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24th January 2012 - Man
City and the worldwide conspiracy…and I thought gooners
were bad Paranoia (adjective: paranoid ['par.r?.no?d])
is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point
of irrationality and delusion.
Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat
towards oneself. False
accusations and the distrust of others also frequently
accompany paranoia. It is probably
unfair to judge the support of any club based on the reaction of their fans
to events on internet forums and radio phone-ins. However it has to be said
that the general impression to the fall out from
the Man City -v- Spurs game is the Man City fans are a deluded paranoid
bunch. I agree with the observation that has made of the City supporters still
nursing a small club mentality despite the money that has transformed the
club. It has to be said that following a game in which their team won 3-2 and
picked up what will be crucial league points and generally played well, the
fans I have come across seem to have forgotten about the positives from the
match and only wish to talk about the raw deal they get from the football
’establishment’. In
2004, Boris Johnson was ordered by the then Tory leader Michael Howard to go
to Liverpool and apologize for an article in The Spectator which accused the
city of "wallowing" in its "victim status. Manchester United
played Everton in a televised FA Cup game shortly afterwards and I remember
the away fans singing that scousers came from a
‘self-pity city’. It is therefore highly ironic that given the identification
of their support as the team from Manchester, the degree of
outrage shown by the Man City support following the weekend would suggest
that the even the worst scousers of Boris Johnson’s
imagination would seem to have a lot to learn from a bunch of whinging mancs. Kipling’s
request to ‘Be a Man My Son’ seems to have fallen on deaf ears in the parts
of the north west. The whinging however has demonstrated that there are flaws in
the disciplinary process, even though, despite the paranoia, these flaws are
not operating for the benefit of Man Utd. The
impressions left by the Balotelli and Lescott challenges have been debated to death and need no
re-airing. For my part I felt that in real time, Balotelli
showed reckless disregard for where he was putting his feet when pirouetting
and I can see why the charge by the FA has been brought although I can also
why there has been a debate. However the Lescott
forearm smash into Kaboul to me looked a lot more clearcut incident of foul play and it is therefore
surprising that having chosen to charge Balotelli
the FA cleared Lescott. Even more surprising was
that having charged Balotelli, the FA decided not
to take any further action regarding Peter Crouch’s eye-gouge in the Stoke-v-
WBA match.
The
inconsistency in the application of the rules runs through all football and
affects all teams and yet it seems that only the incidents that occur in
major Sky televised games are ones that result in any action. Where
inconsistency in the application of the rules arises, such as Lampard getting a yellow card for the same type of
challenge that saw Kompany sent off (and Johnson
getting nothing) we are told that under the rules "Sorry,
we can't do anything...the referee saw it and even though he took no action,
if the referee sees an incident under FIFA regulations we are powerless to
act. Despite
the clear use of these rules against Jamie and Spurs, we have since been told
that the FA’s retrospective application of the rules is not allowed and has
been challenged by UEFA/ FIFA. This first came properly to prominence in this
country after the Ben Thatcher assault on Pedro Mendes, when Thatcher was
banned for 8 games on the strength of the video evidence after the game.
During the game Mendes was knocked unconscious into the advertising hoardings
and the referee Dermot Gallagher thought a yellow card was sufficient
punishment. On this occasion however we were told that Dermot had not seen what
he thought he had saw, and so the ban was able to be imposed. Talk about a
fabricating a version of events to suit the facts. Generally however we will
be told that the FA are unable to apply the rules to upgrade offences, or act
in such a way where ’the referee had dealt with it in play’ This
came to prominence again last season when Wayne Rooney elbowed James McCarthy
of Wigan, and by way of action Mark Clattenberg put his arms round Rooney and only booked
him. The FA’s David Bernstein, claimed under FIFA guidelines, “if the referee
sees the incident, which in this case he did do, the FA has no authority
except in what is called exceptional circumstances, really exceptional.” Article
77 from the Fifa regulations states: The
Disciplinary Committee is responsible for: It can
be seen that under Fifa’s own rules, it allows an
open interpretation of the rules under (b) and that interpretation goes both
ways. It does not say that a more serious punishment cannot be imposed. The
FA already apply this rule favourably for clubs
when rescinding red cards that were said to have been issued in error by the
referee at the time (Jack Rodwell being one of the
latest examples) However when it comes to seeking to upgrade a punishment
that was too lenient, we are told that the rules do not permit it and the FA
cites the FIFA rule (which says no such thing). In my view that is a clear
fiction and one that the clubs and the FA are happy to hide behind. In fact there
is nothing to stop the FA tomorrow implementing the rule they applied to Redknapp and Thatcher. You
have to ask why a similar rule is not in force in England?
There are even rules against this sort of stuff in Italy, a land where
corrupt referees and match fixing are admitted to exist and whole league
seasons results are expunged. Closer to home, given the transfer rumours, Milos Krasic of Juventus was given a
two-match ban by the Italian authorities after being found guilty of diving
to win a penalty against Bologna and officially it was stated "The
referee made an error because of a dive by the Juventus
player," Using
the English interpretation of the rules it is difficult to see how Krasic or Lafferty would have ever have been banned in
England, because the referee had seen the incident and awarded a penalty,
unless of course he was like Dermot Gallagher and never really sure of what
he has just seen. It is however difficult to see how the Italian and Scottish
authorities were able to impose a 2 game ban on offences that had they been
seen by the referee in the game, would have warranted a booking at worst,
This suggests that football clubs don‘t know the rules (or how to protect
themselves against the wrong application of those rules). You would have
thought Rangers and Juventus would have been able
to successfully challenge the ban and have the incidents downgraded to a
yellow card. It
seems to me that the Football authorities have chosen to interpret the rules
in a way which best suits them. In England, the FA runs various campaigns
where we are all exhorted to ’Respect’ the referee, this of course this leads
to situations where the referee is set up like an Aunt Sally to be vilified
for making crucial game changing errors, and where cheats are seen to be able
to prosper. Incidents
like Balotelli’s stamp will hopefully result in
pressure for the rules to be changed, and for officials to be allowed to use
technology to review decisions during a match. Other rules such as importing
the rules from rugby on reviewing whether a score is legitimate and the
ability to cite opponents for violent play could also assist. But
even if the FA are hellbent on keeping football in
the 19th century, it
is evident from Spurs experience that the rules are already in place and have
already been interpreted by the FA in a retrospective manner to allow serious
foul play that is missed or misinterpreted by a referee to be reviewed and
punished appropriately. Whatever
system the FA choose to employ and whatever interpretations they choose to
give however, we do require transparency in the disciplinary decision making
process. Why is it that Crouch does not need to face any further action for
his attempt at gouging? Why is it that it seems only the incidents in the
high profile Spurs-v- Man City game that are open to review and not for
instance possible similar incidents in lower profile games. If the FA are going to police games by video review, an official
should be appointed for this function for all league games and not just the
ones on domestic Sky screens on a Sunday. As it stands, the lack of
consistency between the decisions and the lack of transparency would seem to
suggest it is the Sky editor who determines which players should be subject
to additional FA disciplinary measures. Whilst such a situation exists, the
paranoia of Man City fans will only get worse. As a
final point, despite the exhortations of the respect campaign referees
themselves interpret the rules as they see fit, often wrongly and would
benefit from the 4th official
given a formal role to overrule wrong decisions. Spurs fans already know from
experience that the 4th official
does get involved during a match to assist a referee using technology. Kaboul was booked for making the glasses gesture behind
the back of Chris Foy in the Stoke debacle. This was not
picked up by the officials at the time, not surprising given Foy’s
performance on the day but was picked up by Sky, and lo and behold, Kaboul was booked after the 4th official was able to see the
footage. The
Pedersen double kick from a corner to Yakubu to
score for Blackburn is the obvious decision this season where a 4th official would have been nice to
apply the correct rules. Closer to home and using another example, FIFA's
guideline to referees is that a player should only be shown a yellow card for
simulation/ diving if there is no contact with the opponent; if there is any
contact it should not be deemed simulation. If you cast your mind back, Andre
Marriner cautioned Luka Modric
last season against Blackburn for diving even though there was clear contact
with Miguel Salgado and our beloved World Cup final referee Howard Webb gave
David Bentley a yellow card for simulation against Sunderland when he was
caught by Bolo Zenden. When referees seem unaware
or have forgotten the guidelines, and this goes completely unremarked upon by
the professionals in the game, what chance do the rest of us have? |
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16th January 2012 – How to win the league title You
can be relatively rubbish and still win the title. If that wasn’t the case then
it could be argued the goons trophy cabinet would be
even emptier than it has been since they moved to their new caravan park.
