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The thoughts and views on THFC updated daily from Jim Duggan – Born in the year of the Cockerel, Shelfside season ticket holder, White Hart Lane resident & supporter since the early 1970s (last updated 26/06/02 14:45 PM) |
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26th June 2002 – 4th July
2002 – Eastward bound TOPSPURS at the World Cup final – In a moment of madness, I booked up for a week in Japan and am off to the final. Glad its Brazil & Germany and hope it is a great game – look out for the topspurs flag and the crowd singing “Nayim from the halfwayline” & “Hey Rsol, I wanna know…..”, but it means that there will not be any updates for a week or so. Not much to say at this time of the year anyway – Spurs get linked with player x but nothing happens, while deep in a room at WHL people of spin work out new excuses and recycle old ones with the effect of us standing still while the leaders disappear over the horizon. Hope to come back to find I was completely wrong but…………. It would also be nice to see some of the crap/too old offloaded, as the likes of Freund, Leo, Rebrov, Timmah and Thelwell still are a burden on the wage bill The missing match – Despite no publicity at Tottenham, the Feyernoord Friendly is very much on and as you shell out £60 to watch our half paced friendlies – clock how UEFA Cup winners and Champions League Feyernoord treat their season ticket holders. As we all know, they’ll never get anywhere like that will they, although they must be congratulated for remembering that Poyet, Redknapp and Ferdinand all played International football once upon a time.
THST Q&A with Redknapp and Freund – Just when you want to ask some serious questions of Levy and the board about the “progress” this summer, and would have even settled for the oft mentioned meeting with Hoddle, the Q & A lined up is Freund and Redknapp sometime in July. As with these things, they will be on a midweek evening in
London, which means that many people like me who work outside London cannot
make it, but I implore anyone going to that meeting to give Freund a hard
time about his business dealings with Rsol. Ask him why he chose to use money
he earned playing for Tottenham in partnership with someone who stitched up
our great club by going to the Scum – saving them a £15m transfer fee while
costing us the same £15m in revenues, and you can also ask why they used a
“Woolwich” mortgage. Something for the day off? – TOPSPURS & 703 club regular James Flinn did the Stadium tour recently and was less than impressed. The tour consisted of being taken around all the executive boxes and then being show a video on how to apply for a season ticket and concluded it was just a glorified sales pitch rather than a celebration of the great history of the stadium and club in general which is what you would hope for, but with the usual cynicism associated with anything done by the club, is what you expect. James was understandably angry, like most supporters would be, that pictures of Rsol remain at the ground and when he quizzed the sales rep/guide about this she replied that he “was a club great and who can blame him for going there, after all he has won the double now”. Is this the attitude you want from people who are employed by the club? I remember going into the season ticket office in summer 1998 to sort out how they had cocked up my season tickets when I saw Arsenal stuff adorning a couple of desks. Answering (or not answering) the phone and putting tickets (sometimes randomly) into envelopes is not a skilled job and there can be no excuse for not getting Tottenham supporters/sympathisers doing this kind of thing – at least you would have the feeling of being cheated by your own. Season Ticket Prices of Exec Boxes – As a ‘umble geezer, I don’t actually know anyone who owns or goes to THFC in an executive box but I’d be very interested to see how much the exec boxes have gone up this season. If anyone has info on prices of executive boxes season tickets, preferably over the last few years I’d be very interested in comparing the price rises with the price rises associated with the normal season tickets and matchday prices. Please email me at Nayim@topspurs.com and don’t forget, no messing around for cup games if you have a box as all games are included in the season ticket! Semen – National Hero – I must have missed something as the ball once again floated over Semen’s head to cost his team in an important game when Ronaldhinho lobbed him. Mistakenly I thought old Roly Poly was at fault (as did he by his blubbing at the end) but I was wrong, and Semen by letting this ball go over his head to add to a CV that has Gazza, Koeman, Nayim, Sherwood, Hamann and now Ronaldinho on it is somehow the best goalkeeper in the world, and apparently has been for the last 10 years, and we should love him very much and beg him to stay on. What bollocks – I was too young to remember Banks, but after seeing Shilton (and possibly Clemence) for England you know that Seamen is