Two-one, but we made a hard job of it.
All preparations made, the team selected and we were ready for this nail-biting match. A must win match. It shouldn’t have been like that. When we faced Inter Milan away, we were a much better team, in my opinion, and only in the last 10 minutes we allowed them to walk away with the spoils. Our next match was against PSV Eindhoven, another away game, and this time we were even more notable, but drew. Even the PSV fans thought we should have had victory.
Basically, we thought it was all over. Then the PSV match came and they went 1-0 up. It couldn’t get any worse. If that score had stayed the same, then you could have kissed Champions league football goodbye. I even thought that if we were knocked out of the competition, it might have done us some favours and we could concentrate on the domestic competitions. But we pulled back from the brink with Kane equalising and then with a minute left scoring the winner. Then we hear the news that Inter Milan had drawn with Barcelona (it would have been better if Barcelona had won, but you can’t have everything).
So, a win is a must when we face Inter at Wembley at the end of the month. I think one thing is certain, if we should lose against Inter and then Barcelona we still could finish third and Micky Mouse will come on his golden chariot in the guise of Europa league Thursday football. If that does happen – and I don’t want to jump the gun here – we should go for it. It is not that we’ve won an abundance of trophies in the last couple of years… in fact, we’ve won bugger all (we have to go back to the dark dawn of civilisation to get a glimpse of our last ‘great’ trophy capture).
I must say; this season has been an odd one. We are in fourth place in the league, but one wouldn’t have thought so by the way we’ve been playing. In the league cup we managed to get through by beating Watford and the Hammers (both times sending out weaker teams) to progress to the quarter-finals, and now we are still in the Champions League by the skin of our teeth.
Luck is an essential ingredient in any life’s targets. In the past, we seem to have been short-changed where luck is concerned. This season we seem to have had the rub of the green. We didn’t invigorate our team with new signings and those we’ve got look fatigued. But we’ve stumbled on to be in the position we are currently at. I don’t think there is any doubt that we will need fresh blood in January (no transfers purchases would be suicidal and could see us go down that greasy poll/ league to a point were the players, manager questions the point of staying at Spurs. We are where we are because Bill Nicholson is smiling down at us… god knows why, if you think what he had created and the trophies he had won while he was, not only managing Spurs, but also playing for them).
I am lucky to be in a position where I can observe the team, manager and coaches up close. You could see the relief on their faces when the whistle went. Now Pochettino is talking the players up and saying that we can get to the next round. Yes we can… but then big decisions will have to be made.
On top of all that we are still dogged by the stadium fiasco. From what I can gather it is hoped that the United game could be our first home match at the new stadium. But where will that leave the FA Cup? The FA don’t like or won’t accept different ‘home’ venues for their competition.
While I am at it, I want to have a rant at the attendance. This match attracted 46,588 punters. There are 42,000 odd season ticket holders and 8,000 Executive members. That is a total of 50,000. On top of that there many thousand One Hotspur members and then there are those that haven’t got any sort of membership but still come. Let us say 62,000 (which is the calculation for the new stadium). It is a disgrace that not all season ticket and Executive holders want to go to this game (or others they couldn’t be bothered to go to). Loyalty is about supporting your team through thick and thin, no matter the quality of your opponents or what stadium they call home or play at. Football now seems to be a convenience store for those that wish to pop in for a carton of milk or something. Is it really surprising that clubs are looking outside their ‘fan base’ for support and wish to attract richer and foreign investors? Sadly that is the way Premier football is going. So when there is the talk of Superleagues and World football, then you know why. Then those fans who didn’t turn up for the PSV game will be moaning that they’ve been overlooked.
Rant over.
Don Scully
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