This last week has been an odd experience for Spurs fans with the media being
relatively nice about the club and talking up a challenge for the title in
the build up for the game against Wolves. Of course a 1-1 draw later and the
knives are out declaring that Tottenham are just being Tottenham. That may
well be the case and Spurs may well serve to pluck defeat from the jaws of victory,
as the more pessimistic Spurs fans suspect will happen all along.
However in recent seasons Spurs have performed
pretty well home and away against their main rivals and there is no need to
raise any white flags of surrender just yet.
To win the league you simply
have to be good enough to consistently beat the mediocre teams. Points
against your direct rivals can be seen as a bonus if they fail to beat the
mediocre teams and pick up the regulation points consistently enough. The general rules can be said
to be ·
Win your home games ·
Beat the bottom half of the
table home and away ·
Points from the rest of the
games are a bonus If you can do that you will
win attain 87 points. Teams that win the title tend
not to lose 9 matches in a season, which means the bonus points you can pick
up from the other fixtures will normally be enough. The winners of the league
since 2002/03 have averaged around 87/88 points (with the average being
dragged down by the ‘paltry’ 80 points Man Utd
obtained last season). The formula has been the secret of success for Man Utd over many years. Last season Man Utd won the league by winning 18 of their 19 home games.
They won just 5 away fixtures and failed to beat any of the other top half of
the table away from home, but the flaws of the rest meant it was more than
enough to win the title comfortably. In 2009/10 Chelsea won the
league the year before by winning 17 of their home games, and picked up 23
out of the 30 points possible away from home against the bottom half of the
table with just one defeat. In 2008.09 Man Utd won the league winning 16 of their home games and all
10 of their away games against the bottom half of the table. Incidentally
they failed to win away to any of the rest of the top 8 and picked up just 4
points from their nearest rivals away from home. But their overall
performance was enough to see them installed comfortably as champions. Using that as an example, the
points dropped by Spurs at home to Wolves was the first time this season that
Spurs have dropped points against any team that could be said to be in the
bottom half of the table with 11 wins out of the 12 games played to date. ( Swansea and Stoke are in the top 10 at the time this is
written and capable of staying there). In fact at the time of writing Spurs
have the best record against teams in the bottom half of the table. Man Utd’s only dropped points against the bottom half came in
the shock home defeat to Blackburn . Man City
have yet to play Wigan at the time this is written and their position may
change, however the table below would suggest Man City perform best in
obtaining points from their direct rivals at the top, but Spurs are matching
Man Utd in beating the mediocre teams. Table v Bottom Half
P W D L Pts Spurs
12 11
1 0 34 Man Utd
11 10 0 1 30 Chelsea
12 8 2 2 26 Newcastle
11 8 2 1 26 Man City
10 7 2 1 23 Arsenal
11 7
2 2 23 Liverpool
10 6 3 1 21
With
that in mind, unlikely as it may sound to Spurs fans ears, Spurs are capable
of winning the league if they can win the remainder of their home games and
follow up with away victories to the bottom half teams at Everton,
Sunderland, Villa, Bolton and QPR. If that happens they will be well on
course for a title challenge irrespective of how the games away to Man City , Liverpool Chelsea and Arsenal pan out. Despite what
the media would have you believe Spurs can afford to lose them all and could
still win the league. 9th January 2012 - BOTOX Bloody Hell
!!! The festive period usually provides
me with the best opportunity in the season to watch over teams other than
Spurs. I admit to having a limited
attention span for watching football. In seasons past, that attention span has
been sorely tried by Spurs so that I would usually end up hating the club,
everything associated with it, and myself for supporting them by 1 Feb and
vowing not to watch another game beyond the end of that particular season. My
attention deficit usually meant that I would avoid watching other teams
unless it was of strict relevance to Spurs. In the current happy climate
under Harry however I currently have nothing but man love for all things
Spurs and my attention span has expanded to include other clubs. This has
meant that I have been able to make a couple of what may be important
observations that seem to have passed the general media by. Firstly, in the absence of
Lucas, Liverpool have decided to play someone called
Jay Spearing in their midfield. Whilst when running around
the tunnels of anfield he has more than a passing
resemblance to one of Tolkein’s hobbits, it is
clear in close up he seems to be the real life Benjamin Button. Wikipedia (if
you can believe such things) suggests he turned 23 in November. Rumour has it that Brad Pitt
is being lined up to do the film of his life story as the sequel to the hit
film. Whatever Jay’s secret, it
seems it has been passed onto Old Trafford where Paul Scholes
has been signed for the rest of the season, but the secret seems much more
evident in the face of the best manager Man Utd
have had in their last 25 years. Set out below is a selection
of photos which are said to be within the last 25 years taken from a random
search on the net. The first exhibit is a photo
from around the time Fergie took over at Old
Trafford. Notice the lined forehead and prevalence of wrinkles The second exhibit is from
2006 when there are less wrinkles on the forehead, The final picture is from
2012, of a 70+ year old man, when there are
none. By way of a contrast you can compare the handsome visage below to that
of Kenny Dalglish, who looks like he has lived each
and every one of his 60+ years.
Unless Fergie has been made privy to Jay Spearings
secret of reverse eternal youth, it seems to me that the only alternative is
that he has made use of the modern wonders of plastic surgery. I can see the
attraction at Man Utd and see why it may be an
obvious attractive option to a man who faces his life in the media glare.