just not in that class. The best goalkeeper in the world is probably Oliver (Robin Asquith) Kahn or Buffon but certainly not Semen (he’s not even the best goalkeeper in the world cup with a pony tail after the Turkish bloke, and as everyone knows, under each pony tail is a pony’s arse) & although its sad for anyone to end on a downer like he has, he surely has to make way for the next keeper to have a decent run before Euro2004. Semen was not totally at fault for the defeat – that goes down to the team, tactics and manager but he was at fault for the winning goal – it is a fact! I’m also a bit embarrassed by the treatment of the goal – it was a fantastic shot which caught our keeper unawares (just like Nayim did, with both of them looking up to spot Semen in a bad position) and anyone who calls it a fluke is just a bad sport and not acting in the best traditions of English sportsmanship. |
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22nd June 2002 – Lame excuses Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before (2) – As a supporter of the mighty THFC over the last decade or so, we have had to endure a wide variety of silly excuses for defeat and failure (and are currently doing so from the Board if not the manager), so the bullshite antennae was alerted when Eriksson came out with these statements today "I think to try and have less football
in the Premiership would be important, I also think having a winter break would
be good for the players, but I don't know how far we are away from that. When
there are these problems, you can't expect a player to be 100% fit, or as fit
as he was before Christmas. You are coming to a World Cup tournament and you
are starting with tired players.” Nonsense. It was the same for everyone – many of the Brazilians play a similar number of games in European Leagues and the champions League and they did not appear to be tired because the tactics employed were cleverer. Beckham had 6 weeks off before the World Cup and all he did in the second half was try and cheat for a penalty. At the start of the season, he made a big thing about Rsol going to Arsenal to get Champions League experience and is now complaining that it has made him and the others tired. No reference to cutting the Champions League back to the old European Cup – just a smaller Premiership and all the implications that has for football at all levels in England. West Midlands Spurs supporters Club – Bostin! For all those of you from the West Midlands a new Spurs Supporters Club is being set up. If you are interested, please contact Sharon Lucas for more details at I |
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21st June 2002 – England Out of World Cup Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before…1991, 1995, 2000 & 2002 – Midway through the afternoon of April 6th 2002, somewhere rancid in occupied N5 a group of noble individuals tried to warn Semen of the impending disaster by singing “Nayim from the halfway line” but rather than taking heed, the roly poly keeper just yawned. I bet he wished he’d have listened now, or better still people would have taken notice of his decline form - Hamann’s free kick for the Germans ruined England’s last game at Wembley in 2000 and even bleedin Tim “Timmah” Sherwood scored a free kick past him back in 1999 – and come on, if Deadwood is beating you with a free kick its definitely time to spend more time with your family!
While it is disappointing for the National team to go out, I don’t think anyone can have any complaints that England were very much second best on the day. We only have Owen who is truly special. Beckham tried hard (although nothing can excuse his shameful dive to earn England a penalty) and Ferdinand is coming on but that’s about it. Too many ordinary players, big egos based on the Premiership money without the talent to match. England appear to be a last 8 team when they qualify - 1970, 1982, 1986, 2002 – with a decent draw and two penalties seeing them thro to the semis in 1990 and a dodgy draw and a bit of bad luck seeing the National side only reaching the second round in 1998. When they sacked Graham Taylor and appointed Venables in 1994 it seemed at last that the people who run the National game in England had worked out how to do well internationally. Under Venables and then under Hoddle a system of football developed that saw England beat the soon to be world cup finalists France and Brazil, along with Italy in the Tournoi back in 1997 playing accomplished football which came close to being at the forefront of new footballing tactics. Hoddle tried to take England on to the next level – mental coaching, creatin, new ideas – but some of the senior players were not into it and after not making enough fuss over poor David Beckham (a player who he did not consider mentally ready, a fact borne out by his sending off in the World Club Championship a year later), the knives were out for Hoddle and he was eventually replaced by a no brain clown in Keegan – the worst thing that happened to English football since