| After starting my last editorial
with the words of Old Blue Eyes' most famous song, I was
sad to hear that while Tottenham Hotspur had survived,
Frank had gone on to a better place. It seems that all the worry and fuss about
Tottenham getting relegated was so much hot air. Or was
it ?? Somebody said to me that Tottenham wouldn't go down
because there were three worse teams in the Premier
League. Not much of a basis to be optimistic on is it.
Truthfully speaking, there were times this season when
Tottenham looked so poor relegation was the best that
they could have hoped for. However, the final run-in saw
the best string of form for a number of months and the
gathering of enough points to retain our Premiership
status. But what of the future ?? What better prospects
are there for 1998/99 ?? Will it be yet another in the
continuing series of "transitional seasons" at
White Hart Lane ?? Will there be a Lazarus style rising
from the grave and a resurgence of the old white and blue
?? What are the attractions of luring new players to the
club ?? No European place and no real hopes for
challenging strongly for any of the domestic trophies.
That means that the only realistic way of attracting top
players to Tottenham is to pay them loads of money. That
probably explains why season ticket prices have increased
by 12% with one less cup tie voucher into the bargain.
The club, indeed, quote the rising wage bill, along with
the cost of turning White Hart Lane into one of the most
modern stadia in the country, but it has been said about
Tottenham and about many clubs before, that what is the
good of having a top quality ground when there isn't a
team playing in it to match ?? Prices are obviously going
to go up. I don't think that anyone would naive enough to
expect them to fall, but my season ticket has risen by
£83 for this coming season, which is a jump of about 21%
on the current one (albeit taking off the last seasons
unredeemed Cup vouchers, but then it's not my fault the
club didn't progress far enough for all of them to be
used). The day will come when football is no longer the
money machine that it is at the moment and by then all
the die-hards will have been lost to the game; priced out
by get a make hay while the sun shines mentality. In
MEHSTG we have said many times before, that the future
fans are the children, but while the club say they want
to attract more families to the ground, the pricing
mechanism prohibits a family attending unless they want
to shell out something in the region of £100. The days
when I used to be at the back of the Road stand at
midday, waiting for the gates to be opened and to get in
for 12.5 pence are a long distant memory and I can't
really see kids these days being that interested in doing
the same for £20. It's a shame that there will be a
restricted flow of new fans who can grow up with the
club, but then while there are corporate hospitality
packages (see the World Cup for further examples) who
needs the rank and file.
There are many arguments raging
about whether things were going well at the end of this
season because of Gross or whether it was the players who
rallied around to pull Spurs out of the relegation
whirlpool. Credit has to go to Gross for sticking by
Klinsmann when pressure to drop him was being put on. He
seemed to handle the run-in quite well, no doubt aided by
the fact that many of the players who had been missing
were returning to fitness. But then the fur flew when he
had to leave players out. Never an easy job being a
manager is it ?? But having inherited a poor team, with
many injuries, he did a pretty good job and deserves a
crack at it with the team he wants. The performance at
Wimbledon, albeit for most of the second half against ten
men, was one to remember. The passing and movement were a
joy to behold and you start to think that if only we had
played like that for a bit more of the season.... The
improvement in the side's home form has been encouraging,
whilst a few more victories would give us a decent
platform to build on.
Anyway, with the summer upon us and
the World Cup to look forward to (especially playing the
four-yearly "Spot which player Spurs are going to
sign"), it looks like a relaxing time to take stock
and gird our (three) loins before August. We'll be
running new pages through the summer, so look out for our
World Cup reports and of course, anything new that's
happening at Tottenham.
Until then,
MY EYES
HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE CUPS AT WHITE HART LANE
MY EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE CUPS AT WHITE HART
LANE
MY EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE CUPS AT WHITE HART
LANE
AND THE SPURS GO MARCHING ON.
BRUCE CASTLE
|
