I've Been To Todays ENIC Out Demo

So as I promised myself, earlier today I made the trip down to White Hart Lane (sorry, The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, as yet still no sponsor) to attend the ENIC Out protest demonstration.

I got there shortly after the advertised starting time due to the traffic on the A10, no surprise there. The first notable thing was that there were stewards placed at the foot of all the stair cases that lead up to the level where the turnstiles are.

I'm assuming this is because the club were fearful of an Old Trafford style pitch invasion. Each stairway seemed to have three stewards 'guarding' the bottom of it.

Now what they expect these people to do if two to three hundred men have decided they're going to storm the ground is anyone's guess. On that matter the Police presence was very low key. During the whole time I was there I only counted four officers. 

Like Father Dougal from the Channel 4 comedy series 'Father Ted', I'm not very good as estimating crowd sizes but I'd say at that point there were maybe three to four hundred people there.

I saw a few faces that I recognised from the old days when I travelled all over the country following Spurs. Like me, many of the attendees were middle aged guys who are unlucky to be old enough to remember when Spurs used to win trophies. Even occasionally ones that other teams are actually interested in.

As you can see from my pictures, various banners had been hung on the railings on the opposite side of the road to Warmington House (or the facade that was left after the ground redevelopment). Even one of the worlds most famous pacifists made has made it onto a THFC banner (see below), although I don't think he'd have appreciated one of the chants aimed at a former player. Honestly lads, let it go. There's much more important things to worry about.

There were many spontanious outbreaks of chanting. Most as you would expect were aimed at ENIC, Joe Lewis and Daniel Levy. Again, some of the chants directed at Levy were distasteful in my opinion. I want him and his crew as far away from Spurs as possible but there's no justification for personal attacks.

Also unsurprisingly, there was a lot of beer being drunk. I think that the byelaw regarding drinking on the street on Tottenham High Road had gone well and truly out of the window. At least while the demo was going on. Having said that, it would have been quite entertaining to see how such a small Police force would have coped with trying to stop the alcohol consumption.

After a while there was some more nostalgic chanting. This made me smile as I thought I'd done my last 'Oh Mousa Dembele' but it was great to get the chance to do that one again.

I can't say how long the demo lasted for because people were beginning to drift away when I left after about an hour and a half. There was still plenty of singing going on and everything seemed to be going off in good spirits.

To be honest I'm not sure what this can achieve. The board cannot be that out of touch that they believe supporters are happy with everything thats going on at the moment. Having said that, even if there were four thousand fans there I'm not sure they'd be all that worried. For a start I saw little or no club merchandise being worn. Certainly not the latest stuff. I'd guess the vast majority of people that turned up today don't rush out and buy a new shirt with 'Kane' on the back on the day of release and the owners are really only interested in the fans that do.

Of course for ENIC to go somebody has to have the money and the willingness to do the business. And that's not going to be easy. A potential purchaser not only has to have the money to buy the club and a plan to finance a rebuild on the pitch, but more worryingly they have to be happy to service that terrifyingly massive debt. And in the current climate, how likely is that?