a ball was first put on a ship and sent to a foreign shore. As I have mentioned on here, I’ve not been than sold on Eriksson – when everyone praises him it always seems to be some intangible quality that no one can see or prove – “great influence” etc (and no player is going to slag him off otherwise compromising their chances), but after the world cup the facts are laid bare. In his 18 months in control, England are inclined to play a long ball 4-4-2 and do not possess the collective talent to hold onto the ball or create many chances from open play. Sure England will beat a lot of teams but when push comes to shove near the top, we are more often than not found wanting. You don’t get to the top by leaning towards route 1 and if we are to develop as a footballing nation this needs to be address. Look forward to all those wankers at Sky trying to flog the Premiership as the greatest league in the world – my Arse it is. Exciting, yes, Entertaining mostly but the best – not a chance! Right, with all that nonsense over – back to Tottenham. ENIC, where’s all the new signings???????? |
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16th June 2002 – Weekend Review World Cup – Congratulations to the English and commiserations to the Irish (Danes and Swedes, as we have as many visitors from Scandinavia as anywhere outside the UK). England played ok, but more importantly took their chances and now have a tough match against either Brazil or Belgium. While everyone assumes it will be the boys from South America, who are known to sing its just like watching Tottenham (although only when they are giving away simple leads and missing easy chances thesedays), Belgium are still in with a decent chance and it is an exciting time for the National team whoever we get. As for the Irish, I mentioned the other day about how I cannot understand why keepers dive without looking at the ball and if Given would have stood his ground Mendieta’s pen……. who knows what would have happened! but all credit to them, a great achievement for such a small Nation. This summer’s shopping list – As you can probably gather, I’m not all that chuffed with what the owners of the club are doing but much of my annoyance is related to the fact that we are not that far away and appear to be letting a good chance of getting back get away. ENIC are doing some good things – building up the youth academy, not putting Spurs into debt and er…. well you know but they need to be doing more to the first team and now! - Not hoping everything comes right at the end of the decade when the youth academy is up and running. Next season we have a pool of good players – several top players – Sullivan, Carr, Anderton, Redknapp, Sheringham, Doherty, Poyet, Ziege, King, Davies, Gardner, and to back these ten up we have decent cover in Keller, Treacle, Bunje, Perry, Acimovic, Ferdinand, Sherwood Iversen, Thatcher, Clemence, and Richards. Ok some of these players are too old to start every match and others need a commitment graft, but it still remains the basis on which a couple of strikers, good ones with no excuses just goals, and another good young strong midfielder could make into a squad that can at last challenge the top 6. This requires money to be spent, like other clubs will this summer to achieve their ambitions on the pitch. Get out there ENIC and good luck – get some good young players to have a similar impact to Crooks & Archie in 1981 but whatever you come back with, as long as you have given it a go and not just come back with a load of the old excuses reworked – it will be ok by us – just give it a go, try and be a player and let the future take care of itself like it always has. Some sad opening day of the season crap – 17th
August – Spurs have a decent record on this day with 4 wins out of 5, inc
a 2-0 win on the second Saturday of the season at Goodison back in 1968. In
fact we have met the Toffees 8 times on the opening day and are equal with 3
wins apiece: 01-Sep-10
Division 1 22,000 A Everton L 0-2 02-Sep-12
Division 1 22,000 H Everton L 0-2 28-Aug-26
Division 1 28,324 H Everton W 2-1
Blair, Osborne 25-Aug-34
Division 1 50,586 H Everton D 1-1 Hall
GW 20-Aug-60
Division 1 50,393 H Everton W 2-0
Smith R, Allen 25-Aug-84
Division 1 35,630 A Everton
W 4-1 Falco,
Allen C (2), Chiedozie For those of us who are old enough and still dream, Spurs went to Goodison at the start of the last season where we had a serious championship challenge and won 4-1 with goals from Falco, Chiedozie and a couple from Cousin Clive, but of course lost to them in an epic encounter in the following March and eventually faded to 3rd behind them and Liverpool after a great season. Something similar next season would be fine thank you. 442 Questionnaire – I have been asked to fill in a few words
for 442 magazine and in the true style of a lazy journalist, I’ll repeat it
here (as 442 will probably use something more interesting anyway). Most of it
you’ll have read before in but it could prove a useful thing to laugh at when
we win the championship next season.
