History

What a past few seasons we have had, from early 21 century mid-table wonderers... into a team fighting for honors at the right end of the premiership, if AVB can keep this squad together then our first title since 1961 will be a lot nearer than under previous bosses!

Last nights win over Lyon showed character, and although we left it till the last kick of the game to take a 2-1 advantage over to France, the fact is we are in poll position to push on to the next round, where we could end up facing Inter, the first time since Gareth Bale destroyed them in the CL Group stage a few seasons back! There are still some top-drawer teams in the Europa league, but on our day we can beat anybody! so could we dare dream of our first European trophy since 84?

The Glory days have taken a lot longer to return to The Lane than most would of liked, but we are on the cusp of achieving greatness, and for once i feel we will push on and stop being the underachievers, the oh-so nearly men!

Looking back through our history we have always had great individuals, from Greaves to Sheringham, Ginola to King, these individuals have brought us moments of pure magic, but for what ever reason we never hit them heights that we should of been hitting, Sir Bill sent the bench mark in 61, and ever since then we have never been able to regain that magic!

"It's better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low"

Our last major trophy came in 2008, which may only seem a few years ago but in them 5 years we have become stronger, added better players to our ranks and have almost got rid of that monkey off our backs when it comes to beating the big spending elite in their own back yards... The only ground we haven't won at since the premiership started is Stamford bridge... how AVB would love to put that right!

So as we head deeper into 2013 are we about to enter another period of them Glory days? COYS

Is Levy the problem

Daniel Levy, some fans love him some fans hate him, but lets look into the facts over the last 24 months.

Flash back to when we had just beaten Arsenal at the Emirates. We we're going well in the Champions League, Bale and VDV we're pulling the strings and things we're looking good. A few weeks later the transfer window opened. Yet we didn't take advantage of it, had we signed for example a Scotty Parker or an Aguero, the latter not as far fetched as you may have thought! We more than likely would of made decent progress from the season before. Instead we carried on with what we had and we ended up finishing 5th and got to the quarter finals of the Champions league, which in fairness wasn't too bad of a season, compared to recent times.

That summer there was alot of unrest, 'Arry and Levy's relationship started to breakdown over the Modric situation, add to that the sales of target man Crouch, *who played a big part in getting us to the CL! 'Captain Keane' and our number one right back at the time in Hutton and you could see that it was going to be a long season. The arrival of Parker and Ade lifted the fans and we went on up to the new year with a shout of winning the title! That January again we we're all hoping to kick on from our strong position. We were all hoping for a Kaka, or a Tevez but what happened, 'Arry wasn't backed and we sold our no 3 striker in Pav, and replaced him with a free signing in Saha, add to the mix an aging centre back to cover the injured Dawson and that combined with off the field issues ment we missed out on the champions league by one point!

The summer saw 'Arry getting the chop, with the unconvincing AVB given the job at the Lane, throw in former Cult hero Steffen Freund as part of the back room staff *Can just imaging out of all the people AVB wanted as his no two.... Freund was his first choice! Now AVB has seen 2 of his big game players sold during the summer, and it was totally out of his hands, he can't be blamed for taking a job where the Chairman doesn't really want to spend the dosh if he can help it. So is it a case of AVB being sold a dud, or has Levy got it wrong with sacking the man that gave us wins against the might of the premiership and the giants of Europe?

Now we're heading into the final few weeks of 2012 and we are now looking more like a mid-table Spurs team from the mid 90's than a Champions league team of 2010!

Early doors.......

Never to go about things the easy way we @ Spurs have had to deal with another upheaval this Summer.

Harry's departure had happened and fans had had plenty of time for it to sink in, whether AVB was wanted or not by most fans was irrelevant he was installed and after all we support the team and don't necessary have to agree with appointments made by the club.

So we expected a few comings and goings in the transfer window at least, the Modric saga had reared it's ugly rat faced head again and would surely be done with enough time to spend some of that filthy lucre on a replacement............right?

A couple of fans favourites had also been touted for the off, Huddlestone on his way back from injury looked to be on his way to Stoke on loan (which made sense to me) and Micheal Dawson had been in talks with QPR after AVB now said he wasn't part of his plans (which didn't), Dawson was club captain with the imminent retirement of Ledders and played with an enthusiasm unmatched by no one else in the side, but in the cold light of day was he good enough to help Spurs go to the next level?

Of course this is Spurs so and it rumbled on and still wasn't resolved by the time our away game @ The Toon took place.
This game for me was witnessed via ESPN and we looked pretty solid I thought, maybe a lack of creativity, but the line up and formation worked away from home, we could be disappointed not to come away with a point. If there were any more cause for concern it would have been no Dawson at all not even the bench and VDV not starting or new signing Vertognhan

Obviously things would be different back @ The Lane......