After all it has allowed Wayne Rooney to wear what appears to be my old nan’s allied carpet on his head without mass sniggering
from 75,000 people every fortnight. It may also allowed
Rio to be able to walk around in public without being chased by a mob
carrying fire torches and pitchforks. When faced with such evidence from work
colleagues you can see why it may be easy to fall into temptation. However the thought that Fergie may have had any such surgery is absolutely
shocking. This is the man that the media tell us is the living embodiment of
the hard shipyard worker from Govan. This is a man who could
singlehandedly build an oil rig from scratch with his bare teeth, and
not even bother turning on the Oxy-acetylene torch, unless he had a difficult
bit. It is therefore scandalous that despite the media image, this could be
the man who in reality is the Cliff Richard of football. I prefer the thought that Fergie has discovered the secret of eternal youth. In
which case my only wish is that he passes it onto Spurs so that we can
finally bring back Ghod in all his glory to the
faithful. 7th November 2011 - Benchmark Fulham Despite what can be described
as the obsession of Spurs fans with the outcome of the derbies against the gooners and even Chelsea, the fixture against another derby
rival Fulham is a better guide as to where Spurs stand in the football
universe. It can be said that the
progress of each of the recent Spurs managers can be assessed by how their
Spurs teams have measured against Fulham and each of the managers
record against Fulham sums up their time at Spurs. Having established
themselves in the Premier League, but enjoying the odd flirt with relegation,
Fulham stand as a benchmark against which you can measure the strength of
your team. Fulham will generally feature in the middle reaches of the league.
The top sides will generally expect a difficult game but to walk away with
the points more often than not, and struggling teams or teams out of form
will normally get beaten by them. Hoddle started brightly and
then faded, suffering what is the only topflight home loss to Fulham in the
history of Spurs. Pleat oversaw what was a regulation away defeat, Jol’s record sums up his time with Spurs and a general
inability to move the club up to the next level and build on his foundations.
Ramos recorded his biggest league win against Fulham in what was the purple
patch of his reign and it is only with Harry, having suffered a defeat in his
first encounter, that daylight has opened between the two clubs (albeit on
the back of shocking FA Cup surrender). The recent football record
between Spurs and Fulham up to the game on 6 November stood as Home League P 10, W 6, D 3, L 1 Away P 10 W 2, D 3, L 5 The record was even until
last season when Spurs under Harry did the double again over Fulham for only
the second time during the PL years. The individual record for the
managers are Hoddle P5 W3 D1 L1 Pleat P1 L1 Jol P7
W2 D3 L2 Ramos P 1 W1 Harry P6 W3 D 2 L1 (now
adjusted with the help of Joe Jordan to P7 W4) When Al-Fayed’s
money first propelled Fulham back into the top division, with Tigana at the helm, they were viewed as a romantic new
addition to the top flight, returning back to the premier division for the
first time since the days of the swinging sixties and black and white TV. It
was uncertain how long their stay in the division would last. At that time.
Spurs were enjoying the honeymoon period under Ghod
and did the double in the league encounters with probably the best home
performance of the season 4-0 in what was probably Hoddle’s best spell as
manager, and this was followed up by a sold 2-0 away win. The results at the
time matched the optimism that was flowing around WHL at the time that the
good times were coming back. When the clubs next met, Spurs raced into a 2-0
lead at the Cottage and briefly looked like they would go top of the table,
but collapsed in the second half losing 2-3. Fulham, however provided the
reality test for Hoddle’s time at Spurs when his reliance on aged players and
a midfield of consisting of Redknapp, Anderton, and Poyet was overrun
and Barry Hayles powered Fulham to the 3-0 win at
WHL, a result that marked the end for Hoddle, with the coup de grace applied
after a tame surrender at home to a James Beattie inspired Southampton a
couple of games later. The less said about
Pleat’s interim period as a caretaker manager the better, save that his time
marked a visit for Spurs to Fulham’s temporary residence at Loftus Road and an
insipid Spurs away day performance in a 2-1 defeat, which neatly summed up
his time in the role. Jol’s time
at Spurs can be encapsulated in the 3—3 draw at the cottage. Spurs were 3-1 ahead
and cruising to a comfortable away win (in a game that marked an early
sighting of a teenage Bale in a Spurs shirt and his first goal), when
approaching the last 10 minutes Spurs conceded a deflected goal and a late
equaliser to allow a share of the points. The game best sums up Jol’s time at Spurs where he could lead Spurs to
promising positions but never quite get them over the finishing line. The
other fixtures with Fulham during his tenure were generally pretty drab, dull
games with the 2 teams cancelling each other out and sharing identical
records against each other. Standing out amongst these drab and dull
encounters however is a 1-0 defeat at Fulham at the time Spurs were meant to
be challenging for the Champions League riches (before lasagnegate
in the final game) and a game where Spurs first attempt on target came in the
last 10 minutes. Not the mark of a top team. With the shambles of Jol’s sacking, the dizzy offer that enticed Ramos to
Spurs saw them play Fulham in what was the high point of his short managerial
career in England . Spurs had won 2-0 with 10 men in
the league cup at Man City at the start of the December in what was one the
best away performances from a Spurs team for many a year, and with a
fantastic performance from Berbatov leading the
line. When Fulham came to visit WHL over the festive season, Spurs tore them
apart winning 5-1 and from memory the Fulham goal was courtesy of an offside
and should have been disallowed. A few weeks later this was followed by the
5-1 win against the goons in the league cup and all seemed rosy in N17. The
one game Ramos had against Fulham was an indication of the potential of what
he could have brought to the club, but much like the 4 goal winning margin
enjoyed by Hoddle it simply marked a false dawn. By the time Spurs next played
Fulham, Berbatov had gone, Ramos had followed him
and Harry had been installed for his fire-fighting skills and to practice his
2 from 8 catchphrase. It was the first defeat suffered by Spurs under Harry.
The Spurs goal was scored by Frazier Campbell, who from memory played well
and briefly looked destined for better things, but whose very appearance in a
Spurs shirt sums up where it all went wrong for Ramos in the first place.
Since that time, the tame FA Cup surrender aside, Spurs and Harry have
enjoyed a good league record against Fulham winning 4 and drawing 2 of the 6
games played. The
fact that Spurs have enjoyed their best run of results against Fulham in
recent years under Harry is proof enough of his impact as a manager and the
direction in which the club are moving and can be contrasted to the years Jol struggled to make that final breakthrough with Spurs.
