Here’s a treat for all you lot: the excellent Vertigo by author John Crace was recently released into the literary world and this blog is here to tell you that it’s an absolute must-read if you’re of a Spurs persuasion (which, seeing as you’re on this website, is quite likely).

From the point of view of a long-suffering Spurs fan, the book tells the tale of Spurs in 2010/11 – the European highs, the domestic lows, Harry, Gareth, Rafa, Luka, all of it. It’s a fascinating and in-depth look into the ‘fear of success’ that came with last season and Crace writes expertly on how Tottenham’s on-pitch fortunes affected his personal life and vice-versa.

For anyone who’s ever looked up to the heavens and felt like a Spurs defeat was destined to be the natural order of things, this should be an essential component of your Christmas list. What’s more, John has very kindly taken the time to write a guest blog for us, providing his thoughts on the recently departed Peter Crouch and the arrival of Emmanuel Adebayor. If you enjoy this, you’re going to love the book. Take it away, John:

I felt oddly relaxed watching Spurs at Molineux last Saturday. It wasn’t that the standard of football was so high – the five minute package at the tail end of Match of the Day was more than the game deserved; it was the thought that if by any chance we did manage to create an opportunity, we had a striker in Emmanuel Adebayor who was more than likely to take it. And so it proved.

Imagine a parallel world in which Crouchy hadn’t been sold to Stoke and it was he who found himself one on one with the keeper. We all know what would have happened. He’d have tripped over his legs, lost control of the ball and stabbed it feebly wide. We know, because we’ve all seen him do it countless times over the past few seasons. It’s painful to say, but it’s true.

I want to love Crouchy for scoring the goal against Manchester city at Eastlands that took us into the Champions League and the one – I can overlook the fact he scuffed it – that beat AC Milan in the San Siro to take us to the Champions League quarter-final. And I sort of do; at least I’ve got photographs of both goals up on my landing wall at home. But the feeling I most associate with Crouchy is pain. How could I not? Time after time last season I almost cried with despair when I got the text saying he was in the starting XI because I just knew we were going to struggle to score. Crouchy is that uniquely English creation: the £12m international striker who can’t score.

And it’s not just me that thinks like this. Everyone who sits near me in the East Stand Lower felt exactly the same way. We’d see him come out on to the pitch and say, ‘Why?’ Well, everyone except Justin who remained blindly loyal to Crouch until the end of March. Then even he had had enough. None of us could understand why Harry kept on picking him. We could only imagine Crouchy must know some of the guvnor’s guilty secrets…

And that’s what I really remember about last season. Call me a typical Spurs miserabilist, but look beyond our great Champions League adventure and what you are left with are opportunities missed. We drew far too many games we should have won comfortably and lost too many we should have drawn. Those lost points cost us a return to the Champions League. And the reason we dropped those points was quite simple: for much of the season our strikers couldn’t buy a goal. With Crouchy by far the worst culprit.

So that’s why I’m feeling bizarrely chilled at the moment, despite the fact we’ve only got three points from three games and have been thumped by both Manchester teams. It’s because at last we have a striker who knows where the goal is. Adebayor may be a handful, his attitude may sometimes stink but give him a sniff of goal and he will take it. And that kind of confidence rubs off on the others: Defoe looked a lot brighter playing alongside Adebayor than he did partnering Crouchy. I’m even daring to believe we might beat Liverpool and the Arse again…

Between those games, of course, there is a trip to the Britannia to play Stoke in the Carling Cup. And it will be sod’s law if Crouchy scores. But you know what? I’d take that in return for not worrying where his next goal was coming from.

Vertigo is published by Constable & Robinson and is available now. You can purchase the book on Amazon here. Do the right thing and get yourself a copy – no book will better encapsulate the exaggerated highs and lows that come with being a Spurs fan.

Thanks John.