yes its a risky wish, I agree....but I don't see a solution to our strategy unless we are given similar investments as the city's and chelsea's of this world.....I just cant be excited with our middle of the road plodding..thats not me being arrogant and saying we deserve better..however we are one of the very few clubs who genuinely make the noise and threaten to join the top 4 show on a regular basis but we just wont due to one thing or another..be it selling our stars or just not having the passion so called 'lesser' teams have on the pitch..so what to do? its a form of tough love as far as I see it.....
Expectations have eroded? I first went to White Hart Lane in 1968 and if I had expectations of being in the top 5 in the league since then I would have been delighted 7 times in the first 33 years and 6 times in the 15 years since Levy took over. You talk as if we have some sort of divine right to be successful which Levy has somehow mucked up when actually he is our first chairman in 50 years who has us routinely finishing above our rightful position of about 6th. What golden age are you actually harking back to and what would the new Chairman have to do to get us there?
My Tottenham as you ask , Chivers , Gilzean , Hoddle , Gazza , even the dark days of 78 we rose like a Phoenix with two Argie Demi gods . I not talking about your fascination with league position. It was about the glamour, Winning cups , players that made you cry with joy, not sold every year. The day Ralph Coates , Alfie Conn , Martin Peters Paul Stewart signed . A fan base proud and never divided. There was intent even if we failed . We will never understand each other's desires . Cromwellian Spurs may be your thing but for many others celebrating. Accountancy is not a passion .
I want the same Spurs as you do, but times have changed in the game and the approach that used to win us cups while underperforming in the league would probably get us relegated these days. Back then there were 7 or 8 clubs with about the same amount of money and we should have been averaging fourth place. In practice we were a flair team who messed up royally in the league season after season but could get good cup runs together because we had about the same standard of players as everyone else. Now there are 5 teams who have squads costing much more than ours, double in some case and we are competing with them pretty well. I'm not praising Levy for balancing the books but because I think he's got a longterm plan for success which is being implemented albeit a bit slowly. The first thing he had to fix was the fact that we were way behind off the field and we've made progress there. Fixing the fact that we have worse players than our competitors is a much bigger problem but selling our best ones for over the odds to provide more building blocks for the future is the only strategy I can think of that has a chance of working. I'm rather intrigued by your second list of players: Peter's aside, the other three were certainly not major successes and I remember being distinctly underwhelmed when they were signed
I barely remember Alfie Conn, but clips I've seen of him suggest an exciting player. Ralph Coates (despite his combover) was a well loved player - won a league cup on his own! Paul Stewart was the next big thing when he came to us. Played in a number of positions and would go on to be an England player and a big part in an FA cup win for us. Not the 3 I would have chosen, but big signings in their way.
Power spurs, The players I used were in the sense of anticipation , most were more miss than hit . These players could have signed for the any top 2 teams but they choose Spurs . I remember as very little boy the news we signed Coates came over the radio at breakfast before school. Peter Taylor could be added to that list. They were big signings and the club constantly showed their desire to achieve even if they under delivered.
True but they were top draw successes . I like fast women, letting it all hang out , Cary Grant , swashbuckling football , Keith Richards, a young Raquel Welsh , Lennon , The Clash , Tim Buckley , Jack Kerouac , Wild one Brando , Sid James, Peter Sellers , The Rat Pack , The Smiths , Castro , Buenos Aires , Attlee , Bevin , Bowie, Botham , that's my Lillywhites .
I agree with you there but that era was over long before Levy got started. He has actually got us back to a place where some of that sort of player would at least consider us. Even players like Adebayor were out of our reach prior to Levy. The last proper big signing was Gascoigne.
Apart from the seeming lack of culpability on anybody's part, what really gets at me is the money that has been wasted on, incompetent and incompatible managers, overpriced players, the nitpicking, the haggling over every last penny that has cost us some potential signings. We were on the right track. I suspect as much by luck as good management. What we're seeing now is the results of that luck running out. Now, there is no cloaking the underlying incompetence in recruitment, especially. The buck has to stop somewhere. If not with you, Mr Levy, then who?
So after another dreadful display, what will Levy's next move be.... stay quiet behind the scenes and ride this out or get his gun loaded to shoot his next victim?
Surely, even Levy, as thick as he obviously is, cannot be immune to the discontent of the fans? He must know that he's the one most discerning fans are blaming?
When things are going well (which seldom happened in recent years) he loves the limelight e.g 4th place finish season - all gleaming smugly in front of the Sky cameras when we defeated City by the single Crouch goal. When things aren't so great, we get his usual "open letters" to the fans trying to assure us his trigger finger is for the good of the club and we're building for the future... Now the silence is deafening because he's well and truly shot himself in the foot these past few years. He's exposed himself as a total clown and he's nowhere to hide anymore.
In any other industry, if a Board had hired and fired 3 dud CEO's or COO's over a 2.5 year period and during that time lost about 30% of the companies value (if you equate the lost revenue from cups and advanced league places to regular market share or lost sales) then there would be heads rolling at that level too..........