Since their promotion, Fulham have now established themselves as a mid-rank
premier league team and the results against them remain as a benchmark by
which to measure Spurs and whoever the Spurs manager may be (Joe Jordan
included!) 29th September 2011 - Harry’s X Factor I have to confess that I never wanted Harry
to be the manager of Spurs and I thought that he would be an unmitigated
disaster for Spurs, arriving at a club that was already operating as a player
exchange before he arrived. However for reasons I cannot properly fathom,
which I can only out down to an ‘X’ factor, he has brought stability and self
respect back to Spurs, he has managed to coax the best set of results from a
Spurs team for many years, and we now enter the weekend of a NLD as slight
favourites for the first time in many many years. Harry remains a divisive figure amongst Spurs
fans, and there are times when you can see why, especially over the Modric saga. When Chelsea first tapped up Luka, and the
no like chicken badge jokes were doing the rounds, Harry came out and with
statesmanlike gravitas said that Spurs could not let him go, as to do so
would give the wrong message and would lead to an exodus of the rest of the
talent. His message was that he was trying to build a team, not dismantle
one. Once Levy stated Modric
was not for sale, Harry overnight changed his tune, and pronounced that it
may be better if Spurs took the money and sold him, to avoid disruption in
the dressing room, and to give him funds so that he could buy 2 or 3 decent
players. It may be this is simply a demonstration of Harry’s
man-management skill,
and Modric’s attitude can certainly
be compared favourably to that of Tevez under
Mancini. At the eve of the close of the window, Harry pronounced that Chelsea
had bid £40m for Modric although I have not seen
this reported from any other sources, and it may be a bid from Harry’s imagination. The best I can find is a Cash +
Player (Alex) offer. Now the transfer window has shut and Modric is tied to Spurs at least until January, Harry is
now making statements that Modric ‘deserves’ a payrise. This is made against a background where Spurs
have not spent any money in the transfer market for the last 2 years and
where they have been reducing the wage bill by offloading the non-playing
members of the squad. I can only imagine Harry must be detained elsewhere
when finance is discussed at the club, or he must be giving random opinions
following a random throw of a dice or flip of a coin. Despite all this and as much as I wish Harry
would engage his brain before sharing his latest thoughts, and history shows
that whatever he says should be taken with a pinch of salt, I do however
think he has an outstanding record at Spurs and will be sorry if and when he
leaves WHL. Some fans judge his record as a failure because he has been
unable to deliver a trophy in his time at Spurs. In the context of modern
Spurs, in my view this is a harsh assessment, given that before Harry,
following the decline suffered under Sugar, Spurs generally finished 10th
in the league table and won approximately 1 trophy a decade. The last two
managers to deliver the league cup have been two of the most derided managers
in Spurs history, and given Spurs recent history another trophy isn’t due
until around 2017. In view of the
competition Harry is working under, I consider Harry is doing an outstanding
job. In fact, during ’if only’ musings I do wonder where Spurs would have
been if Sugar had appointed Harry as a manager back in the 90’s, instead of
giving the gig to Gerry Francis, 666 or the swiss
ticket collector.
Spurs were played off the pitch at home by
Man City, after what was the longest unbeaten home run of 17 games since the
start of the Premier League in 1992. There may be 101 reasons for that,
including the fact Man City have spent more than even a UBS trader can lose
in an afternoon. Personally I prefer the explanation that a centre midfield
of Kranjcar and Livermore would struggle in the
championship and I suspect Harry played them both as a reminder to Levy of
the need to finalise the Scott Parker deal. I also suspect he could have
played Kaboul in the middle as he did during his
Pompey tenure, although whether this would have changed anything is a moot
point. The usual failure to compete for 90 minutes
at Man Utd is common as the history of 18 defeats
at Old Trafford and no wins in 21 attempts show. The despair at the first two
results has lifted with the 3 wins (again a rare feat for modern Spurs) and
to put things into some perspective, it could be worse, we could be Everton. In the modern game Spurs are very similar in
size, achievement and stature to Everton. Both have antiquated stadiums that are
too limited for the clubs to realise their corporate market potential and
both could sell out twice over for the bigger games. Both have owners that
have made limited or minimal investment in the club, and have to generate
their own funds for any advancement. That is not necessarily a criticism of
Spurs owners, because it makes sense for a club to spend what it can afford,
rather than being dependent on the whims of a bank. The main difference
between the two clubs is Spurs have a more affluent fan base and can afford
to charge their fans more, and Spurs have been able to use their position in
London to make more of the corporate market.
In a plug for another blog, I recommend the
Swiss Ramble for an in-depth financial analysis on football, and the latest
offering is on Everton in swissramble.blogspot.com/2011/09/everton-no-blue-skies.html. In summary, the writer says that Everton are
hampered by the fact that they have an antiquated stadium,
they cannot generate sufficient corporate revenue in a run down part of the
country. Their owners do not invest in the club (or do not have the money to
do so), and they have little prospect of improving their income in the
foreseeable future. Everton have been spending above their means to maintain
their competitive edge in the premier league, and they face a dilemma that
should they spend what they could actually afford, whilst they get their
debts under control, they would have to reduce their wage bill to the levels
that are paid by premiership relegation candidates. Therefore their strategy
remains to spend as much as they can get away with and hope to sell the next
star (Rooney/ Lescott/ Rodwell? ) from the production line every couple of years to keep
their heads above water. Below are two tables (adopted from the everton blog. This may help reconsider the contribution
Harry and his management team is having on modern Spurs. The first table
shows the net spend of the clubs in the premier league over the last 2 years.
It can be noted that the top 2 spenders are the billionaire owner funded Man
City and Chelsea. Both clubs are probably getting their investment done
before the new financial rules, should they have any teeth, come into full
force. The other team at the top of spending tree is Man Utd,
who have freshened and strengthened their title winning squad (in what was
probably their worst title winning team for many years) and it is those 3
clubs that will contest the league title this season. Of the rest, it can be noted that the vast
majority of the established premiership clubs have spent very little money
and indeed the bottom 7 teams in the table, which includes Spurs, have all
made a profit from their transfer dealings. The exceptions are Liverpool and
Stoke, with investment coming from their owners, and Wolves, who are run as a
rare exception amongst the premier league teams as a profitable club,
spending money they have made through their profits. Spurs, despite the
influx of the champions league money are almost transfer neutral. On one
level this is a surprise given the fact that Spurs had been given the
opportunity to compete in the Champions League and banked at least £30m for
their involvement, but then again it probably reflects the reality of the
lack of easy credit more generally and especially for football. It also
reflects the fact that Spurs, despite having billionaire owners do not invest
their own money in the club, particularly when compared to their rivals.
The media have a habit if concentrating on
the transfer spending of a club as a sign of their ambition, however for many
years under the direction of Levy, with Arnesen and
Comolli Spurs have acted as a player exchange. A better
gauge in measuring the strength of a club is a look at the wage bill, as this
should reflect the talent and depth of the squad. The logic runs that
football is a meritocracy and the better players will demand better wages.