Have you got the right
manager in place? Well I might timidly
suggest that Anderton is and will never be a top premiership central
midfielder, that Davies needs to be given a run in the first team as
attacking midfielder and that he could use subs a bit more but I'm happy when
Hod is happy. All he needs is time and for the times when he cannot turn
water to wine, he needs backing from the board rather than the current trips
to Poundstretcher when its buy one OAP, get one free day. TOPSPURS summer quiz – Have a bash at the updated topspurs quiz on the link below: http://pub.alxnet.com/quiz?id=2053723 TOPSPURS SMS service – Some characters have approached me about doing a Spurs info to your mobile phone sms messaging service. This will include: A message if the game is abandoned or postponed, Details of any goals including goalscorer and when the goal was scored, Missed penalties for either side, If a player for either side is sent off, Half-time score, Full-time score, When players are transferred, When players are signed, Team News, If there are any big rumours going around the club & Details of who your club is playing when they are drawn in cup competitions The subscription will be £5.00 a month – if you are interested – click on the banner, if not my apologies for wasting your time & skip on to the next section
Next update – Thursday evening |
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15th
June 2002 – Queens Honours Sir Bill – In normal
life, I would tend to ignore anything to do with the monarchy – a complete
load of shitehouses – but feel compounded to comment on Bobby Robson getting
knighted while our own Bill Nick has been ignored again! One assumes Robson,
who most people hated as England manager and managed to lose all three
matches in Euro88 and while we’re at it needed injury and suspension to get
Hoddle and Reid to get him to the QF in 1986, and did not qualify for Euro84
– seems to have undergone a revisionist agenda in recent years. Don’t get me
wrong, the whole of the footballing public has a soft spot for Robby Bobson
and his charming and eccentric ways but in the line to be knighted, he cannot
be anywhere near Bill Nick. WE Nicholson joined
Tottenham in 1936, was a player winning both First and Second division
Championships during 345 first team appearances scoring 6 goals as well as
scoring against Portugal on his England debut. As a manager of Tottenham for
16 years he brought England its first international success when winning the
ECWC as well as being the first manager of the century to win the double. His
managerial achievements read 1 championship (runners up once, third four times and top 6
finishes in 10 of the 16 seasons),
3 FA Cups, 2 League Cups, 1 UEFA Cup (+ 1 runners up) and the ECWC final win,
but not only that, he conducted himself with great dignity and made sure his
team played in the same way. As I said, the whole deference to Royalty is bollocks, but if the system exists, why not reward someone of great quality like Bill Nick rather than some toady civil servant, a corrupt politician or someone who has been popular for 10 minutes? It’s all bollocks, but to us Bill Nicholson is Mr Tottenham, and while this honour does not come with a visit to the palace (one can picture the cavalier parked in the Mall and Bill walking in) it is I’m sure it’s shared by every Tottenham Hotspur supporter the world over.
THST - postscript – Just like to add, despite my reservations with the progress the THST made in its first year – we must not allow it to fail or be superseded by “two men and a fax” machine pressure groups. I support the THST, just wish it would be more pro-active and use the power of its numbers and achieve results the supporters want. |
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15th
June 2002 – Last nights supporters Trust Meeting THST meeting – It appears that there has been a bit of a
kick off at the Trust meeting last night, and while I do not wish to endorse
the actions of those who took part, several interesting things have emerged
and now present themselves vividly as challenges to the Trust. Firstly, there were
only 25 people there, out of a membership that is said to be around the 650
mark. The THST webmaster bemoaned the lack of numbers turning up, but I was
only aware that a meeting had taken place when his “emotional” email arrived
late last evening. If those that run the
THST are truly interested in the “normal” supporters views, it would make
more sense to have the THST meeting either before or after Saturday home
matches, which allows more than just people from London and the accessible
South East to attend. If there is no alternative to the meetings being after
work in London on midweek evenings, what about having a webcam present with
the meeting being relayed over the web on a secure server into which Trust
members can access? This would not only encourage great inclusively but also
potentially attract more members from overseas. Perhaps I was the
only one not to receive the reminder email and everyone else has given up on
the Trust. Maybe too many of its statements do little but endorse the clubs
line and they have just become the Squealer character from Orwell’s Animal Farm?
