There Used To Be A Football Club Here
‘GEORGE Best is still alive as this is being written. With luck he will be on the road to recovery when this is being read. Already the news programmes are running mini-obituaries; everybody seems to fear the worst.
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| ”It’ll all be different this year…” |
We shall hold our fire until the time comes, and with a bit of luck, that won’t be for some considerable while. Instead we’ll turn our attention to another case of long-term decay: the slow but inexorable demise of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.
Tim Sherwood has been fined £30,000 for making critical remarks about the club’s transfer policy. The traditional transfer policy at Spurs is to sell its stars and spend the summer dropping heavy hints that the club is about to sign X, Y and Z – none of whom ever arrive.
Although Spurs fans should know better – and do in their heart of hearts – they still buy their season tickets, full of hope, if not expectation, of better things.
The club motto should be changed to ”Jam tomorrow”, or ”Light at the end of the tunnel”, or ”Every morning brings a new day”. Because Tottenham’s glory is always about the past or the future, never the present.
Even the transfer talk isn’t particularly optimistic. A Chinese international is lined up, but there’s precious little else to cheer about.
The rebellious Sherwood described the club as ”a million miles away from the championship”. Would that this were true! The unpleasant truth is that the Premiership trophy – and the FA Cup – are currently residing just a few miles down the road at Highbury.
And while the Arsenal players are preparing to compete with the cream of Europe, their Tottenham counterparts are polishing their Worthington Cup runners-up medals and thinking about what might have been.
Spurs are now to Arsenal what Everton are to Liverpool and Manchester City are to United. Except that Tottenham’s glory days are even further back in history.
It’s now more than 40 years since Spurs won the league championship. Even their cup reputation is fading fast: their last FA Cup win was in 1991, since when Arsenal have won it three times without even getting particularly excited about it.
Sol Campbell’s transfer said more about Tottenham’s problem than Tim Sherwood ever could. But that doesn’t mean Sherwood isn’t right. His folly is to imagine that things could possibly be any other way.
Spurs are not a great club; they are a formerly great club. The sooner the supporters come to terms with it, the better for their long-term mental health.
”There used to be a football club here,” said Keith Burkinshaw when he left as Spurs manager 20-odd years ago. How prescient he was! ‘
Posted: 31st, July 2002 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
