And all of ’em with the Queen’s head on.
The past few weeks has been a fatiguing carousel of campaigning and canvassing. Have you met the candidates?
The Anti Stratford Party are defined by their outrage and their ‘Blitz’ spirit. Their primary weapon is the ability to evoke ‘lump in the throat’ memories and so humanize the bricks and mortar that we call The Lane. They were handed the easier task yet by and large still they botched it.
The Pro Stratford Party are far more low key characters. Less vocal, less emotionally charged they prefer to dispense facts, figures and shrugs dispassionately in sustainable doses. A bit like a chemist proffering you a syrup that will work but simultaneously twist your face off.
They are cunning wretches, explaining their solution with the words, ‘I don’t want to move any more than you but…’
Both sides suspect each other of the worst. The We Are N17ers are secretly viewed as an elitist hardcore of season ticket holders, largely born within a monkeys fart of the Bell & Hare. Lot’s of ‘How’s Carol, Mike? Here, tell your Malcolm’s bird we don’t bite – always room for another on Sundays!’
The Olympians are secretly viewed as soulless Johnny Come Lately’s who can’t wait to move Spurs wholesale to anywhere that might ease 40 minutes off their travel pain and increase their chance of actually getting a ticket. All Superdry coats and snow white Reeboks. The pig-dogs!
The Luddites vs The Grave Robbers it is then.
I made the point yesterday that once you move beyond the quite noisy minority, the overwhelming vote is for Inertia. On this two bob blog there has been a poll up for some weeks. I just checked how many. 12 and 3 days to be precise.
Three quarters of those who expressed a preference voted against a move to Stratford. But that was only 750 odd punters. The site does routinely what, 40k a week with a willing server? That’s an awful lot of people who didn’t feel moved enough to pass an opinion.
You might argue the fact that most readers do not post comments. But clicking a yes or no on such a supposedly massive issue is hardly a big ask. So I had a look on Knees Up Mother Brown. They have a similar poll up on there.
That too was a bit of wash out – with even fewer votes cast than our one. They don’t care either.
a Pole worth getting interested in.
I guess that most folk are resigned to the idea that whatever the outcome is they don’t expect to have an influence upon it.
So if the comedy demo on the High Road last weekend failed to secure the hearts and minds of people who could have walked to it, but even they couldn’t be bothered, what’s the likely outcome?
Well if I knew, I wouldn’t be hanging around chugging this little lot out, I’d be selling furniture enroute to a reputable bookmakers.
The Tottenham bid is the common sense one. It paves the way for a Champions League shaped future underpinned with financial stability and easier access.It sneers in the face of David Clammy MP and titters at the disinformation. No running track, no name change. A no brainer to the cold and the calculating.
Perhaps most importantly the Olympic Legacy gets put in it’s correct place. A faithfully attended to afterthought to meet the needs of a drippy minority.
The West Ham bid is insane. A club run by porn barons and a woman with a face like a kicked in fridge have hatched some scheme with the Council to assert squatter’s rights after the last drugs test results of The Games come back from the lab. As things stand today, the Ammers could be set to have the swankiest stadium in the Championship.
The West Ham bid ’embraces’ the retention of the running track much in the same way a blind man ’embraces’ braille. ‘Kids 4 A Quid’ some legacy that’ll be.
The greatest threat of the decision coming out in favour of the insane is unsurprisingly from the same ship of fools that created this whole mess.
Athletic luminaries including Lord Coe, Lamine Diack , Sir Craig Reedie and Uncle Tom Cobley have all damned the plan that just weeks after the The Games end, the place been knocked down and turned into a viable business.
They have created this £500M white elephant and it is difficult to believe that they sit back and just watch it be bulldozed. Baroness Ford & Co need to decide what they want. A time-bomb that we all know will go off at some point courtesy of the crotchless knicker kings, or to acknowledge some unpalatable home truths and hand the land over to respectable, intelligent people with a strategy that will work.
Don’t hold your breath, mind.
I’m against the move, it’s not really about the money for me it’s the piss that will be extracted by the scum. Can you imagine what they will say about us leaving north london.
Although at first i thought that the move was just to put the wind up haringey concil it could now be on the cards. It makes sense to an accountant/sofa surpporters but not to the vocal yids.
As a lifelong Spurs fan,formally Gladesmore Rd N15,now Croyden,takes an hour on match day to Seven Sisters Tube,large kebab on the High Rd,couple pints of wifebeater in the Beehive,watch the players arrive,match,more pints,couple hotdogs,more wifebeater and home to watch sky22222222222 PURE BLISS.On saying this it is the team I love and will follow them to any new home.My main worry is that we will lose Harry and the fantastic backroom staff to the International scene and return to the wilderness.COYS.