There is a constant referral to “democratic” institution but the only
democracy seems to have involved selecting 12 committee members from the 13
candidates that stood. From then on it has been keener to listen to a
representative from the club once a month than actually getting or retaining
benefits for the supporters. Maybe that is not the case, but that is how it
appears from the outside. It also may be a good idea to have a younger
element to the THST committee and definitely someone from a lower income
bracket (most
of the members appeared to be middle aged successful business people) where £100 a year on a Paxton season ticket
actually means something. Just where do the THST
committee members draw the line in terms of what is acceptable and not
acceptable behaviour by our club? The fact is we don’t know as everything the
THST has done so far has been re-active – no list of supporter views have
been drawn up to form a supporter mandate. And what action would they take if
actions taken if ENIC pulled any more stunts to the obvious detriment of the
fans? Will they support everything? And how will they utilise the power of
the membership? If they are not interested in doing this or decide that it is
outside their remit – a myriad of “two men and a fax” machine organisations
will probably crop up looking for a more direct approach and as ENIC have
turned out to be a harsher master than Sugar, so no doubt, will the groups
that oppose them, and the normal supporters will again be the loser as the
image of the fans and the good name of our famous old club will suffer. For both ENIC and the
THST it is still early days but both have given examples of their intentions.
ENIC seem totally devoted to building a training ground to attract young
talent in the now mythical “5 year plan” while patching up the first team
until then with a series of pensioners, cripples and/or freebies, while the
THST seem only too pleased to be able to listen. The good name of our famous
old club. Despite my misgivings
above, I will be renewing the THST membership for at least another
year and it is important that the THST does not flounder caught in between a merciless
PLC and supporter resentment, but it is equally important that it represents
supporters interests against the PLC, and is prepared to take action when
necessary as I don’t for one minute believe that we have seen the last of
ENIC’s snide penny pinching. For the THST to be effective it needs as many
people as possible to join, but equally it needs to win some victories to
justify the membership cost. Becoming a member of
the THST is not the only option. Alex from the topspurs message board posted
this earlier in the week: “i emailed the trust the other day suggesting a Q&A with
levy, my response was that 'its not daniel levys style'” There are many ways
not to spend the £30 on two tickets for friendlies (and not buying the red
logo shirt or getting ripped off £35 service charge per away season ticket
etc) – a weekend out with the
family (if that
does n’t sound too Chas n Dave),
getting to an extra away match or you can also buy some shares in THFC plc.
They are at their lowest levels for years and will get you a seat at the AGM,
and while Levy “style” does not allow him to an open house Q&A for the
THST, I understand it is within his “style” remit to do one the AGM. See you all in
December!! – Hopefully to praise his shrewd strategy to get Spurs back to the
top (which has managed to completely
bypass me) or to ask the
serious questions and demand answers and quantitative promises from Levy and
co. TOPSPURS Wallpaper – With a big thanks to BucksYid Steve –
there is a topspurs wallpaper available for download at http://www.topspurs.com/season0203-wallpaper.jpg |
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14th
June 2002 – Transfer Targets? You sometimes wonder
if there is any truth to transfer rumours, but most I suspect are completely
made up (except
exclusives from TOPSPURS) as
this one from our friends at tribalfootball.com is the best on for a while.
