This article is about how, over 10 years,
Tottenham Hotspur have, in my eyes and probably the whole country’s,
gone from being the London Glamour Boys, in the ‘top 5’ bracket,
playing exciting entertaining football to perennial mid-table obscurity.
Coming from Tottenham,
there could only be one team for me as a kid, especially with my Dad and
Granddad attending every home match standing in the old enclosure in the
West Stand. I didn’t go along regular until 1977 and had the great
honour of seeing us relegated! We got back up at the first attempt and
were the 7th most attended club in the whole of the Football League.
Quite an achievement in itself and showing just how fickle Spurs fans
really are: I mean you compare that to attendances at Chelsea, West Ham
etc when they have been relegated and you get what I mean! Then came the
most exciting piece of news in my lifetime to do with Tottenham Hotspur,
the 2 Argentinian midfielders who had just played in their victorious World
Cup campaign were coming to Tottenham. The football world was stunned, it
seemed an age waiting for the first game of the season up at Champions
Forest, but when it came we were rewarded with a Villa equaliser to earn a
one all draw. Spurs were back; we finished our return to the top flight in
11th position and whoever we were playing away from home, it
was their highest gate of the season. We finished 79/80 in a disappointing
14th, so Keith Burkinshaw went out and bought Archibald form
Aberdeen and Crooks from Stoke for a combined £1.5m. A huge amount in
them days and proving Spurs meant business for the coming season.
As everyone knows we
won the cup that year and played some of the best football in the country,
but we were talked about everywhere you went, in the papers for the right
reasons everyday; Archibald and Crooks’ 46 goals, Hoddle’s sublime
skills, the new space age West Stand that was being developed, appearing
on Top of the Pops and of course that huge banner at Wembley that stated
“Hold onto your knickers it’s the Year of the Cock”. So that was the
8th domestic cup final win and still unbeaten at Wembley.
Clemence and Paul Price came in 81-82 and the squad remained the same,
building on their success. The Milk Cup was Spurs’ first ever defeat in
a domestic final and first ever at Wembley, it also brought to an end a
run of 25 consecutive cup games without a loss, a new record at the time.
Still never mind they’d just have to go back and win the FA Cup again!
They duly did after being knocked out of the semis of the Cup Winners Cup
by a cynical Barcelona side. So an FA Cup triumph, runners-up in the Milk
Cup, semi-final of the ECWC and 4th in the League, not a bad
season and if we hadn’t been so back-logged with league games at the end
of the season who knows what they could have achieved. Spurs were still
London’s top team; if a quality player became available we always had
the money and would buy. Gary Stevens had a memorable FA Cup final against
Man. Utd so Spurs thought they better snap him up and did so. Although
never a real favourite at the Lane, Spurs bought him because they could.
Fourth again in the League
in '83 took us into the UEFA Cup and a Graham Roberts inspired side beat
Anderlecht on penalties. Who can possibly forget the night that Hoddle
out-classed an ageing Cruyff at WHL to help Spurs race into a 4-0 half
time lead against Feyenoord; one of the best performances I’ve seen in a
Spurs shirt. All throughout this season though was the argument between
Archibald and Burkinshaw and Burkinshaw and the board, this I feel is
where the rot set in. Irving Scholar and his board stated that the team
were only a part of the business that is THFC (plc) and expenditure was
needed elsewhere in other sectors. This had such an effect on Burkinshaw
that he left after the UEFA final. The club just let him go, this man who
had led us out of the 2nd Division, nurtured Hoddle, brought us
Ardiles and Villa, 3 major cup successes, European football every year
since 1981 and one of the most entertaining Spurs sides ever. Burkinshaw
left, Archibald left and the football team was to take second place on the
new board's agenda. Although it must be said that when top stars became
available we still paid the top money to get them; rising star Paul Allen
from West Ham and Geordie genius Waddle. David Pleat came in and built
another wonderfully entertaining side, Gough the commanding centre half
Spurs had been craving for for years, Clive Allen scoring 49 goals as a
lone striker backed up with a five man midfield choosing from Hoddle,
Waddle, Allen, Ardiles, Hodge, Galvin and Stevens. They lost the
Littlewoods semi to the lot down the road after 3 exhausting games, the FA
Cup final record went to Coventry (7 times we won the cup and no.8 we f**ked
it up) and 3rd place in the League. But as was becoming
Spurs’ style, they lost Gough to his wife, Hoddle earning a few bob with
Monaco, Roberts went during the season and of course David Pleat getting
caught with his trousers down. Scholar brought in Venables the master
tactician who had achieved success out in Spain, mostly after buying our
Archibald who was Spain’s leading scorer. 47 thousand odd packed WHL for
Tel’s first game against Liverpool, Hodge doing all he could to get out
of Tottenham by getting himself sent off and the Red Machine won 2-0.