West Bromwich Albion - 25th August

A proper Spurs fan will always approach a new season with caution, even when things are going well it's better to expect the worst, after all it's happened so many times in the past. And so the rumblings and murmurs around the pub beer garden were of the norm I guess on the verge of a new season @ WHL.
But this was only West Brom, a nice easy start, we should get a few today! Yeah they thrashed Liverpool the week before but that was fluke...........or so we hoped.
So as AVB, Ade, Siggurdson and Vertognhan were paraded on the pitch before the start, there was an apprehensive optimism.
As the game went on, we looked disjointed, not flowing as we had done before, five in the middle meant we were in danger of having to pay a congestion charge in midfield! We had chances, maybe not clear cut but we were on top, but when Benny's goal went in it was more of a relief than celebration.
We all know how it ended, one of AVB's old guard came back to haunt him (maybe we should have tried cheeky bid for Lukaku?). We've had games like this before, we are Spurs after all and not much changes. Should we panic? Blame the manager, the players or the Chairman. This was one game @ home, it's still early doors........

Norwich - 1st September

Okay, so we'd decided not to panic, but we did have a damn good moan on messageboards and social networks up and down the internet.
Everyone's an armchair manager, whether that chair is inside the ground or @ home in front of the box, we all know what needs doing and we're not afraid to share our wealth of footballing knowledge gleaned from Championship Manager whether you want to listen or not!
Like every loyal masochistic fan, we take the punishment week in, week out and come back begging for more, so another trip to The Lane was on the cards.
But there were added murmurs over a pre game Carlsberg this time round though, Luka had finally gone and we'd managed to squeeze blood out of the proverbial stone that is our Chairman and actually buy a few more players! Ok, maybe not all the players we originally set out to buy but still, it was a start.
So there I was, sat in front of some bloke who insisted on coaching the team throughout the game from his seat in the North Upper as it all unfolded again.
Friedal kept us in it early on and with the threat of an incoming Lloris looked to be staking his claim to keep up his consecutive appearance record. But still we played five in midfield! Yes it worked under David Pleat but we had arguably the most creative midfield in the league @ that time, why were we playing two defensive midfielders..........at home!
Bale was our main outlet but elsewhere we weren't exploiting the width of the pitch with neither full back getting forward much. Livermore who I thought played a nice simple game last time out had suddenly turned into Vinny Sideways!
It came down to one of our new boys to get us ahead, Dembele livened things up and with his first attack put Spurs one up. Now the floodgates could open...........but of course they didn't and again the game ended in frustration and an equaliser. Two games @ home two draws, maybe not the start we'd hoped for.

Maybe Reading away will give us that first win we crave?



AVB it's easy as one, two, three

So we've all been brought down to earth after the start we have made to the season, but have we got a cause for concern? Or are we just after instant success, like the coffee we get served at the local Starbucks? Let's go back to last season, City stuck five past us at the Lane, Luka wasn't sure if he wanted to stay or go and Parker was going to be the new Dave Mackay.

After an unbelievable mid season we then decided to go on our summer holidays a few months too early, resulting in the premierships most unlucky team in its history to miss out on the Champions league due to a rule that should never of been written in the first place! And it to make matters worse It was Chelsea that took our place!

So during the summer cult hero 'Arry had been sacked and AVB had walked through the newly fixed revolving door of White Hart Lane. Out that door went a fair few of 'Arrys favourites including VDV and so nearly Dawson.

Rewind a few weeks and off we went to Newcastle, a game where we wanted 3 points but would of settled for 1.... We ended up with none!

Not to worry the White Hart Lane faithful chanted we've got WBA and Norwich at the Lane that's 6 points in the bag...... Ok we didn't lose to them but 2 points from them 2 games hasn't really gone down well, with even the most pesimistic of fans couldn't of predicted this start!

The signings of Dembele and Clint are a master stroke, although was it down to the board or did AVB have his say? One things for sure Lloris ain't too pleased with his new manager! With no one really sure what is going on at the Lane at the moment are we in for a transitional season? Or is it a case of the summer time blues?

So with our next game against Reading a must win can the players rally round AVB and kick start this slow horse into motion?

Through the Spurs window.......

So with our new boss confirmed and some signings begining to come in it's an ideal time to look forward to next season. Here we present our hopes for The Mighty Spurs under AVB......

With so many 'squad' players unable to gain any playing time under 'Arry, theres a good chance that they've forgotten how to tie there boot laces let alone kick a size 5 football! It would be good to see the likes of Bentley, Gio, Rose and Kane given a chance. After all we learnt last season that squad rotation is important

How about attempting to win the Europa League*? We started on a vicious circle of not wanting to be in the thing so not really bothering only to qualify for it again! What about setting out to win the thing? Get another trophy on the honours list and give our players the chance to actually feel like champions........it's a start in the right direction.

*or any trophy for that matter

It would be nice to hit the ground running for a change! We always seem to start the season terrible and end up having to play catch up! Just think if we had took just a point from our opening two games we would of ended up 3rd!

Consistancy - from our players and manager. Ok so we all have off days but how many times have we struggled in games that on paper we should have dominated and won.........Norwich, Swansea, Wolves anyone?? Some straight talking from the boss would also be nice, let's hope AVB doesn't attempt mind games with all the others and just get's on with the job in hand.

A 30 goal a season striker, AVB why not go for a cheeky bid for RVP? Defoe hasn't been up to scratch for a long time now! with Ade expected to sign and VDV expecting to move on, nows the time to get a top notch striker in.

Plan B, or even C or D. If things aren't working on the pitch.......change 'em! Having said that, let other teams worry about us, let's not pander to them and while we're at it let's not roll over @ home to Man U like we do every season!


Let's not change our support though eh? The best in the country, get behind the team @ WHL or on the road we out sing them all!