Non-UK Spurs fans should note that old Pleaty is out there commentating for
the English commercial TV channel and has not dashed halfway around to the
world to watch our so called target Eto’o. Pleat in Japan to
watch Spurs target Eto'o Spurs are expected to step up talks with Real Mallorca about the 21 year-old now that Cameroon have been eliminated from the World Cup |
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13th
June 2002 – Weekly Round up Fixtures out – One of the best moments of the season is
the announcement of the new fixtures, and it did not disappoint this
year. This looks a good set of
fixtures, playing Arsenal twice in their dodgy period of November/December
when they are usually well below their best and a chance to start an unbeaten
to at the very least Man U away from the start of the season to set us up
nicely for the rest of the season. I can’t make my mind up whether we’ll be
crowned champions at the Hawthorns or whether we’ll have to wait until Man U
at home! But in all seriousness, at the very least this season, its top 6,
hopefully a couple of good runs in the cups and win more matches than we lose
and score more than we conceded – not asking the world is it? See you all at
Goodison! Sat Aug
17 Everton A Sat Sep
14 West Ham United H Sat Nov
23 Leeds United H Sat Dec
14 Arsenal H Shirt Auction – The official site are doing an auction of authentic Spurs shirts as worn by the players last season. http://www1.spurs.co.uk/article.asp?article=96177 I though I’d have a shoofty to see how much people were paying for a shirt previously owned by someone like Sherwood, or a hardly used one by Ziege but spotted Steve Carr & Chris Armstrong shirts available and wondered just how “authentic” the shirts were as neither of these two made it to the first team last season. In my paranoia of all money making schemes by the club I wondered if it was just a cheap excuse to get rid of a load of Size 28 stock from the Megastore after sewing on the Premier League Stickers on the arms – but have been thankfully corrected by a club rep who informed me that every player is allocated 6 kits at the start of the season, no matter whether they play or not. No info was provided on the amount of bobbling that had occurred on the kits and just in case anyone is interested – someone has bid for a Sherwood shirt! |
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12th
June 2002 – Weekly Round up England and the
World Cup – Having been
working away all week, this is the first opportunity to comment on England’s
fine progression to the last 16 of the world cup. Two goals (one penalty for
a dive and the other one a deflected corner) does not really do justice to
the achievement of the team, which is worth putting in context against the
high profile casualties such as France and Argentina in other groups. I can’t
get into all the Argentinean bashing which seems to have gripped the Nation
as a result of the links between our famous club and that Country but did
quite enjoy the assorted Goons and other wankers that make up the French team
going home early. I don’t get to many
England matches, but one of the handful I have seen live was a dull match
between England & Denmark
match in the late 1980’s, where Neil (Fatty) Webb scored the only goal. I
expect another close match, with one team going through to meet Brasil on
penalties. Good luck also to the Irish team who may just give Spain a
surprise, as it is in the knockout phase where Spanish teams have floundered
in the past & may the Spirit of the man from the Northern counties, Gerry
Armstrong be with them. With England’s
relative success, the West Ham fans that have spent the last 6 weeks going on
about being 8th in the League have turned their attention to how
it was the West Ham players who won the world Cup for England. What pony! A
cure for this tedium is to remind them that England would not have needed
Extra time if our very own Jimmy Greaves was playing, and if this fails,
remind them also that the manager was Spurs through and through and Martin
Peters was a Spurs wannabe. Celtic and Lazio
Friendlies announced – The
club announced a couple of high profile friendlies to be held at the Lane in
August before the start of the season – but just as it was about to do
something vaguely sensible in terms of raising the profile to THFC abroad –
it stitched everyone by asking for £30 for a ticket – a piss take too far.
£30 for a half paced game with a load of substitutions that means nothing is not
going to fool anyone and I advocated that we should vote with our feet on
this one and tell them where to go with these matches. To put this in
context – last season, despite claiming they knew Bill Nick already had a testimonial
back in 1983 and wanting a cheap PR exercise, the club did Bill Nick a second
testimonial. I’m not a big fan of testimonials, but this was a must see game
as a mark of respect to the great man and for that match, we were charged
£15!! So where do they get off doubling the price for a nothing game? Irish
Den has told us that Celtic are to play in Dublin for the equivalent of £10,
so where does the extra £20 come from, its certainly not the value added to
see the pensioners. Give these matches a miss (show ENIC what an empty stadium looks like at WHL) and show where the line is drawn, otherwise they will continue to walk all over us. I’m not saying don’t spend the money on Spurs, but save the money for a real match – if you don’t go away, what about putting the money towards a trip to the Valley or wherever Fulham are playing next season to give the first team real support in a match that matters. |
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7th