Therefore the better the strength of the squad and quality of player, the
higher the wage bill. From the wage bill table set out below it does seem to
be the case that the higher the wage bill, the more a team is to compete with
the demands of the premiership and finish higher in the table. There is a
strong correlation between the position of a club in the wage bill league and
a clubs position in the final league table. You can see that most starkly
with the teams that are expected to fight for the title and for the teams
that are expected to struggle against relegation. Over this summer, Spurs have overseen the
departure of a lot of high earning squad members, to trim the size of the
squad. The major departures have been to what must have been high earning
established players in their late 20’s or early 30’s (Jenas/
Keane/ Crouch) or players that look like they won’t realise the hopes that
once surrounded them (Bentley). This has no doubt released funds for the club
to secure quality replacements in the areas where the squad looked lacking (Adebayor and Parker). More relevant however is the fact
that the bulk of the younger players in the squad have been retained and it
seems they will be given more of chance to see if they can make the grade. In
times gone by, Spurs would probably have released the younger players and
retained the older squad members until they had passed their sell-by date or
had little sell on value. The wage bill for 2010 is set out below. 2011 may
well show an increase on those figures when they are released due to the
structure of any Champions League payments to the staff but I suspect after
this summer’s trading, the wage bill in 2012 will be a lot lower as a
proportion of club income than the wage bill in 2010. However I believe that
due to Harry’s influence, this is unlikely to mean
the club will slide down the league table. In 2010, two of the bottom three wage payers
were relegated. Wolves stayed up but were involved in the relegation dogfight
throughout the season and Pompey were relegated,
probably in place of Wolves due to their financial situation, with their high
wage bill contributing to their financial problems. Spurs stand
7th in wage bill,
for the year their qualified for the champions league, with a wage bill half
of that of Man City and over £40m less than the club’s closest perceived
rivals, Arsenal and Liverpool. In fact the gap between the wage bill of Spurs
(£67m) and Arsenal (£111m) would pay the wages for the whole of the squads of
Birmingham, Wigan, Hull, Wolves and Burnley and still leave change. When you
consider the gap between the clubs fighting it out for the Champions league
riches, the fact that Spurs are able to compete so effectively brings credit
to the whole of the club, from the man who controls the finances to the man
who controls the team. If you consider that in 2010 Chelsea at £173m
pay around 6 times what Wolves pay in wages (£30m), and 8 times what Burnley pay (£22m), it should be no surprise that Chelsea
took 12 points from the pair of them in the league. However, football being football, during the course of that season,
Chelsea struggled to win at Burnley and were
lucky to come away with a 2-1 win, with a late winner from Terry. Harry gets terrible stick when Spurs fail to
beat one of the lesser lights in the premier league, as if it is a given. One
of the major criticisms of Harry last season is the failure of Spurs to beat
the bottom 6 and the loss of too many points against the bottom half of the
table when compared to their rivals. However if you factor in the demands of
the Champions League on the first team last season, and also factor in the
wage bill as an indication of playing strength , it
should be less of a surprise that Spurs struggle more to beat the lesser
teams in comparison to the bigger payers, because the strength of squad is
thinner and because the gap between Spurs and the rest is not as marked as it
is for the traditional Champions League teams. It could be argued that
perhaps Chelsea, and the rest of the uber-rich get an easy ride in the press and perhaps they
should be regularly slated, even if they win, when they fail to beat these
lesser lights in the premier league by a landslide.
Since the figures on which the above table
was prepared were released, the wage bills for the top clubs will have
increased, with the further spending of Man City, the Rooney pay rise at Man Utd, and Chelsea signing Torres and co. The gap between
Spurs and the teams at the top of the table will only have grown. The wage bill for 2010 shows that Spurs pay
£13m less than Aston Villa and £13m more than Everton. Arguably this should have been reflected on
the pitch however we know that Aston Villa have fallen
away since Martin O’Neill resigned. Villa did however finish 6th
for 3 years in a row, which is where they stand in the wage bill table so it
can be said that they were achieving par, Harry’s skill as a manager can only be
measured against his peers. This can be measured by the fact that Spurs stand
7th in the wage standings, which is outside the European placings,
he managed to get the team to finish 4th (when arguably had the
season gone on for a few more games it could have overtaken Arsenal into 3rd)
and 5th when the club faced the unprecedented demand of competing
in the champions league. History shows it is possible, despite the
financial wealth of richer clubs, to build good teams on a relative
shoestring budget, using youth, unknown or underrated players and the nous of
a good manager. Brian Clough is probably the best example, but David Moyes does a similar job in the modern game for Everton.
Harry does an equally good job for Spurs but probably does not get the credit
he deserves, even from out of the stream of contradictory soundbites
emerging from his gob. The lesson of Nottingham Forest from all
those years ago is that if you succeed in building a winning team, the big
boys will come and cherry pick your talent, break up your team and break up
your challenge in the process. Due to financial constraints at Forest, Clough
had to break up his European cup winning team too early, sell the crown
jewels and then try to reconstruct another winning side. In more modern times
it seems the big boys try and break up a team before you are allowed to build
a challenge, as demonstrated by Chelsea in the Modric
saga. This is also shown by Aston Villa, who were being built up (at large
expense as shown by the wage bill) by Martin O‘Neill and have since been
cherry picked of Barry, Milner, Young and Downing. The achievement of Harry is demonstrated by
the fact that Spurs have been able to challenge for the Champions League
qualifying places and he has taken Spurs to a position where they can
threaten to overtake Liverpool and Arsenal in the league, despite the
disparity of resources between the clubs. The hope is that he will be allowed
to keep the team together long enough to achieve something tangible before it
is broken up by the big boys. It is also hoped that he remains at WHL long
enough to see through the job he has started, and the risk is that when he
goes Spurs, the club will lose the ’X’ factor he brings and will fall back to
the more usual parity with Villa and Everton. 24th August 2011 - Anything worse than a
mockney? With a now rare feeling of pre-season optimism flowing in
my veins I decided to attend the Manchester United match and with rekindled
hope, secured tickets amongst the home support. Over the years I have often
sat watched Spurs surrounded by opposition fans, even when sitting in the old
lower block of the east stand. It makes for a different footballing
experience, but it has to be said one that isn’t always enjoyable. It does
however provide a different perspective on the game, and it can also provide
a gauge of how the opposition view the mighty Spurs. The game itself was a repeat of so many previous showings
at Old Trafford and against Man Utd. Spurs showed some moments of skill and
good football but ultimately lacked the belief to hurt what was a weakened
Man Utd, and laid down and died after the first goal went in. Rooney,
Smalling and Jones looked impressive for them. Livermore and Kranjcar were
overrun and looked slow and ponderous for us, Dawson was found ball-watching
at critical moments again (how he needs King alongside him!) and Defoe again
showed that he can’t lead the line on his own. Losing 3-0 was probably about
par for the course given a less than full-strength Spurs team and follows the
history of Spurs at Old Trafford in the premier league with 3 draws and 18
defeats. In reality probably not too much should be read into it. As a
pointer for the season ahead however there did not seem to be much in the way
of team spirit and a lot of players seemed to playing within themselves or
too ready to sulk when things were not going well (Mr Lennon I am looking at
you…). It’s too early to judge but it could be a long hard season and Harry
may have to work harder to earn his money this year, spending more time
talking to his players and less time talking to the media. Whilst the transfer window remains open, it is difficult to
judge with any certainty how Spurs will fare this season. If the club can
secure an upgrade on the current stable of strikers that are in place, and
find a reliable quality centre-half to replace King, the prospects will look
a lot brighter than they do at the moment and with the rest of the
squad Spurs could comfortably challenge for a place in the sky4. However
September is approaching, the season has started already and Spurs have still
to sell a lot of the deadwood that we have been told Harry needs to get off
the books before the club can buy the necessary upgrades. The saga
surrounding Modric is irrelevant. I believe he is and always has been for
sale at the ‘right’ price. The fact remains that he does not appear to have
handed in a transfer request and the interested club do not appear to have
offered the right price, so understandably there has been no deal. The
Chelsea supporting media have been keen to push through the deal, as much as
the Man Utd supporting media were keen to push through the Berbatov deal 3
years ago, which is why the saga is and will continue to run. The key to it
will be, when Modric is sold, the money is reinvested in a quality
replacement who has the same potential to take the club forward.
