The supposed lack of atmosphere at White Hart Lane has become ingrained into the story of Spurs’ season. As each home game passes without a victory, so early season passivity turned to audible dismay and moments of outright hostility, most notably the raucous booing of Vicario after his howler last Saturday. Driving the narrative is … Continue reading The Atmosphere at Spurs: Blame the Club before Blaming the Fans

December’s only just begun, and Spurs fans are already deep into the crushingly familiar manager doom cycle. It begins with hope and expectation as the new man comes in, tinged with either relief or anger depending on your assessment of the last guy. There follows optimism, usually, as results pick up or at least there’s … Continue reading Spurs: Deep Into the Cycle of Doom and It’s Only December

On Sunday at 2, I watched my grandson’s under 12s side. They lost 7-1. They have done fairly well over the past couple of seasons, then for reasons known only to the manager, they joined a different league, the top one in the county, where they have been outclassed. Teams are faster and more athletic. … Continue reading Round and Round We Go

In evaluating the career of Daniel Levy as Tottenham Hotspur chairman, only one thing can be said with any degree of certainty. If someone reaches a straightforward conclusion, they’re wrong. Although he took his time, he has undoubtedly transformed the club. White Hart Lane is one of the eternal loves of my life, but it … Continue reading The Levy Legacy – What Might Have Been

It was all going to be so straightforward. This article I mean. Been busy, in hospital tomorrow for another knee replacement, Tottenham On My Mind will limp into a new season all in good time, if you can hang on a bit. But it’s Spurs. Nothing is ever straightforward. Eze is on. Delays, but sorted. … Continue reading Nurse – the Screens! I Can’t Stand the Pain

Read sadness into what follows. Every word, comma and inflection. I take no pleasure in Ange’s dismissal. But there is reason. In all honesty, since Bilbao I’ve been this way and that about his future. I readily concede that replacing him after that triumph will never sit completely comfortably with me, but Ange being a … Continue reading Go Well Ange

If the game is about glory, and it is, then glory comes in a variety of guises. In Bilbao, it shapeshifted into a physical, mucky, grafting, sweaty, shithousing delight. Barely recognisable as such, but glory it was. Exactly what is needed to win a European trophy. At last. This was one for the fans, the … Continue reading At Last

I’m still basking in the afterglow of Thursday night’s wholesome and wholehearted performance. Such warmth and serenity has been in short supply this season. It feels like meeting an old friend you haven’t seen for many years and discovering that you still get on. We needed that. A semi-final holds the tantalising prospect of a … Continue reading We All Needed That

On Monday, Spurs published their latest financial results. Revenue was down, and the word of the week was ‘sustainable’, as in Daniel Levy’s insistence that the club’s investment in transfers and salaries had to remain within sustainable limits dictated by income. Time flies – it’s Friday and it’s all about Ange’s ear. The team took … Continue reading It’s Horrible, It’s a Mess, It’s Tottenham

Business is bad for the jerk chicken bar-b-ques in the Park Lane. It’s raining, and the crowds surprisingly sparse even though kick-off is only half an hour away. The aroma of succulent curried goat is tempting, the warmth and dry of the ground more so and fans scurry past. The speakers blast out Bob Marley, … Continue reading Spurs Can’t Find Redemption

In solidarity with my beleaguered football team, today’s piece is rambling, incoherent and smacks of desperation. Sunday’s performance against Everton was a new low but then again, that statement applies to every match we play these days. How low can you go? Spurs’ response to the mess we’re in is to become more disjointed, not … Continue reading Desperate, Knackered, Without Hope. But Enough About Me

A good friend dropped me a line the other day, out of the blue. He’d not seen me, I’d not been around much online. He said something like, watching Spurs is depressing right now and so many of the people he has spoken to over many years are struggling at the moment. He wondered how … Continue reading Spurs Searching for the Way Forward

Time away from Tottenham On My Mind, and more to the point from the ground. An opportunity for reflection. Take a step back. Big picture, overview, that sort of thing. Nah. I’m unsettled, disengaged. Not feeling it. This is my longest period away from the Lane since my kids were young in the nineties and … Continue reading Ange and the Age of Jazz

Not feeling this season yet. Until the derby. On the train, the buzz is back. The crowds, the blue smoke flares on the High Road corner, the extra rush to get to my seat. Shame the football had to spoil it. But the emotion was there. Maybe like the players I need to ease myself … Continue reading Worse Than Bad, Spurs are Just Ordinary

Endings matter. Settle with the past to move on. I’m not so bright with endings. Leaving dos are important, and I advise people I manage to always hold one, except I don’t go to mine. So here’s an ending to this season, it’s the right thing to do. Less of an analysis, more a ramble … Continue reading An End of Season Ramble, and Thanks for Dropping By This Season

This morning I checked in on social media to gauge reaction to the game, as I usually do. There’s a lot of criticism of the crowd’s reaction. Throw me a lifebelt, I’m drowning in a stream of moralistic pious sewage. Have people ever been to a football match? Have they ever supported a team? Any … Continue reading This is How We Are.

Contemporary top-level football is complex. Double pivots, inverted full-backs, gegenpressing, I’ve banned the expression A***ball but that too – I get it. But it’s not overly simplistic to say, at free kicks, get your big bloke on their big bloke. Or don’t get too many players upfield and let teams score on the counter. Or … Continue reading Let’s Straighten It Out Spurs

Prices for next season up 6% and concession pricing hacked to bits. Costs have risen, I get it. But so has the club’s income, yet fans won’t receive any of the benefits. Everyone was expecting an increase, I’m not naïve. The point is, we hear how Spurs are reaping the rewards at last of financial … Continue reading Spurs Price Rises Test Loyalty to the Limit

And so the world turns, and the universe restores order. Cosmic forces, eternal and unimpeachable, ensure balance and stability, where yin cuddles yang. Joy and pain. For every action, there’s a reaction. The things that football fans can’t explain to those who do not follow the game, this is the other bit. For every last … Continue reading Spurs Seven Rooms of Gloom

With the New Year comes the proliferation of self-improvement advice to enhance physical and mental well-being, and goodness knows I should pay more attention to both. The joys of a late winner are strangely not included in any of the options I’ve come across. I really think the advice gurus are missing a trick here. … Continue reading Soul Deep at the Lane

Dier out, Dragusin in, a move that embodies the changes at Spurs since Postecoglou’s appointment, not so much his will imposed on the club as his spirit and ethos coursing through its veins and nervous system. These are Ange’s decision, this is Ange time. Dier is stolid, Dragusin looks exciting. Dier is the past, the … Continue reading Tell Me, Ain’t It The Truth

So where are we with – let’s do each other a favour and not call it Angeball, he’s the manager and we kick a ball but like the ball in cricket’s Bazball, it’s become a suffix stripped of meaning. So into the bin with it, decomposing alongside spursy. So as I was saying, where are … Continue reading Slipped, Tripped, Fell in Love with Ange’s Spurs

To dare is to do, that’s all very well but Spurs’ new motto is onwards and upwards with Ange. Hang on, we can’t go upwards because we’re on top of the league! Old habits ingrained over five decades die hard. I’ve not yet come to terms with how being top feels. Rational brain tells me … Continue reading What We Need, Ange’s Soul Power

Football is all about the moments. That feeling. Bedlam as the ball hits the net. There is nothing like it, nothing can compare with a last minute winner. That uncontrolled explosion of joy and unity. It’s natural, unreconstructed, visceral. It’s ours. Can’t explain it to anyone who doesn’t get football. I mean, if I say … Continue reading Ange: I’ll Take You There