Spur50, the transport problems will be just as bad for you in Stratford. Unless you are an Essex based Spurs fan Stratford (I am, but I am vehemently against the move, despite it being an easier journey). The better transport links story is a complete myth. With 60000 fans plus a huge shopping centre next door the congestion on match days will be a nightmare. Plus you dismiss Tottenham as being a muggers paradise. Have you walked the streets of Stratford? I have many times, it is a hole. Just think how you became a Spurs fan, if they had been based in east London, would you have started supporting I know I wouldn’t have, as my roots are not from there.Also another thought for you. If Tottenham won a cup post Stratford, where would the parade be? Tottenham High Road? Or West Ham’s Newham, next to the Bobby Moore statue? We would lose our identity forever if we move.
we are finally in a position to overtake the gooners and chelski, for over ten years we have been living in the shadow of these clubs, we have finally started to match them on the pitch. Only recently we managed to record the first win in 17 years on enemy soil at the emirates, 17 years ffs. I’d prefer to stay in N17, but not if that means the club is saddled with debt, and for the next 20 years I find myself sitting in a lovely stadium in N17 resenting every second because we can’t afford to invest in the playing squad and have once again lagged behind these teams, going on another run of failing to beat chelsea for 27 games, failing to beat arsenal at the emirates for another 17 years.
IF staying in N17 versus moving to the OS site would cost an additional £200m does anyone believe that this would not be detrimental to our transfer budget, the quality of football we would be able to play, and therefore the entertainment we would receive watching spurs. Some pro n17 people live in some sort of fantasy land, believing that having a hugely reduced transfer budget wouldn’t affect our performance on the pitch. I remember the joys of watching gary “the ginger pele” doherty playing for us for 4 seasons, no-one knowing whether he was a centre back or centre forward, he was so inept in both roles.
HH I’d like you to add in a third option to your poll the I’d prefer to stay in N17 but am willing to move to the OS site. If someone came along tomorrow with £200m either from the public purse, or a kind donation for us to stay in N17, I’m sure that the majority of spurs fans would want to stay in N17, it is just some of us are willing to look beyond some sentimental reasons behind staying in N17.
I have read a lot about bill nic’s ashes and car parks, and all that, the simple truth is that even staying in N17 means we will be losing history. The stadium will lose the WHL name and we could well be playing in the mcdonalds, or durex stadium. The location of the old pitch is to be filled with a hotel, offices, museum and megastore, and also probably car parking spaces, either new stadium requires the loss of history. It’s a question of loss of old history vs the capacity to create new positive history.
I will support my club no matter what league it is in, or what stadium it plays in.
That is just about the perfect summary for me .
I would absolutely prefer to stay at WHL but only if it does not drain the clubs ability to keep progressing and remaining competitive in all competitions. The WHL option as it is being proposed certainly puts that well and truly in jeapordy. However, I guess if we do not get the OS then the Board might have to revise the WHL options. Perhaps an increase in capacity at WHL at less than the original proposal could be an option or of course looking for another site.
All in all a complete and utter nightmare whichever way it goes. Having said all that we cannot just stay at WHL with the current capacity if we wish to progress and even keep the players we have. Very difficult situation all round.
Sad that our fate is being decided by outsiders
and the politics of the whole Olympic project will be such a heavy burden for us to overcome.
We shall see but I just hope that the whole thing does not impact on the most important part and that is what we do on the pitch. We are really so close to doing very special things with this squad, I just hope we can fulfill our potential.
Whether or not the transport links and crime rate are better in Stratford, the fact is we need a bigger stadium.
So thats not going to change.
If we cant build it on WHL then we move, simple as.
More to the point, I was wondering how many supports we have worldwide?
I would imagine that we have more combined supporters worldwide who have never even been to london than we do have supporters living in the UK and who actively go to WHL?
The point I’m trying to make is: You know how we say that no player is bigger than the club?
Well no fan is bigger than the club either, or a small amount of die hard supporters nostalgic about the clubs location.
In a Global sense, think about what matters for Tottenham Hotspur.
Is it not world domination we want? Or do we want to continue to be that sado-masochistic bunch who beat Inter then lose to Wolves?
I am one of those global spurs fans who doesn’t live in the uk, but has had the privilege of a few outings at the lane. I want world domination and the sight of 7 and 8 year olds wearing lillywhite with vdv emblazoned on their backs instead of the ubiquitous manure shirt.
At the same time what drew me to support spurs 30 years ago was the 100 plus year tradition in north london, the doing with style and flourish and the “glamour club” who never seemed to quite reach the heights they were supposed to.
As such I am torn by the beauty of the past and the promise of the future…