Clive Allen left in the summer and Terry bloody Fenwick became a Spurs
player. It also signified the end of WHL as a superb venue for football.
Irving Scholar raped the Shelf and stuck two fingers up at the hardcore of
Spurs fans in preference for snobs and businessman and those horrible
disgusting executive boxes. The Shelf was always the life and soul of
going to WHL, I had my first season ticket in there (although only due to
the fact the enclosure had been knocked down) and used to love standing
there getting pushed about, but it was still without doubt the best place
for watching football anywhere in the world. When the Shelf got going it
was a cauldron of noise, being able to stand with all your mates and
taking 5 minutes to find them after a goal! The enjoyment and humour of it
all, watching Sammy Lee and then Jan Molby's tits bounce up and down! The
one thing that winds me up about Spurs fans and always will is the way we
accepted defeat losing the Shelf, 100 or so staying behind after that last
game against Luton and singing “Scholar is a w***er”. We should have
done a lot more to show our anger, a lot more. Or maybe people weren’t
as passionate about the old stand as I was (am?). Compare the early 80’s
atmosphere at WHL to being able to hear the players shout these days and
you realise what youngsters are missing out on.
If these new people in
charge of Tottenham are REAL fans then how about make a few enquiries
about bringing back a bit of standing at the Lane, just to reinstate the
old Ledge down the front would be lovely! Then came a massive summer swoop
for Paul Stewart and Paul Gascoigne, the £2m we paid for Gazza was billed
at the time as outrageous, smashing the British transfer record. This is
how THFC should be, buying the top stars and even as r-sol put it; taking
a few risks. The season started slowly, but kicked into life with Gazza
and Chris Waddle worth the admission fee alone, except you had to look at
a plywood fascia running all the way along the Shelf where scarves, flags
and banners used to hang over those white wooden slats. An abortion of an
executive box was thrown up so prospective buyers could sample the views
and marvel at Mr. Scholar’s bright vision of how football grounds should
be: Sit in your nice comfy seats getting served food and wine and laugh at
the peasants out in the cold, getting wet and pissing up each others legs
in the toilet. By all this you may think I was opposed to the West Stand
being re-built at the turn of the decade, but I wasn’t, because that was
Spurs being innovators again, the old stand was all wood and falling to
pieces and something needed doing. The difference with the Shelf side was
that it didn’t need anything doing to it and it certainly didn’t need
executive boxes where your fans called the home end.
Back to the football,
Chris Waddle was having the season of his life and scored some outstanding
goals. Most notably for me was a midweek game against Aston Villa, a first
half volley from the edge of the box into the top corner then a second
half dribble the length of the field and the ball spanked into the net
past that handsome chap Spink. Waddle’s performances along with that of
the young Gascoigne gave great promise for the future. Plus all the talk
towards the end of the season was that England’s no.1 marksman Gary
Lineker was returning from Barcelona to England and his likely destination
was N.17. Could you imagine these days Spurs signing England’s top
striker? Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler, Andy Cole whoever, but we wouldn’t
be anywhere near getting them. “How much? But couldn’t you make do
with a lad from the 3rd division Glenn or some obscure
European.” To put the biggest downer possible on the capture of Lineker
was the news that Chris Waddle the man of a thousand haircuts and even
more touches of brilliance was sold to Marseilles. NO NO NO NO NO NO! You
keep Waddle and he and Gazza supply Lineker to score the goals, logic
surely? £4.5m it was the 2nd biggest fee paid at the time I think (Gullitt
was the highest), but who cared, think of the success we could have had
with those three England internationals in the team together, surely Mr.
Venables could have seen that. That’s when I believed the putting of the
football team was truly secondary to the PLC. Letting Burkinshaw go was
bad enough, but they just wiped out a great opportunity for Spurs to
progress by letting Waddle go, this really was the start of us becoming a
selling club first and foremost. It may also have been down to the fact
that we were in debt due to the monstrosity of an East Stand being built.
See, if they hadn’t have tampered with the original we wouldn’t have
got in the shit! When you think that we ended up 3rd that year,
what extra would Waddle have given us?
90/91 started full of
optimism due to Gazza 'n' Gary's performances in the World Cup and we went
on an un-beaten run cruelly ended by Steve McMahon’s elbow. Then came
the bombshell news about the debts and the situation the board had dropped
us in. Gazza was being offered to any club showing an interest, if it
wasn’t for his hernia then he would have gone long before the semi. We
won the FA Cup, stayed afloat and thought all was rosy again. Little did
we know what was around the corner, the appointment of Shreeves was
strange to say the least and he managed to give us our worst ever home
record (I think!), only Lineker kept us up and a feeble attempt to
overcome Feyenoord resulted in exit from Europe. Gazza completed his move
to Lazio and never looked the same player. Paul Stewart was sold to
Liverpool on his missus’ say so, although I was later told an
(allegedly) different story ! It was a shame because he had changed from
being an average striker to a powerhouse midfielder and serving Tottenham
superbly. Ruddock came back and Livermore/Clemence took over, Teddy came a
few games in and along with Anderton and Barmby we were looking good. We
lost the semi and I can never forgive Teddy for not picking up the Donkey
for their goal, but I was already looking forward to the new season.
