Emily Pankhurst, Bobby Sands, that chap who got run over by a tank in Tiananmen Square, the Fathers For Justice bloke in a Batman suit… and now a few dozen idiots with a badly drawn bed-sheet partially blocking a B road.
Initial reports from optimistic agitators was of some 500 people involved. One can only presume the other 476 were stuck in traffic.
The media impact was a tidal wave of inertia. The Haringey Bugle & Recorder put up a few pictures but alas, no copy.
There is an argument for staying at The Lane but it isn’t being made coherently by disingenuous creeps like David Clammy.
Too much low rent shouting and not enough thinking. Too little dealing of facts and too much division and name calling.
On the Alan Brazil breakfast this morning there was some mockney ‘I’ll tell yoo wot pal!’ cartoon character shouting that he didn’t think the move to Stratford would take place as a he didn’t think we’d want to play with a running track around the pitch’.
And then of course we have the sainted David ‘expenses” Clammy with his Rent-An-Intellectual-Property-Lawyer announcing that THFC trading as THFC outside of Haringey would constitute ‘passing off’.
Too much stupidity and too much disinformation.
wouldnt care if we didnt do anything
say no to STRATFORD thats all
Most of us would prefer to stay in Tottenham but that is fast becoming impossible due to Lammy and the vested interest groups. The club won’t admit it but I’m more than sure we just can’t raise the finance for the NDP. Stratford on the otherhand is fast becoming our only option to build the stadium we need to compete.
Cracking blog by the way, been laughing at the funny comments.
This was the penultimate post on the previous thread. Just for once wanted to put my piece in.
Went over the game again. Some things stood out.
4-4-1-1 did not work. Not just because Crouch was wanting in all aspects of play required by this system, but also because VdV did not fit in either (I’m talking about this one game, though it makes you wonder whether sticking with 4-4-2 isn’t better suited to our style and the talents of our squad). He does/did not have the vision of Modders, but that’s in some part due to his wanting to do it all by himself, a la Defoe.
The Hutton/Lennon axis did not deliver. Not that a RB has only to concern himself with feeding his RM (why can’t I say right wing?) but he should at least by now have established the sort of understanding that A&E and Baler have achieved. In fact, Lennon did not really come through. Whether Townshend would have (was he on the bench? I don’t think so) I was reminded of the truth of the saying: “a good big’un is better than a good littl’un.” If the youngster Rafael can thrive, having been given his chance, there’s no reason why Townshend cannot either. Hutton did well. His was the cross any three quarters decent striker would have buried – certainly Pav. would have – but there were times (four in particular which stood out) when a better understanding would have seen the Manure defence stretched on the right. When Hutton has the ball Lennon seems to hesitate. Is it worth zimming down the line? going down and in? what the heck should I do?
Not immediately to take advantage of Rafael’s first half yellow card was a grave error. Either way, by making him more cautious or by sucking him into a second yellow, we had everything to gain. The Hudd would have exploited that. What were ‘Arry’s instructions at half time?
We seemed at our least imaginative/effective in those last 16 minutes! Got in each other’s way in the box. Why can’t we set aside training periods to rehearse the correct tactics for such occasions? It is not the first time we have failed to take advantage of 11 on 10 men situations.
But, it’s all hindsight, armchair quarterbacking. I am proud of the lads. The back five made Berbi Doll and Roo Baby look ordinary, and in the first half especially a visitor from Mars would without hesitation have chosen us as the PL leaders and the Manure as fourth place hopefuls.
As to this thread’s theme, what counts in the end is how best to situate Spurs for the next phase of the grand old game. In this phase a new stadium is the minimum requirement. In an economic climate which makes it unlikely there will be public money of any sort, and if the savings are really as large as the published data suggest, staying at WHL simply is not a sensible decision for the club’s future and for its supporters’ aspirations.
Thanks HH for giving us the opportunity to “ventilate.”
I am a remote spurs fan who has had the privilege of attending WHL 3 times to see luminaries such as Bolton, Coventry & middlesbrough. Each time was awe inspiring, from the noise, to the mighty cockerill atop the stand and the sheer joy as one of our heroes made a dent in the bag. The highlight was not the arduous journey to WHL, it was not the walk up the high rd, nor was it the lengthy wait for the train after. But you know what? Who cares? It was part of the day and allowed me time to breathe it all in and afterwards reminisce about what I had just experienced. We all suffer a little for our passions and certainly a spurs supporter should know this more than most. Will a tube stop right next to the ground make you sing louder or support more? Tradition and sentiment do mean more than a slightly faster journey home from a potential soul-less east end home…
The stadium at Stratford will be the same modern, exciting one that would have been erected at WHL. If it is going to be soul-less in Stratford, so will it be at WHL. No one makes the soul-less argument about Wembley.
I too was only able to visit WHL I think it was 8/9 times over many (twenty or so) years. Each time I came away with exactly the same sense of excitement and wonder that you have described very well. But, consider what has happened with Man City fans. My son in law, very decent bloke for all that he supports citeh, swore he would never go to the new stadium… yet loyalty to club was stronger than affection for Maine Road. Long before the new money came in, and citeh started to exert themselves, he had settled in perfectly contentedly, with season tickets, etc.
So will it be with Spurs’ fans.
My concern now is that we will somehow lose both a new WHL and Stratford. That a generation down the time line people will say: “What an opportunity there was. If only …”
Hugh Dunit,
I have been going to the lane since 1968 and i can tell you I’m not a fan of our modern all seater stadiums. I grew up watching Spurs from the shelf, the best view in football.
But tottenhams plans are to build the exact same stadium in Stratford as they would for the NDP, i quess both will be soul less.
I’m with you on that and I think most people here would be as these beautiful crumbling old wrecks were part of our childhood. This is the modern world however and I daresay the young children of Manchester are glad to sit in a nice clean soul-less bowl rather than have to shuffle through the gloomy piss-stained corridors of the Kippax. What price progress.
I do genuinely feel sorry for the area though and chanting ‘It’s an s-hole’ does it a tremendous disservice and shows such a lack of respect for the people that live there. I would dearly love to see the area getting the kind of facelift that my area (Dalston) is getting at the moment, with great new transport links, housing and facilities. That is what my heart bleeds for in all of this. That the people of a great borough have been sold down the sewer by the self-interests of the very people that were there to serve them.
I agree with everything you have said mate. I remember getting off the bus a seven sisters and my old man would take us into the home made sweet shop opposite the station. Bag of boiled sweets in hand off we trot up the high road, stopping at what seemed like hundreds of stalls selling spurs stuff.
When Haringey insisted the stallholders needed to by a licence most of the stall disapeared, the experience of walking to the ground changed forever.
Tottenham was not run down when i first used to go to the lane, i quess lack of investment from the council over many years is to blame.