A new look Spurs?
It’s Sunday morning and it’s been far too long since The Bagel’s shaken his crumbs over the news of the week, day, hour, time it takes for another story to appear about Levy cashing in his Tottenham chips. Will he, wont he, wont he will, who really cares? The fact of the matter is that there’s sod all we can do about it and to stamp our feet before it’s happened would make us as stupid as those United fans, who still haven’t made it back to Old Trafford, stuck in their houses still with all that humble pie between themselves and the door.
We’re not certain who’d be buying, although Tottenham Executive Director, Paul Kemsley would appear to be the man but it’s likely that whoever may or may not turn up would bring quite a few barrow loads of cash with them. Of course all of this may be a ploy by those at the Daily Mail to bump up the prices of the Spurs shares in their fat little portfolios.
Combine this with the decision to be made within the year on our stadium hopes and dreams and we could be looking at a very different club come next season. With the three options looking like:
a) The Olympic Stadium and its atmos slaughtering running track
b) Spurs really being on their way to Wembley and it’s 80,000 seats that we may have trouble filling when the likes of Southend, Port Vale and Bolton come to visit
c) Stick with the Lane and build on what we’ve got
it’s fairly obvious what we should do. Yes, WHL is no easy reach but even the well connected stadia are a pain in the arse to get to. There maybe tubes closer by at such places but you just end up caught in the herd for the same time it takes to get out of N17 anyway. At least where we are there’s three or four different stations to dilute the body traffic.
Besides, it’s the history isn’t it? Call me a sentimental old ball of baked dough but it’s, well, it’s home isn’t it and I’d hate to be in one of those identikit grounds. The old girl’s got character. She could just do with a face lift.
Even if we are to pick up sticks one day, we may as well wait until the property boom has crept all the way up from Stoke Newington and hit the High Road proper. You never know, you could be living in a penthouse on the Shelfside in many years to come. What a view when you opened the curtains in the morning. They could leave the Jumbotrons playing classic after classic to view as you sit on a park bench in front of the Paxton munching on bagel from the wagon still there too. Statues of Blanchflower, Mackay, the greats as in their shadows a new Glenn Hoddle is born. Idyllic.
As for the current crop and a few would-be’s, well, a week wouldn’t be a week with out a rumour or two and some ludicrous comments by a player we already own and this week that’s Mido, whose quotes shift effortlessly between the sublime and the ridiculous:
“If I played more games this season, I would have scored more goals. Martin knows if I get the rhythm of games I will score in every game.”
Well yes, more games more goals but every game, not a chance mate.
“I have a very good relationship with the supporters”
Really? Not where I sit, unless he means that one where everyone shouts at him for being fat and lazy.
And then a very refreshing piece of transfer dealing honesty on a meeting between the Big Gypo and MJ:
“I saw from the way he spoke to me that he really wanted me to stay, I felt that I had a lot of things to do here. Martin said ‘at least you have to stay to the end of the season’. In two weeks I may be playing in every game.
“If I have a good finish and do well at the end of the season I will have a meeting with Martin and if he is happy, I am happy and the club are happy then I will stay, of course. I would prefer to stay at Tottenham.”
And then a delusion of grandeur:
“If I left Spurs and went to somewhere like Manchester United, they have four strikers.”
…and he’d be none of them.
He can definitely come up with the goods and perhaps a day like today would be a good one for both big men to start up front. The Yiddo’s suspended and we could do with a with a little physical presence all over the field. What the hell MJ, roll those dice today.
We all know our head honcho needs that win or draw to get the press and public off his back and to save our blushes down various pubs but it’s good to see he’s got his fans:
“It’s a difficult thing in football today, but the expectations are very high after last season when they just missed out on fourth place. But when you lose two or three games on the trot, people start to talk.
“I don’t see any reason why there should be pressure at the moment. But there’s always expectation around Spurs because they are a big club.”
So says Alan Mullery and it’s even nice to see the big man himself being fairly relaxed on the subject:
“I have no fear about getting sacked.”
“To be honest I would love to be here in a few years time and do a Ferguson or a Wenger.
“I feel we are capable of doing that. We have got good young players and experienced players.
“We are not as good as I would like yet, not like arsenal or Liverpool. But I feel it is only a matter of two or three players.
“Last year we changed six or seven players. Then we did the same this year. I feel we are close. It is only a few little pieces.”
And that’s all it takes for me because fundamentally, I trust the man, whatever happens this year bar relegation, I trust the man.
He did go on to say something else rather interesting though:
“We have Adel Taarabt coming from France. He is amazing on the ball, like Zinedine Zidane. In a couple of years he could be one of the best players in the league.”
I understand the kid may be far from the finished product but if he really is that good then surely he should have at least made the bench by now? We’ve only got him on loan with no obviuos guarantee that he’ll sign for us. It’d be criminal if we never saw this new Zidane were he goes back to Lens and away from our ranks for good.
Anyways, enough for now. I’ve a match to get to and so do you. Feeling rather hoarse after a night of my falsetto murderings of the likes of Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ and other such soft rock ballads over that dangerous invention that is Sing Star but I’m sure I’ve enough left in me for to scare the life out of that quiet Putney crowd.
Best of luck today one and all. Lucky pants on standby.
Pure soft bagels.
The Bagel.