Then ego-Sugar gets
shot of Venables and its all tits up again, the club are left in the hands
of a bloke who ain’t got a clue about football. It could only go
downhill, Ossie came in to try to appease the fans, but was doomed to
failure; he had hardly set the world alight at Newcastle and West Brom had
he. The season was probably the worst of my life, escaping relegation in
the penultimate game up at Oldham, Oldham, Oldham (sorry that’s how many
times I went up to that oft postponed fixture). I watched the World Cup
and dreamed of Spurs having some of the talent on show. Then when I
least expected it on Capital Gold a mid-afternoon report said Jurgen
Klinsmann had signed for Spurs. I could not believe it, what a scoop,
Dumitrescu came as well and as an attacking unit we looked assured, but
Ruddock was never replaced and the defence consisted of, well, Gary
Mabbutt. Popescu joined after the defeat at Leicester and everyone knew
Ossie had to go, we had just escaped relegation the year before and if we
were going to do it this year with the players he had he needed shooting!
Francis came in and we were really flying and I saw some great Spurs
performances. I still believe that something went on in that dressing room
before the semi, because we were absolute shite. Anderton was about 50%
fit, but still played and we were so out of sorts it was untrue. Klinsmann
was debating whether to stay next season and despite the away end at QPR
singing, “Jurgen stay another year” for the whole of the second half,
he never did ! His reasons for going being that we were not showing the
ambition to win the title and progress. Sugar slated him and I cringed as
this curly haired buffoon coated him off on national TV; Jurgen Klinsmann
knows more about football than this oaf ever will. The floodgates opened
after Jurgen, Barmby and Popescu deciding they’d had enough and we were
back to square one. To replace these class players we brought in Armstrong
(who, to be fair, had a great year), Fox and Sinton, to go alongside the
talents of Caskey, Dozzell, Edinburgh, Kerslake, Nethercott, Cundy and
Scott. Eighth place was quite good considering the players at the Lane,
but that’s the whole point, Francis had his QPR little boys mentality
and was always looking for a cheap fix. Not what we at Tottenham expect,
or was it the chairman holding the keys to the safe loving the cheapskate
way of doing things? In the summer we were told to expect the stars
to bring us on another level, the star happened to be Allan Nielsen
who wouldn’t join until after his team were knocked out of Europe and
when he did arrive it was for the vast amount of £1.5m. So no new
signings on the park at the start of the season, this just spelt bad news
for us.
Where was the Spurs
way of being flamboyant and spending the top money for the class we
craved? A long season of utter mediocrity ensued and Teddy decided enough
was enough and he wanted out; I for one didn’t blame him, as he was
carrying around the team on his own. Remember the humiliating 6-1 defeat
at mighty Bolton? We were 2-0 down in the first half and Teddy himself
told the players to change the formation and we got on top of the game and
went in 2-1 at half time. Francis bollocked Teddy for this and made them
play his way which they did and got thumped 6-1! He went during the Le
Tounoir or whatever it was called and slagged off Spurs for lack of
ambition and saying he would never win things there. Sound familiar? We
let him go for £3.5m which Sugar said was a good price for a player of
his age and then went and spent £6m on Ferdinand who was nearly the same
age! If Les had played more than 15 games a season for us since then it
might have seemed like a good buy. Ginola though was a sound buy, skilful,
full of flair and passion; everything you want from a Spurs player.
Francis thankfully left to be with his pigeons and you just knew he would
end up back at QPR which was his level as a manager.
Gross arrived and
people wondered exactly what planet Sugar was on appointing an unheard of
Swiss bloke. This really showed that Sugar has never known anything about
football, he saw that Wenger had come over and been a success so he
thought he would get a foreign coach in. What did he do? Get a map of the
world close his eyes and put a pin down on a country and decide to get a
manager from there? “Hmm, Switzerland, got any known sides? Ah,
Grasshoppers were in the Champions League last year, we’ll get their
manager he must be good”. Gross never stood a chance, no matter how much
he banged on about Harry Hotspur and riding on the rattler to work, he
just didn’t have what it takes. A call to Jurgen Klinsmann rescued us
and it was quite apparent who was running the side when the German came
back into town. He saw the year out and gave a performance of the highest
calibre in destroying Wimbledon and ensuring another season of Premiership
football; Mr. Sugar must have been over the moon. Astonishigly the
stubborn git wouldn’t accept his mistake and give Gross the tin-tac
pre-season, he let him buy some more class acts in the summer: Tramezzani
the Italian Second Division player who once watched a game at Inter Milan
and was such a success at Spurs he appeared in all the club merchandise
catalogues!
