"There Used To Be A Football Club Over There."

Its a sad fact but my greatest night as a fan of Tottenham Hotspur happened nearly forty one years ago. Sometime late into the evening of Wednesday 23rd May 1984 a relatively unknown 21 year old goalkeeper Tony Parks saved a penalty in a shoot-out at the Paxton Road end of White Hart Lane to secure the victory in that season's UEFA Cup.

This was not only the clubs third European trophy, it was the third major trophy Spurs picked up in four seasons. The starting eleven for that match was ravaged by injuries and suspensions in a time when squads were much smaller than now. Ray Clemence, Steve Perryman, Ossie Ardiles and the clubs greatest ever player Glenn Hoddle were all unavailable although a barely fit Ossie did make the bench.

If only I'd realised as me and Dad made our way back to my Nans to collect the car and make our way home up a completely log jammed Great Cambridge Road that things would never quite the same again. The manager of six years,  Keith Berkinshaw had much earlier in the campaign signalled his intention to leave the club at the end of the season.

In a kind of foretelling of what was to come years later, that season Spurs were in contention for all four available trophies. Unfortunately injuries, a fixture pile up and an excellent Everton side put paid to that. If I recall correctly at one point they played 19 games in 53 days. Quite unheard of in modern times.

What has any of this to do with losing 2-1 at home to a Leicester City team that had previously lost seven games on the bounce? On the face of it not a lot but for one small detail. In an interview after leaving his position Burkinshaw, who was a dour Yorkshireman by nature not prone to controversy in the slightest, was asked why he'd left the club simply said....

"Because there used to be a football club over there". 

Burkinshaw was uncomfortable with the owners at the time who were concentrating a lot more on the commercial side of the business. The previous year, the club had become the first in Europe to be listed on the Stock Exchange. He was somewhat prophetic as the business activities, including the ill fated purchase of Hummel Clothing, almost eventually took the club into liquidation. In fact it was said at the time that had the Chairman of Barclays Bank not been a Spurs fan they could have foreclosed the clubs account. This almost led to the club being taken over by fraudster Robert Maxwell.

But we shouldn't depair because the kind of person that ends up in the boardroom when you have people like ENIC owning a football club has spoken:-

Notice of course that 'revenue streams' is listed as a positive before players, staff and, at the bottom of the pile as far as those kind of people are concerned, supporters.

I'm not sitting here absolving Ange of any of the blame for the current position by the way. He's made some mistakes. Infact he continues to do so. Strange selections, unusual substitutions In the same way that the players are making mistakes. Goalies missing crosses, defenders out of position and not marking, midfielders giving the ball away cheaply and not tracking back. Forwards missing chances, passing when they should shoot and shooting when they should pass. The whole shouting match is a mess. 

Last Sundays game would be this in a nutshell. The first half, a reasonable performance which saw Son strike the woodwork, the Leicester keeper make a couple of very good saves and a obviously-not-yet-fit Richarlison convert a Porro cross to give Spurs the lead. However just when you start to think they could build some momentum after the victory on Thursday in Germany, there's five mad minutes straight after the break an the team bereft of confidence and any depth whatsoever found themselves behind.

Richarlison was replaced by Moore. Sarr who it turns out wasn't fit enough to start was replaced by Reguilon. Spurs huffed and puffed for the rest of the game, but fair play to Leicester who stuck to their plan and defended resolutely. Right near the end Lankshear came on for Archie Gray.

So the team now sit in 15th place, 8 points above the relegation zone. Despite the fact that only Liverpool and Manchester City, two of the sides we've beaten this season, have scored more goals. Just as remarkably we've only conceded 2 more goals than Villa who are four points off of the top 4.

Luckily though we all received a boost a couple of days back. No, it wasn't some well needed help for the manager / team in the shape of an outfield signing in this rapidly closing transfer window but the news that Tottenham are the ninth richest club in Europe according to the latest figure from Deloitte. 

When you bare in mind though that the biggest correlation for sucess in football is not transfer spending but wage spending it will come as no surprise whatsoever that Spurs would win the trophy again for lowest wage to turnover ratio, currently at around 42%. Thats about 10% lower than any other Premier League club. The good news for the owners is that next year its likely to be even lower with higher revenue predicted and the biggest earners from the last period (Kane, Lloris, Dier, N'Dombele) all gone from the wage bill and replaced by players on the Premier Leagues equivalent of the YTS. Wage inflation is never encouraged at Spurs. Unless of course you're talking about the Chairman.

I don't like what I see on the pitch at the moment but I'm old enough to have seen worse. Luckily I'm old enough to have seen much better as well. I don't want to waste anymore of my time or energy berating the owners because I'm like the old man in The Simpsons shouting at the clouds.

The facts stated on the banner above that was on display in the South Stand against Leicester are irrefutable. No matter how much the club try to drown this out, its all there in black and white. They could easily do something about this situation but I very much doubt they will. As was said on a podcast I heard yesterday 'the silence from the club is deafening'. Except its not. Well not when it comes to announcing concerts by The Rolling Stones or the tie-up with Squid Games.

I don't know what the answers are on the pitch. I think there's more chance of Liz Truss making a return to Number 10 than us getting the draw we need at Anfield to get to the League Cup Final. In the FA Cup, we've done well at Villa recently but what sort of a team will we have in that game? Fingers crossed we can win Thursday and progress directly to the next phase of the Europa League. I think we'll stay up but the remainder of the season isn't going to be pretty.

Off the pitch the disconnect I feel with the club I love has never been this big. It always raises a smile with me when I hear Man Utd, Liverpool or Arsenal fans moaning about their owners. I'll swap you for five years and we'll see at the end of that time if you want to swap back. The cynical and miserable 55 year old that I am now knows that they won't go though. They'll always want just a little bit too much for the club, a bit like when they're selling a player. But the 15 year old that sat in that car on the way home on that night in 1984 still dreams of the day they do.