June 2002 – Great Win for England The nation
rejoices – After a week of
doubt, England finally came good at the World cup with a fine and deserved
win over Argentina, even if the decisive goal was from another “Anfield”
penalty from Owen. Just a pity that the win did not knock Argentina out, as
if we are to meet them again in the Semi finals – it will be a very difficult
to do them twice and we hope the Swedes maintain their unbeaten record in the
final group match next Weds. We’ve had enough disappointing days with
England, so it’s worth having a good celebration this weekend. Former Tottenham Hotspur
schoolboy David Beckham showed a lot of bottle to put the penalty away (and
again it was one of those that went straight down the middle!) and Teddy
Sheringham nearly scored the goal of the tournament with a brilliant volley
soon after coming on (and we hopes he continues this no nonsense approach to scoring with
us next season, rather than trying to walk it in every time) and Teddy was also on hand to head clear
when Semen spilled a header, but everyone did their bit. It was also good to see our friends from the SIMB message board get their flag on worldwide TV and lets just hope that the Nigeria game is not another Romania! And with a bit of luck and an England win - its Denmark, Turkey and Brazil before playing Italy in the final – who knows! |
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7th
June 2002 – Great Leap Forward….. The Pratt in the
hat – As you would expect,
I saved the Spurs shirt for the big trip in China to the Great Wall, and
complete with Cork Spurs supporters branch hat which was kindly given by Pat
Healey here is topspurs at the
great wall
On the subject of the Cork Spurs supporters branch, they have just opened their Spurs website which is well worth a look at http://www.corkspurs.20m.com/ |
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6th
June 2002 – The good news day! Carr – Having not played a competitive first team
game since the last game of the season before last, there is finally some
good news to report about Carr. It appears that he will not now sign for
Arsenal over the summer and is currently working hard to get back for Spurs
and play what will be his 200th appearance at the start of next
season. It is fair to say that his change of heart has not been caused after
a visitation from the Angels of the Lord Tottenham, but for whatever reason,
he is back, training hard and raring to go for Spurs and in these darkish
times, we should be glad of small mercies. The story about the
Arsenal scarf remains true but will be instantly forgiven if the old Carr is
lining up with his fierce determination to succeed in a Tottenham shirt at
the start of next season. For the first time for ages, I’m actually
considering Carr as part of the Tottenham team for next season and if our
friends in control of the club can magic some good players in the key
positions we need – hopefully the Spurs of 2002/3 will be in line with Carr’s
own ambitions. The THST and the Tottenham
Hotspur Ticket Charter – Our friends at the Trust have been working away
on everyone’s behalf to get some progress with the Tottenham Hotspur Ticket
Charter and to follow is a report written by veteran supporters champion and
Trust committee member Bernie Kingsley: This has taken the form of commenting
on drafts produced by the Club, and on 30th May Peter Haring and
Bernie Kingsley met Karen Murphy, Ticket Office Manager, and James Smith,
Finance Director for ENIC Sports, who seems to be a key player in ticketing
issues. This meeting followed submission of a detailed paper from the Trust
committee about the draft Charter, based on comments we have received from
the membership and our own ideas, but also involved our making a number of
proposals about ticketing operations generally. While the Charter has been a joint
initiative between the Club and the Trust, and although we have not yet seen
the final version, we know there will be things in it that we do not agree
with, for example the refusal of the Club to back down on its decision not to
refund or credit season ticket holders for unused cup tie credits next
season. At the meeting we strongly reiterated the point, so forcefully made
by several members at the recent meeting at the Irish Centre, that season
ticket holders consider they have had a very raw deal over the last 12
months. We also made the point that the draft Charter contains a lot of
superfluous material about how to buy a ticket (including how to buy a
season-ticket), which is very repetitive and detracts from the purpose of a
Charter designed to enhance and explain customer service and rights. We were
told that the marketing people have decided this information should be
included so we can only encourage members not to be put off by having to wade
through lots of detail they already know. Other key points from the meeting
were: ·
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The
on-line booking facility will be available to season-ticket holders for
claiming their seats for home cup ties after the first two inclusive ones,
but not for Premiership games unless they are also Spurs Members. ·
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The
Club will consider piloting a late-night opening of the Ticket Office next
season, possibly in advance of a cup-tie after the two games included in the
season ticket have been exhausted. ·
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The
Paxton Road ticket office now handles around 1000 match day collections but
is not really suitable to deal with excess demand; in the longer term, ground
