIC to bring in money from elsewhere – but are they doing that?
Every big club has their own subscription TV channel. We Don’t! Even in Middlesboro they have Middlesborough TV (even if it is probably in black and white) and what do we have? Fuck all, opportunities wasted. Every big club has sold a portion of their media rights to raise revenue. We haven’t. We’re just left with the video lounge, which is a start but too small scale. Check the teams in the top 6 slots – all have raised and spent money this way. It may have been a “crown jewel” that Sugar did not want to give away too cheaply, but like many things in the Sugar era, good intentions became missed opportunities and we bobble about in midtable while the leaders got further and further away, as prices for such assets are now in decline, but still worth something. These are massive money making operations that would equitably spread the cost of refinancing Tottenham back to the top amongst the whole of the massive fan base, as well as growing the brand name of Tottenham. So why is nothing happening? ENIC were supposed to bring innovation to the area of raising finance for the team, and all they have done is keep going back to the season ticket holders. Some of the things they have done leave a lot to be desired - took away two cup games last year with the excuse that Sugar was going to do it anyway, the discount at the club shop and now removing refunds. These do not seem the actions of people who want to work in harmony. To add to the concern over the general operation of ENIC are the following comments “wages are too high”, “players are not available”, “there is no transfer market, and only a few clubs have the resources to compete”. These are not positive comments of people who are about to make things better on the pitch. There is also the “Norwegian memo” which cites the first team as third on the list of priorities behind the youth team and the stadium – a madness straight out of the contradictions in Catch22. Things have looked worse in the past – at least we have Hoddle in control, but the idea that we have an board in control of the club which are progressive and looking to get the first team back to the top of the league looks a long way from the truth, and until we have this, there is always going to be antagonism – something we all hoped was over after the Sugarlump, but despite not wanting it, it looks as though we have another struggle on our hands with those in control. I would like to think I have jumped ship to early and they come up with great stuff over the summer and we are sorted for next season but I cannot see it – come on ENIC, pull the rabbits from the hat this summer and make me eat these words. Lets not forget what we expect from the people who control our club as supporters. We would all love to see Spurs win the league, champions’ league and have to choose between Zidane or Figo to play behind Shevchenko or Rondalo up front, but we all know this is a way off at the
moment. All we can really ask is that ENIC give it a go, seek out all methods
of raising finance, daring and innovative, without putting the long term
health of the club at risk with excessive borrowings – and plough all this
money back into the first team. Give Glennda a chance – if and only if we can
see that they are doing that – we can be contented knowing that we have given
it a good shot and if things do not work out, so be it. But we must try! Tottenham Hotspur supporters Trust: ENIC are exploiting the good nature of the people on the trust – who are going to the club with positive ideas within their remit about getting Spurs back to the top, only to be ignored and left to clear up the shit. I am reliably informed that the THST made reference to the fact that the Supporters would not be happy with a red logo on the kits – and what did ENIC come out with: Levy: "If you also look at the Tottenham crest it also has
red, so we have no worries there!" Pleat joked: "The last six champions of the Premier League have all worn red, so it hasn't done them any harm!" These comments can at best be described as insensitive, the implied agenda is that the fans will go out and buy them anyway no matter what they look like. After all they should know that this would cause a problem, ENIC are Spurs “fans” after all. Quite understandably, the supporters went mad and it was left to the trust to act as intermediaries between angry fans and the club. It is fair to say the trust did not help itself with its initial comments on the season ticket price increases. Subsequent comments from the THST have been more in line with how supporters are thinking, but the initial reaction does put the seed of doubt in your mind as to how they are thinking. Like everything in football, the Trust will be judged on its results, and someone who has had to pay an extra £100 for their season ticket may not be as willing to donate another £10 to the trust if it has no tangible victories – the still unpublished ticket charter or not. In terms of getting the club to jump to supporter outrage, the petitions done by topspurs very own Mick Da Miller and another one done by some other bloke, seemed to get more reaction from the club. While these devices are crude do not foster working relationships between the club and the supporters, I believe they will have a useful effect