Unfortunately nothing I have seen coming from the club has given me the hope
that this is the case and I suspect, as with Berbatov, the club will try to
hang onto the money that it makes on the deal. As history shows however the
spectre of relegation in 2008 loosened the purse strings and lead to panic
buying at exorbitant rates, and I hope we don’t have to go through the whole
charade again this time. It is a fact the club has had the Champions League income,
on the back of record-breaking profits and yet have not added significantly
to the squad over the last 18 months (VDV apart). This suggests to me that
Spurs may have financial problems, but ones that have been kept in the dark
and have been masked by Spurs making outrageous transfer bids for players
that they have no hope in landing. It is noticeable that although Spurs were
reported to have bid around the £35m that Man City paid for Aguero in January,
in a throwaway remark Harry joked that the club was only £220,000 short in
meeting his weekly wage demands. If the club do have financial problems, as
sensible owners Enic would not wish those to become public knowledge. A club
in financial trouble runs the risk of being opened up to sharks and
carpet baggers, as Leeds demonstrate (and as Spurs profited with the purchase
of Lennon, Keane and ENO). Bill Kenwright was interviewed by a group of
Everton supporters and candidly admitted to them that the banks were cutting
off the supply of credit and this has affected the clubs ability to bring in
new players. Everton are a well-run club and are hamstrung by having an old
stadium that prevents them from maximising their income from the potential
corporate market (much like Spurs). However the publicity means that Everton
are now in the firing line for clubs that want to buy their bets players at a
discount, knowing that in the background the bank will putting on some
pressure for any reasonable deal to go ahead. For the record, Everton are
said to owe around £45m. In comparison, Spurs owe much more than that, with
various debts totalling over £100m on the last set of accounts. It should
also be remembered that in the background, the owners Enic took a €121m loan
from the failed Icelandic Kaupthing bank to purchase their controlling
interest in Spurs. If a relatively healthy Barclays Bank are putting pressure
on Everton to repay their loan, how much more pressure would a financially
strapped Icelandic bank be putting on Enic? If I was being cynical I would say that Enic have used a
lot of the Champion League bounty to pay off their debts to the bank. I would
also suspect that they are planning to use the money from Modric for the same
purpose which is why the deal is being left to the last minute, to maximise
the deal and to minimise the time available to obtain a like for like
replacement and to keep any supporter discontent at the sale down to a
minimum. As the majority owners of Spurs plc, it is their business and they
are entitled to do what they like with it, and to do what they like with the
money that is generated by it. Such cynicism however throws a bucket of cold
water over the optimism and hope any Spurs supporter should have at the start
of a new season. 5th August 2011 - TOPSpurs 2011/12 voxpop As
the years go by, the time that elapses between the time when the Spurs voxpop
community give their views on all things Spurs seems to spin around faster and
faster. Soon it will be like a monty python sketch where we have the
optimistic start of the season meeting just before the end of season party.
No change there you might think given a slow start to a season. With
the lack of any serious signings at the time of writing it is hard to avoid
the doomongering, gnashing of teeth, rabid depression and frankly suicidal
Spurs fans. I can only say that some of you need to lighten up, and if
following Spurs makes you so miserable you need to take a step back and find
something less boring instead. As
for this season: the economic realities are that this is a league of
mini-leagues. It consists of the top 3, the next 3, the mediocre 6, and the
bottom 8 fighting relegation. The 3 teams at the top of the table are out of
reach, certainly financially. Spurs cannot compete with them and if they
tried, either you the fans would have to agree to pay around £10,000 each for
your season ticket, (one that on average costs £1,000 now) or it would kill
the club. In that situation, the ability to take them on and challenge the
rich 3 is a decent outcome. The next 3 are the teams that Spurs are in
competition with, and of those (being Liverpool and Arsenal), Spurs are the
weakest financially, so anything above 6th represents a decent return. IF
and a big if, things go well, Spurs could challenge the top 3 and challenge
for the title. The last couple of seasons have shown that with a
full-strength team on the pitchm, with a fair wind and if Spurs can avoid the
Clattenberg effect, the club can beat the dross and can also take on, beat
and compete with the best. However, over the course of a season it’s not just
about the first XI, it’s about luck, avoiding injuries and having the correct
mentality. Much maligned he may be, but I do give credit Harry for seeking to
change the mentality of the club. The club seem more prepared to dig in for a
win (with the best record for winning points from a losing position last
season) and it is now rarer to see Spurs horror shows away from home, where
the players fail to show and where it’s better to watch the second half from
the bar. It
remains clear that new signings are needed, with a quality striker and a
decent CB to provide a reliable cover for King whilst we wait for Caulker to
mature. It is frustrating that no new names have been signed for these
crucial positions as yet, but then again, it is a mad market when players
like Andy Carroll and Jordan Henderson cost in excess of £50m. To put things
into some context, Spurs season ticket holders contribute around £25m -£30m
to the coffers of the club each year through ticket sales and merchandising.
That would struggle to cover the cost of Dzeko, would not pay for Aguero and
would need 2 years of payments to be able to afford Torres. It’s
a new season and there is the usual hope, expectation and the almost
certainty of disappointment. I expect Spurs to finish between 5th and 8th. I
hope however the club has a fantastic season and it’s always better to travel
in hope than in expectation. 29th June 2011 - Filthy Lucre Modric Out
far in the sticks, I can report that the current fads of the ageing 40
somethings seem to be (1) get a motorbike to ponce about in fancy leathers to
try and convince the world that they don’t have a mid-life crisis in the
current heat wave, or (2) try to induce a heart attack dressed as Lance
Armstrong poncing about on a bike that cost more than the national debt of
Greece whilst being overtaken by 73 year old Mrs Miggins on her motobility
scooter (with the ‘all the gear but no idea’ crew clearly forgetting to take
the obligatory performance enhancing drugs that are required to get up hills
and gradients). Coming
in at a close No 3 seems to be keeping free range chickens. None of this has
much relevance apart from the fact my neighbour now has a chicken coop with a
large number of chickens, and this has allowed me to observe that at the end
of the day the chickens all retire to the same assigned places in the coop.
As is clear from the henhouse, and as in life generally, applies equally to
football. There is a pecking order. The club symbol should mean that we Spurs
fans should appreciate this better than most, and although a cockerel may be
in charge of the coop, he is still no match for a hungry fox. The
story that continues to dominate the summer silly season is that Luka Modric
wants to leave and join a bigger or a better club that can offer him a better
standard of football and pay him a lot more money into the bargain. We don’t
know this for certain as it is all reported by close sources and by rumour.