redevelopment is likely to include a better sited and designed ticket office. ·
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Although
the Premier league still operates a rule that away fans must be allocated 10%
of a ground’s capacity or 3,000 seats, whichever is the lower, most clubs
have exploited a loophole that allows them to provide only a limited number
on a ‘sale or return’ basis, with the balance having to be bought outright by
the visiting club. Tottenham generally have to give around 4 weeks’ notice to
take up the extra seats, hence the usual 6 week advance booking period so
they can gauge demand. Contrary to popular myth, there are a number of away
games that do not always sell out, including Chelsea and Man United, and
Tottenham cannot afford to buy up to 2,000 tickets that may not be sold. The
Club has agreed to be more open about the details of these arrangements next
season. One other point which emerged is that Arsenal regularly get
dispensation from the League to limit the away allocation to 2,600 seats
(less than 7% of capacity), which Tottenham and several other clubs challenge
every season, so far without success. ·
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The
Ticket Office lay out was changed from single queuing to queues for each
window during last season because it allows much faster throughput on
matchdays (including away match screenings). They do try to divert lengthier
queries/transactions to the windows in the smaller part of the Ticket office
but, as above, the physical design imposes some constraints at present. ·
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The
Club agrees with us that a dedicated Customer Service function to deal with
queries and complaints of all types (bar player/team issues) is badly needed
and will consider establishing same. This has been a
through and well done job and my only comment would be related to the odious
touts and ticket agencies, which has not been addressed. During the early
part of last season, there was an article on the official site about how the
ticket office would like the supporters’ help in dealing with touts. http://www.spurs.co.uk/article.asp?article=64029
(9th Oct 2001) This had an email
address where we could grass up touts spillthebeans@spurs.co.uk but it was
never followed up or given its own space on the official site, which was a
mistake as touts/ticket agencies are one of the most frustrating elements of
following modern football. I’m not talking about the bloke who wants to sell
a spare at face value as a mate has not turned up, but the systematic buying
of tickets in bulk to be flogged back at above face value. At almost every match
last season touts were operating either side of the ground on the high road,
often within earshot of hopeless old bill and equally, a number of tickets
are available at ticket agencies, for example the Fulham cup tie where we
only had 1600 tickets, saw agencies flogging tickets in the Spurs end for
£110. In dealings with the ticket office, they appear to be incredibly efficient
in knowing precisely who has what tickets for every match – so it would not
take long to collect up all the tout tickets and ban the people who are
flogging them above face value. Far be it from me to
suggested there is a blind eye turned to ticket leakage from the ticket
office and one assumes that players do not sell tickets to agencies (make of
that statement what you will – a statement of opinion not fact) but it would
be good for the genuine supporters to know that every seat in every match is
being sold at face value. The incentive for the club to take any action is
pretty low (although by bumping up prices so much they may actually cut the
margins of touts so much that they go out of business) so whether anything is
ever done about it remains unlikely but it would be a great victory for the
Trust and all supporters. England -
Argentina – Tomorrow is the
big game for England and I’d like to wish them good luck. Just as the England
side is vastly overrated, so are the Argentineans to some extent and it
should be closer than the respective performances of last weekend suggest. A fully fit England
side with Gerard in the midfield and a fit Dyer and Beckham, and a decent
partner for Owen would have a good chance but it is these weaknesses in key
areas which make it difficult to really enthuse about England’s chances. As
much as I love Sheringham, anyone who has watched him for the latter half of
this season will know that England (as Spurs next season), do not want him on
from the start. I’ve had a great
tournament with betting predictions, and currently head up Meatloaf’s work
prediction league with 14 correct results and 6 correct scores from the 20
games so far, and as there is never any point betting against your team, I’ve
gone for England 3-1 at 40/1 with Blue Sq, Owen for the first goal at 6/1 and
the scorecast at 170/1. To
have a £10 free bet on the game, click here The subject of
cheering Gooners for England has reared its head this week after shithead’s
goal against Sweden. For my part, I cannot forgive Rsol and just groaned when
he scored as I would for any player like (if he played for England) Savage, who is a total tosser. Some Goons
are ok, I never managed to dislike Silvinho and …..er can’t think of any
others offhand, and old stagers like Semen and Donkey Adams have been such
good adversaries over the years, there is a kind of grudging respect which
allows them to be tolerated without necessarily being endorsed when they
lined up for England. What to do with English Goons is one of those free votes (unlike other contentious issues such as cheering a tem scoring against Tottenham |
