This Spurs fan will be silently routing for Arsenal today

Controversial maybe, but I actually think my loyalties for one day should reside with the Nomads from South London tomorrow. Whilst I usually like nothing better than London’s joint third most successful side in Europe (alongside the Pikey’s from Green Street) losing ,this time I would actually share our country bumpkin neighbours’ joy if they beat Liverpool, much like last year when Citeh went to visit the home of the great unwashed towards the tail end of the season I was hoping the Woolwich would do them over. Needless to say it was a 0-0, a result celebrated by our bitter and twisted neighbours as it essentially gave Citeh a valuable point in their race against us last season. Speaking of  Bitters unhealthy obsession with all things Spurs, its seems even its rubbed off on their JCL Keyboard “fans” with champion of the keyboard brigade Desi Gunner at it again. *Sigh*. The question is Desi, will we see you at White Hart Lane on Wednesday night. Sadly I doubt it as he’ll probably be attached to his keyboard.

Why do I actually want a Woolwich win tomorrow? Well if truth be told I’m slightly worried by Liverpool, they have had a resurgence of sorts lately with the one that got away in Suarez looking most impressive. Although I do think it’s slightly overhyped, their away form has been shocking under Dalgleish but you can’t argue with impressive victories over Chelsea (London’s fourth best supported football club), Yoonited and Citeh ( a result which did us no harm at all). As the season approaches “squeaky bum” time as old Whiskey face so famously put it, we still have tough away trips to the Eastlands, the Bridge and Anfield. What we don’t need is on May 16th Liverpool still having something to fight for, call me a pessimistic Spurs fan (and you’d be right) but I’d like to face a Liverpool team all set for their summer holidays.  So if the Woolwich can effectively end their season tomorrow I’d be more than happy, and lets face it those worried about their title chances should not fret, there is little chance that this feeble excuse of a football club will overhaul United and end up as Champions…and even so as long as we move forward should we even care?

I feel finishing in the top four is imperative for us as a club, we need to keep the momentum going. I’ve now been as a Spurs fan to both Madrid and Milan, and even though we were beaten in both games there is no doubt that Tottenham Hotspur Football Club belong at football’s top table. We are a club built for the biggest stage, that is what epitomizes our club. As dear old Bill Nick said “”It’s magnificent to be in Europe, and this club – a club like Tottenham Hotspur – if we’re not in Europe…. we’re nothing. we’re nothing.”  And the Champions League has left me and every other Spurs fan around the globe hungry for more.  Unfortunately UEFA have so devalued the UEFA Cup, a trophy now so derided, that it carries little kudos or scope for progression for a club. Although old-fashioned romantic that I am, I’d take any European aways next season and I don’t subscribe to the theory that the Europa League is a distraction. Leave that to the JCLs in their replica shirts sitting in their armchairs around the world. For any real fan European away trips are something to be savoured.   Our run in is tough make no bones about it, at this moment in time every team we play against has something to play for be it at the top or the bottom of the table and let’s be honest its Spurs, we do things the hard ways. That winless sequence of games against Blackpool, Wolves, Canning Town Bingo & Social and Wolves has hit us hard. Indeed if we’d beaten Blackpool we’d have gone 3rd, that bizarre defeat looks even more damning now, with it being their only league win in about 166743 games or something and being beaten by Wigan today.

Not quite sure how to take Citeh’s win in the Cup. If truth be told I’d have liked United to have won that, I’ve always disliked Citeh after some rather unsavoury visits to the old Maine Road, one particular cup game in 1993 when Nayim scored a hat trick was particuarly nasty afterwards and given I was just a wee lad at the time, quite a scary experience. Last years superb victory at the Eastlands, was accompanied by an uncomfortable walk back to Central Manchester afterwards and since their lottery win their fans (or at least the ones on a couple of Message Boards and on TV, I don’tactually personally know any Citeh fans) seem to have become particularly obnoxious.  However my main concern is how it will affect them in the run in, I didn’t see the match but judging by the reports after an uninspiring thirty minutes they ran out deserved winners, however they looked quite abject against Liverpool on Monday. We are three points behind of course with a game in hand and I’d like to think that Citeh’s cup exertions could distract them for the run in, more likely however is that they will get a fillip and push on, making our game at the Eastlands in May crucial. I think Chelsea have wrapped their place in the top four up, and my fear is if that the sky blue half do make it to the Champions’ League it will make the top four a closed shop yet again with their owners’ billions now able to buy an even higher calibre of player.   However I believe we can do it…and I’d like to think that our Chairman doesn’t cave in during the close season to the endless speculation around the likes of Bale, Modric and possibly even Lennon.

In other news over a quiet Spurs related weekend, it seems we are looking for a judicial review into Newham’s loan to the Pikeys over the stadium. I have to nail my colours firmly to the mast here and say as a native North Londoner and one who grew up round the corner from the Lane , I could never have been comfortable with Tottenham not being in Tottenham. I’m a firm believer in a club being part of its local community, in these days of globalised football its more important than ever to hang onto those roots. However I also understood the needs of the club to push on and establish ourselves amongst the elite and sadly we have outgrown the Lane and if the Stratford proposal had proved successful I wouldn’t have abandoned the club, although I fear the bond between myself and Spurs would have been tarnished. I hope and also suspect that Levy is forcing the issue to garner support for our own stadium plans within Tottenham, whether that be the sadly forgotten Northumberland Park Project or the ever-increasing grapevine rumours of a move to Tottenham Hale, which of course with the station provides the transport links (including a fifteen minute train journey to Liverpool Street and the City Corporates that the club so craves). A new stadium is imperative now and I trust our chairman is using this judicial review as a bargaining stick. Although the fact that Newham refused to release any information is quite amazing. And lets not forget Leyton Orient, London’s oldest club (and my own second team) whose catchment area a big premiership Club, whether that had been us or West Ham, are riding roughshod over.

Also, Davied Baddiel has released a short video called the “Y Word”. I must confess I haven’t actually seen the video so I can’t comment on its content. But Spurs fans as a community embrace the use of the word “Yid” as a badge of honour. It shares no religious connotations at all, and in my view is a view of turning a negative ( the taunting by mainly West Ham and Chelsea fans ) into a positive. I appreciate that outside of Spurs fans, those  who use the word will more than likely be using it as an anti-Semitic insult but the calls for zero tolerance against Spurs fans strikes me as punishing those sinned against rather than the sinners.  Nevertheless I look forward to visiting the Bridge on the 30th and seeing the video for myself.