Assuming that the rumours are true, there being no smoke without fire, we
have all been there, seen it and done it before, and some of you will still
have the Berbatov T-shirt thrown at the bottom of the wardrobe. The
reaction to the news that Modric may leave is interesting. A lot of news
stories abound that other desirable players, such as Bale, will also consider
leaving if Modric goes, and Spurs will face an exodus of talent. Whether that
is true remains to be seen. It looks like a story that’s been planted but at
this stage it is not clear if it is the club, or another interested party
that is doing the planting. The reaction of some of the fans is that if
Modric goes, it’s a sign of the lack of ambition of the club, and for a
minority, the end of their association as supporters. By
common consent amongst Spurs fans, despite the PFA award given to Bale, Luka
Modric is and has consistently been the best player at Spurs. Some fans at other
teams cannot fathom why he is so crucial, looking at the relative poor return
of goals and assists he is credited with (compared to the new £20m man at
Liverpool for instance)> However his admirers will say that he is the
Spurs equivalent of Xavi, being the metronome for the team, dictating the
pace of the game and maintaining possession. Luka is one of the few players
that would fit into the current Barcelona team, which is accolade enough. With
that in mind and reverting back to the pecking order, you have to wonder why
a talent like Modric is at Spurs. It could be that Spurs have found the croat
equivalent of Le Tissier and he will be happy to see out his career at WHL,
although the recent news headlines would tend to contradict that theory. What
is clear is that a team that has never finished in the top 3 places in the
Premier League (20 years and counting) and have qualified for the champions
league just once in all that time, is going to be lower down in the scheme of
things than a team that does manage a top 3 finish consistently. If Luka is
the player that the majority of Spurs fans think he is, then it could be
argued that Modric deserves a bigger or better stage for his talent. It’s
difficult to be emotional about these things in the context of the modern
game. My emotional response to the transfer shenanigans possibly stopped when
I grew up and matured. Most probably however it stopped around the time when
Sugar was at Spurs and made his contempt of football and fans apparent. That
general contempt by extension included me, although I had never met him or
done anything other than send him an ever-increasing amount of money so that
I could watch Spurs play football. Or at least pretend to make an effort now
and again. By way of reciprocation I thought that I should equally hold
football chairman in equal contempt, even though I have never met one, nor
ever wish to. As a result I refuse to watch the Apprentice and if it happens
to be on the screen when I am around, I have an almost uncontrollable urge to
throw something at the screen. By extension I have an extremely low regard
for the current Spurs chairman even though I have never met him and he could
be the nicest person in N17. In his role as Chairman, I suspect that Levy
will live down to my expectation and take the money for Modric despite the
unequivocal public statement that he is not for sale. In
such an enlightened state, the message should be, if Luka decides to stay,
all well and good and let’s see what Spurs can achieve with him next season.
Hopefully it will have been worth the effort for all concerned. However if he
chooses to leave, the message is accept these things happen, life moves on,
and so do players. The plc called Tottenham will still be in business come
August with open arms welcoming your support. There will be 11 players in a
Spurs shirt on the pitch at the start of the new season and they are the
important ones, at least while they are here. If
Modric does leave, that does not mean it is the end of the world, or the end
of Spurs’ ambition. Despite the Real Madrid galacticos experiment, being
successful at football is not about signing the best or biggest name players.
It is about identifying players that will improve the team and play to a
system. A frequent quoted example of this is the goons infamous back line,
consisting of Donkey Adams, Dixon and Bould (signed from lower division
Stoke), and Winterburn (from Wimbledon). These were backed up by a quality
keeper in Seaman (QPR) and before him Lukic (Leeds). The success was put down
to the organisation skills and drilling of their manager. A
better example is the Nottingham Forest team build by Brian Clough that won
the league title and 2 European cups. The genius of Clough was to take unsung
or undervalued players and turn them into world beaters. The Nottingham
Forest squad that swept all before them all those years ago consisted of
Shilton, Anderson, Clark McGovern Lloyd Burns Francis Bowyer Woodcock
Robertson Barrett, Gemmill, Mills, O’Hare O’Neill and Needham Of these the 2
obvious stars were Peter Shilton, an established England international
although at the time he was alternating duties with Clemence and Trevor
Francis. When he signed Francis, Clough was reported to have said, ’he is an
investment. Yes he is worth £1m and if we ever sell him we’ll get more back’. Clough
worked his magic most with John Robertson, an overweight and arguably lazy
midfielder, struggling to get a game and yet was turned into the most
effective left sided winger in Europe. Of the rest, Anderson was a rising
star, a young forest product, the first black player to play for England and
following his success at Forest, he moved down the pecking order to the goons
and then back up to Man Utd. The rest were all quality players, most of which
were overlooked by the press of the day in favour of other better known
players, who played at clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal and Man Utd. Notably of
these, Clark was thought to be passed his best as was Larry Lloyd, when he
was let go by Liverpool. Kenny Burns was a journey man striker converted to
CB by Clough and Taylor. John McGovern won a host of medals in the game and
yet was never capped by Scotland, as was Bowyer. Gary Birtles left for the
riches of Old Trafford but was never the same player again. Tony Woodcock was
tempted by Cologne in the Bundesliga and then slummed it with the goons for a
few years to taint a fine career. Gemmill was a Clough player who followed
him from club to club and is now best known for scoring the Scotland wonder
goal in trainspotting. Whilst
it was a different era the lesson is still of some relevance today. A good
team is not necessarily made out of headline names, but rather is made out of
players who can work together and make a gameplan or system work. A group of
players that can in fact play as a team. That hasn’t always been the case at
Spurs. Arguably the 2 best performances last season were away, the 10 man
show at Aston Villa and the win over AC Milan at the San Siro. The star
midfield man for me on both those nights was not Modric, but rather Wilson
Palacios. Nottingham
Forest, even at their height were never a ‘big’ club and never top of the
pecking order, as demonstrated by the fact the majority of their star players
were all poached by better paying clubs. The pecking order however did not
stop Clough from building a winning team and neither should it stop Spurs. It
may be that Harry is no where near in the same class as Clough as a manager
and it takes a man of Clough’s quality to break the status quo. However Harry
has done enough to show that he can build a team and get results, (and better
results than Spurs have been used to in recent years) although he still has
some way to go to match Clough. There is some doubt over Harry’s long term
future, with the pending court case and the prospect of the England job.