in putting pressure on the club if the club continue to ignore the words given to them in good faith by the THST. Perhaps the best solution would be to get a trust member on the board, with limited executive powers written into the Articles and Memo relating to all things covered within the supporters trust remit. The only problem with that is that the individual could become “star struck” and becoming to far removed from the fans they are meant to represent. The pigs on two legs in the farm house in Animal farm is perhaps one of the biggest concerns of the close relationship to the board of a select few supporters. I don’t suppose ENIC are pushing to get a supporter on the board, just in case, but it would be a useful step forward, which could even help the club maximise its opportunities as well as give the supporters input at the top. |
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26th April 2002 – Snout stuff: DAVIES & the Slovenian Milenko Acimovic Davies: I posted last week that he is close to signing a new deal, but apparently that is not now the case (this info was given around a lot of people but on a one to one he revealed that the club are not being reasonable and that despite wanting to stay, he is not being offered what he is worth and does not see things changing. This is sad, mad and very bad and appears to be much like the Carr situation back in Oct 2000 when he just wanted parity with other first teamers. If we can pay Ziege, Poyet and Sheringham £40,000 a week – we must be able to stump up £20000 plus for Davies who is a star in the making and one of the main reasons to watch Spurs thesedays. This is very very worrying news and ENIC must pull their finger out on this one otherwise there will be real shit if Davies, who must have just over a season left to run on his contract, is allowed to leave Tottenham. Milenko Acimovic:
I heard that Hoddle was off to watch an international friendly the other week
and it looks like it has paid dividends as 25 year old Slovenian Star Milenko Acimovic has revealed
that he is only formalities and a medical away from signing for us. This is
great news! "It's just a question of where
the details and formalities will be sorted out, in Belgrade or in London. I
think everything should be solved by Saturday. I'm certainly very
excited," Acimovic told Yugoslavian newspaper Delo. Word of Hod:
"He's on the shopping list of quite a few players. That's all I can say
at the moment. We're certainly not signing him today. He's a lad we've been
monitoring, like five or six others. I can't say much more than that at the
moment." Whoever signs for Tottenham now, you always have a
doubt in the back of your mind, why are they signing for us, what is wrong
with them? But this looks like a genuine bit of good fortune and assuming he
does actually sign a job well done by Pleaty, Hoddle and the scouting
network, and having former team mate Bunje at the club should help him to
settle
http://www.soccerage.com/en/04/16210.html Snout News: Sully: Still looks a bit iffy with him and his long term future remains a doubt at the club Hirschfield: Is loving his time at Tottenham but is coming to the end of his loan period at the club and we will decide next week whether to keep him. With Gavin Kelly being released and doubts over Sully the conditions for him being given a contract are looking good, but he has had a couple of dodgy reserve matches and I would not be happy going into next season with Keller, Hirschfield and Jalal/Burch as our keepers. New signings? Phillips: Looks like he is on his way south – but to whom? We want him but still could be the Arse or even West Ham & I’m still not 100% sure he is the man – better than what we have for sure, but the Champions League striker we need? Ferguson: We are interested in him and it is worth keeping an eye on this one, although it would involve spending money so we should not be too hopeful! Zamora: Never sure where we are with him, strong rumours insist that we have done a pre contract deal with Hoddle’s mate and former Lane hero Peter Taylor to sign Zamora in the summer after giving Brighton a chance to get promoted, which they have achieved for the second year on the trot as Champions and with Zamora as leading scorer in the division, but this is never really reflected in the info coming out of the training ground. Taylor: Pleaty likes him, but is not sure about him being Premiership. I understand he is out of contract in the summer and we have to go to a tribunal to agree a fee to get him, but looks a gamble worth taking. Hoddle: All
through our history, the stress of managing the greatest club in the world
has affected the health of the man in control right from Tottenham legends
Billy Minter & Arthur Rowe and it appears that Glenn Hoddle is also
looking more stressed in recent weeks – lets hope things go his way over the
rest of the season and that our owners make his job a bit easier by
supporting him with money to turn his ideas into a winning formula. On a
personal note, I’d just like to say the Spurs fans appreciate everything the
you are doing (in somewhat difficult circumstances) and we are and will
remain 100% behind Hod as owners come and go. Rocket Science? If Rocket Ronnie Rosenthal can see it …… " I believe
they need to inject much more pace with at least two or three more players.