Then in October time
came the final insult, the final two-fingered salute to everyone who has
ever held THFC close to their hearts. Sugar had got George Graham, him of
Arsenal; boring, boring, dirty, cheating Arsenal to become our manager.
The man who thought entertainment was watching a ball being kicked 50ft
into the sky, scoring all your goals from free-kicks and corners,
harassing and swearing at referees. The man who insisted all defenders had
to have 4ft long arms ready to be hoisted skywards perfectly straight and
their mouths to open as wide as possible at the same time and scream
‘Offside’ whenever the opposition attacked. Alan Sugar I hold you
personally responsible for this attack on everything Tottenham, everything
that this club has ever stood for: Attacking free-flowing football, John
Cameron, Vivian Woodward, Jimmy Dimmock, Arthur Rowe, Eddie Baily, Bill
Nicholson, Tommy Harmer the Charmer, Danny Blanchflower, Dave Mackay, John
White, Jimmy Greaves, Martin Peters, Alan Mullery, Martin Chivers, Alan
Gilzean, Steve Perryman, Glenn Hoddle, Ossie Ardiles, Gary Mabbutt, Chris
Waddle, Paul Gascoigne, Gary Lineker the list is endless. All played in a
Tottenham way, they knew what the fans liked and what they had grown to
expect from 1882 onwards. To employ the anti-Christ from Arsenal, the butt
of our jokes, the dour Scots git, was unforgivable. If we won anything
under him it would have been made in N.5 they would say, and they did when
we scored a last minute winner in the Worthington Cup in 99 in the most
forgettable Spurs final I have ever seen. Yes, even worse than the two 82
games and the two Wembley defeats, maybe it was because we have been so
starved of success that we enjoyed it so much. How low had we fallen that
the winning of the League Cup (a much de-valued competition) was treated
with such celebration by the club, I honestly expected to see the open top
bus making its way from The Angel up to the Town Hall! At least we were
back in Europe, but you just knew what to expect, I’d waited a long time
to be able to support my team in Europe again, but I knew it would be a
case of going abroad and holding out for a dire 0-0 draw. The
distinctively average Kaiserslautern humbling us on their patch in the
last few minutes, Campbell sat dejected in front of us, well you’re off
then pal, see you later. George moaned about injuries and bad luck, well
this ain’t Arsenal George; we don’t rely on luck, this is Tottenham
Hotspur, we ain’t no Town, United, City, Rovers or Wanderers, we’re
different.
The captain of our
club refused to sign a contract unless the club showed some ambition and
bought some quality for the new season, so Rebrov came and well ... err
... that was it. Apart from another attack on the Tottenham principles
with the selling of Ginola and the denouncement that there has never been
a Tottenham way and that Spurs have never enjoyed success. You arrogant
Arsenal spoiler; piss off. And you as well Sugar for employing this prick
and the countless others forced upon us. Poor old Mr. Sugar decided
halfway through last year that the abuse was enough and that he was open
to offers for the club, the club he should have left after his public
statement that if we didn’t win the title within three years he would
go. Well he more than out stayed his welcome in my eyes.
ENIC or Buchler, or
whoever they are, have come in and taken over, but such is my suspicious
mind that has developed over the last 10 years I will reserve judgement.
Their first move was bold and brave (Audere-Est-Facere) in the way they
got shot of the Gooner only time will tell if they are the people to lift
Spurs out of the doldrums. If they are the fans they claim to be, they
will do all they can to make us great again. I don’t expect anything
from this club, but I have given up so much for it down the years; lost
girlfriends even a fiancée, missed family events to watch Spurs.
Basically because it's inside of me, that Blue and White blood. You may
lose your wife or girlfriend to another man, but after the pain has gone
you can always go and get another one! You can’t support another
football team. I wonder if my family are to blame for introducing me to
THFC at a young impressionable age? But I wouldn’t change it for
anything, all I want is to feel proud of MY team and see them at
the heights they have attained before. Maybe I should think like a fan of
Southampton, Derby, Leicester, West Ham or Charlton and be happy that we
are in the top flight with the big boys. But my instincts and what I have
seen tell me otherwise and that is why I am so pissed off at the decline
of this club.
Still never mind, in
10 years time I’m sure I’ll be standing on the New Shelf in a 65,000
capacity WHL cheering on a team playing in an all white strip against the
top sides in Europe: AND BEATING THEM!
COME ON YOU
SPURS
All that and not even
mentioning the Arsenal no.23! Ha
NEIL OF
THFC |