Assuming however that Harry will still be at Spurs for the long term, and
even if Luka does leave for more filthy lucre, he will be replaced and the
club will go on. The lesson from Clough and from Forest is that a quality
manager can build a winning team even if he doesn’t always have what are seen
to be the best materials. 23rd May 2011 - Season Review:
As good as it can get It feels this has been the season of the super-injunction. There
isn’t anything super about them. It’s just that under the current law you
can’t know what they are for or that they even exist,. Instead you find out
about them in rumours and gossip, a bit like the mystery of what constitutes
Harry’s post match interviews following Spurs. My review of the season was meant to run along the lines of,
it’s been an enjoyable season, the fact Spurs have unreliable strikers (as we
knew at the start of the campaign) has come back to haunt the team at crucial
moments of the season and Spurs finished roughly where you would have
expected at the start, albeit with a sense of a missed opportunity for what
might have been, if only the performances and results against the bottom
teams had been better. The highlights have been the champions league
performances and winning at the deathstar in a dramatic comeback (DVD release
heaven if there ever was one) and seeing a very professional and consummate
Spurs performance away to Aston Villa when down to 10 men in what has to be
one of the best performances I have seen from a Spurs team in that position. I might have said that the key personnel across the whole league
were largely left knackered or injured after last summers world cup, or
crocked and injured soon after, which has impacted for all clubs across the
season. This is probably as a result of the lack of a proper rest for what
are in the main, in the modern game, finely tuned athletes. It has affected
all of the clubs in the premier league and I can’t think of many star premier
league players who were in South Africa that have had an outstanding season
during 2010-11 (Tevez maybe- but certainly not Torres, Lampard, Gerrard,
Rooney, Drogba) . For Spurs however it impacted on the England
contingent and the spine of the team most heavily, with Dawson, Defoe. King
and Lennon, VDV and arguably Gomes, all below par for some if not a
large proportion of the season and all being key components of any successful
spurs team. Their loss increased the burden on the rest of the
team (Bale in particular) and has possibly resulted in the stop-start nature
of the performances from Spurs over the season. Overall the players coming
out the season with credit are Danny Rose, Sandro, Modric, Bale and BAE. I
don’t know what has happened to the strikers but may be spurs need to be
looking at getting a better coach than the ones they currently have for the
forwards. I might have said that as a means of providing a balanced
insight into the season. Instead however a review is better left to Harry in his own words. According to Harry, this season is "as good as it can
get" for Tottenham fans. "It's been an incredible season -
the European adventure, beating Arsenal for the first time, going to Liverpool
and winning. We've had great games and this has been far and away the best
season in the Premier League that Tottenham has had." As far as I can tell Spurs have beaten arsenal before, so it
wasn’t the first time, even if beating them is rarer than we would all like. If Harry meant winning for the first time at the emirates,
then I’ll give him that one. But then again Newcastle and West Brom also did
that this season, just for some context or to measure the achievement. Going to Liverpool and winning is always a special feeling for
those spurs fans old enough to remember the almost 73 year wait between 1912
and 1985. But again a little bit of context shows this is the same Liverpool
team that lost at home to Wolves and home and away to Blackpool . The
same Liverpool that finished below Spurs in 6th in 2010. So if we are to believe Harry, as good as it gets means we can
celebrate emulating what Newcastle , West Brom, Blackpool and Wolves also
achieve. If finishing 5th after
winning just one of the six games against the relegated teams (and that on
the last day of the season) with a season record of struggling generally to
beat teams at the bottom end of the table that come to ‘park the bus’ is as
good as it gets, then maybe I am supporting the wrong club. When seeking to
sell the naming rights to White Hart Lane or whatever stadium spurs might be
playing in when such rights are sold, may be they should be looking to change
the name of the club as well. ‘New West Ham’ or ‘ New Coventry City ’ might
be a better way of managing any unrealistic expectations of the fans. Maybe
setting up a bingo caller on the pitch at half time will help as well. If it
is indeed as good as it gets, then may be Spurs fans should be paying ticket
prices to reflect the realistic ambition of the ‘New West Ham’ rather than
those of an ambitious Tottenham Hotspur. I imagine the 6.5% payrise on the
season tickets suggests a different view is held in the boardroom.
In his words, "I haven't heard anyone moaning. They are
idiots aren't they? What kind of idiot picks up a phone to ring a phone in.
They are idiots and I don't listen to them” I imagine that will be the same kind of idiot that is forever
picking up the phone to speak to Talksport or 5live. I can’t imagine who
would do that? That Harry Redknapp impersonator seems to be a very busy chap
and is very good at what he does. "We have had an amazing season. it won't get any better,
enjoy it. This is good as it can get.” Remember that quote when it comes to signing that contract
extension or if you have any questions about the ambition of the club you are
currently contracted to play for. I would not that thought that is a message
designed to convince you to stay and buy into the Tottenham ‘dream’. It
certainly isn’t the message of a top club or the mentality you would expect
of a top club. Is this the same Harry Redknapp who was talking the same Spurs
squad up as title challengers in December 2010? What is this list of merit based on? And who is the ‘they’ and
‘us’? If Harry is talking about those idiotic Spurs fans who happen to
hold an opinion about football that differs from his own, then I would say
that he forgot to add Liverpool to that list. And probably he should revise
it to include QPR now they have now been promoted and have very wealthy
backers as well. If we are happy to be ranked on the same level of
achievement as West Brom, Wolves and Blackpool then I suppose we also need to
add Aston Villa (top team in the midlands) and Everton to that list as well.
So that has Spurs jostling for 8th then. Anything else and according to
Harry is doing a good job and should be immune from criticism. If Harry is basing the list on the money stream supporting
individual clubs, then he is correct. Those clubs (and Liverpool ) all have
higher income and spend a great deal more on wages of their players than
Spurs do. However money itself doesn’t always affect the league position. If
it did, Newcastle would have been a top club during the premiership years,
and even Spurs should have been expected to have performed a lot better than
they have done for much of the history of the premier league. The fact remains this has not been a vintage season of the
premier league and if Spurs had been able to take advantage of the weaker
teams in the league, what with throwing winning positions and points away to
Birmingham and Wolves and failing to beat West Brom, West Ham and Wigan
during the season run in, the outcome of the season could have been a lot
better. It maybe the fact that the manager has been unable to rotate the team
as much as he would like, due to the world cup robbing key members of the
team of much of their freshness. It may be the stress of competing in the
champions league has taken the ‘legs’ out of the league campaign. It may be
also be the fact that Harry’s own court case (due to be heard in July) and
his courting of the England job has meant he has taken his eye off the ball
at Spurs. Whatever the reason, as good and as enjoyable as the season has
been, the feeling remains that it could and should have been better. In response to the question, of what can I expect, my own view
is that I do expect Spurs to compete at a certain standard and that standard
means I would expect them to be able to take maximum points off the
relegation fodder home and away and to beat the lesser teams at home. That
won’t always happen because that is football, and Spurs are Spurs, but when
it doesn’t it would be nice if the manager held his hands up and accepted
some responsibility rather than labelling anyone who dare question him an
idiot.
After Harry’s latest performance I propose that Spurs fans club
together and seek a super-injunction to ban Harry from talking about Spurs or
even the existence of Spurs. I am happy for him to continue in his job and
think he is doing a good job. I would be even happier if he did it quietly.
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Disclaimer: Please note the words on this page are
the opinion of the topspurs columnist and are just that, opinions, not facts
and are nothing to do with Tottenham Hotspur Football club PLC. Just a
supporter having his say nothing more nothing less. Any commentary on betting
is meant for discussion purposes only and does not constitute any form of
advice or recommendation. |