Their lack of pace has been a problem for them all season, but they have
played some very good football and the level of expectation at White Hart
Lane is massive.” Then surely it must be
obvious to all at the Lane!!!
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25th April 2002 – Weekly round up (again!) Site updates: Many
apologies about no site updates this week – a process that worked fine last
week when I could not use it for another reason suddenly did not work this
week. Not that much has happened this week, apart from more discussion about
the season ticket price rises. Liverpool – A Dilemma? If we win, like we have the last three times Liverpool have played at the Lane, it will mean that the Arse cannot be caught by Liverpool – good. A Spurs win is what we must hope for in every match, and although the possible outcome will mean an Arsenal Championship and possibly a double – so be it (although it will be shite for us). Arsenal will have won and Liverpool will have lost it over the whole season and not one match & any Spurs fan cheering a Liverpool win is a c**t in my opinion – just like they were at Old Trafford in 1999. Liverpool – Match Preview: No matter what happens, I still go into most Spurs matches envisaging victory and Liverpool is no exception. Spurs are a massive 7/2 with Corals in a match that I would normally price us up at 7/4 – 2/1 – and it looks like a decent price for a change because Liverpool “have” to win. Proper Preview – at http://www.topspurs.com/thfc-countdown.htm Time for a Ledley moment – it was nearly three years to the day, that our bandy-legged hero from Bow played for the first team against Liverpool as a second half sub at Anfield. It was not a dream debut by any means, Spurs gave up a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 with the usual helping hand of the ref up there (sending off/penalty) – but despite a long time wasted with Injury, Ledders has made great strides and now has an England cap after more than a year as a first team regular. A great young Hotspur & lets hope he has the players around him over the next few years to make him a Tottenham legend. No news from the Snout as yet apart from it is likely that King will probably be ok and Iversen almost definitely be ok, and that the players are off to a hotel for a couple of days to prepare for the game. The snout also reports that Barry Ferguson is a player “we are interested in” and developments should be noted on that score, although he appears to be a bit young for the English Grampus8 equivalents just yet. TOPSPURS player of the season. Like the footballer of the year, topspurs will have two players of the season, one decided by the webmaster and another one voted for by topspurs regulars. Details to be sorted out shortly. Despite some of you fearing that I am going to give it to Mr Ed, I have a got it down to two that will claim the crown Sully won by a mile last year. Mr Ed will duly trot in third for his consistent performances and it is not too difficult to think of the defender and midfielder who are in the running for the top honour. Vote DruidSpur on the Official Site: While no one
gives a shit who the topspurs player of the season is, it is important to
vote for Davies on the poll on the official site. While this will be a little
harsh on Ledders, he is already an established first teamer and it is Davies
who should be a regular first teamer in the attacking midfield role. Being
player of the year despite being an oddjob man this year should add a bit of
pressure to see him starting in his favoured position at the start of next
season, as well as making sure he signs a new and improved contract. The only
worry with doing this is the curse of the player of the year – Rsol, then
Carr who appears to have lost it mentally as well as physically and Sully who
has not been the same this season. Surely this can’t happen again! |
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21st April 2002 – Weekend Round Up, Bolton & of course the season ticket prices! Bolton 1-1 Spurs – Same old Story: This story is old, but it goes on! Spurs take the lead playing well, Spurs ponce about with ball over-elaborating everytime, try to defend a one goal lead & miss chances on the break before conceding a daft goal – Some old Same old & while this is not so important in an end of the season match – we cannot afford to let it halt our progress next season. On a happier note – I’d like to thank John (Meatloaf) Stevens and his charming wife Allison for making us so welcome over the weekend and showing us some great old fashioned hospitality – it was one of the most memorable experience of the season. Site Updates:
Due to technical problems and me working away from home (yes I do have a day
job to pay for ENIC’s plans) I have not been able to update the site during
the week – Hopefully I can sort this now with updates coming at the link
below & apologies for all the confusion: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jmdcon/jmdview.htm The Season Ticket Price Rises: We all knew and feared what was coming, but it still does not take away the blow of having such huge increases. I’m too knackered to go into it all know and will formulate a proper response later in the week – but whichever way you look at it, it stinks! http://www.spurs.co.uk/tickets/seasontickets.asp
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