13^th August 2009 – Season Preview At this time of the year it's expected that all football fans express renewed hope and excitement for the coming season - it's what the club owners, the media, sponsors, and advertisers demand of their malleable customers. However, in the spirit of a being a miserable old git, I'm not going to join the optimists' club and say Spurs are going to achieve this and that - too many times such positive thinking has been rudely undone by the reality of how our club and football in general both function in the modern era.  The top four will remain unchanged, unless Man City's despicable new riches enable them to gatecrash the party. If neutrals are hoping that City make the breakthrough, then it's a sad reflection of where the game is that we feel the whims and indulgences of despotic oil billionaires rewarding grasping players, agents and assorted marketing execs is somehow ‘good’ for the game. Villa, Everton, and maybe Fulham as an outside bet will briefly threaten to upset the status quo before realising the error of their ways and retreating to their rightful place, tugging their forelocks as they go. The usual suspects will occupy mid table, and there’ll be a whole season's worth of everybody patronising Burnley for their 'plucky' but futile efforts to stay up. Tottenham? Who the hell knows. There are some positives: the potential is there, as always, thanks in no small part to some of the most loyal and financially generous fans in the world; the role of manager increasingly looks like living up to the name, now that the DoF system has been ditched, and Redknapp, for all his faults, knows how to spot a good player and appears to be addressing some long-standing weaknesses and imbalances. Crouch could be a good signing, even if the willing loss of our top scorer is a puzzle. But this is Spurs we’re talking about – the embodiment of a club that puts faith in hope triumphing over reality. Much depends on avoiding injuries that expose the thinness of the squad, and making a good start will be key. With Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd to play before September is out the indications are that someone will be repeating that ‘2 points from 8 games’ mantra soon enough, whether it’s Redknapp, or his replacement if Levy presses the panic button again. The irony is that Spurs players tend to raise their game for the big matches and fail against the dross, illustrating a perennial Tottenham problem: we are a confidence side, relying on millionaires to feel motivated to produce as the mood takes them. A sorry indictment of those currently privileged to wear the white shirt (now despoiled by some abysmal yellow flashing), but an observation borne out of cold reality. The likelihood is that, without the addition of the truly good players that the top 4 seem to have a monopoly on, paying the big wages such quality demands, Spurs and the rest of the also-rans will be left to compete for the scraps. It’s been interesting to note that this summer, the second-rank clubs, of whom Spurs are now sadly a member, appear to have been shuffling each other’s packs and looking for relative unknowns from the lower leagues and Europe. The notion that a non-CL club could sign a decent player from a current CL club they would prefer to keep is almost laughable. Only City, with their outlandish handouts appear able to buck that rule. The consequence is that, while Spurs are better placed than most to succeed, the probability is we’ll hover around the Europa league places and have a couple of good cup runs, but only if the draws are generous. And that’s about as good as can be expected. Welcome back to the greatest league in the world.

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