Here’s some more of the thought provoking piece by our old mate, author and journalist Martin Cloake.
In this installment (and believe me there will be more) Martin looks at getting to and from the ground and the buzz phrase of our generation, the ‘Olympic Legacy’.
One ‘issue’ with Tottenham’s current ground is transport links. It’s taken as given that they are ‘poor’ and that substantial improvement is needed. This in turn feeds into the argument about Stratford having better links due to the Olympic infrastructure works. But take a breath here.
There are five mainline rail stations and one tube station within walking distance of White Hart Lane. Driving is a problem, but driving anywhere in London is a problem. Congestion at White Hart Lane rail station and Seven Sisters tube can be bad, but not as bad as the congestion outside the Emirates stadium which sees Holloway Road tube closed and Highbury and Islington overwhelmed on match days.
The problem with getting to White Hart Lane is that the, and this is obviously a personal opinion but one based on bitter experience, greedy and incompetent people who allegedly ‘run’ the transport system in this country are in charge of it. That’s why trains are regularly cancelled for engineering work on days when 36,000 are expected to use them to get to Spurs, why short trains are scheduled and why timetables are so bad.
To get to Stratford, punters on public transport will have to use services provided by the same greedy incompetents – who will doubtless be on their best behaviour for the Olympics but return to providing the kind of transport ‘service’ that has made this country a laughing stock afterwards. While maintaining profits, of course.
Even driving may not provide the answer, for to get to and from Stratford’s swanky new roads people will at some stage have to use the less than swanky old ones such as the A10, North Circular, M25, A13 etc. So I need some convincing about this transport thing. One thing a European tour does show us fans is how a transport system can work when a country has the sense to realise it is a key service rather than another commodity.
Having whipped up a storm of condemnation for the plans to demolish the Olympic Stadium should Spurs be awarded it, the club is addressing the criticism that this betrays the legacy promised by the London organisers. So much is being made of plans to refurbish the crumbling Crystal Palace Stadium – ironically very close to the site of Tottenham Hotspur’s historic 1901 FA Cup win when the club became the only non-league side to win the trophy. (In my mind’s eye I can see the club’s PR guru scribbling that one down). That’s going to be funded from profits made by the new stadium. Really?
The first, and obvious, question is how long will it take for the new Spurs football stadium to generate enough money to refurbish Crystal Palace? Then there’s how long will it take to build? How long a gap does this leave between an existing athletics facility at the Olympic Stadium being torn down and the new one going up?
And how much of a priority will funding and building that facility be for a club (hopefully) still competing at the top of English and European football, with all the financial resources that involves?
You don’t have to be a professional cynic to have more than a few doubts.
@ jfdit Your comments I can absolutely confirm are as near to gospel as even Aretha Franklin might ever aspire to.
I think that Arry actually sees 3MP as the future. He’d elbow Pav, PSB and only bring in one more… Levy would appreciate the maths, anyway…
it’s my understanding that PSB was/is regarded as the runt in the litter, everyone else was deemed to be key to our plans
letting crazy paving go would be a fools move as he proved last year what he can do for the team
Harry’s the Manager. Crouch appears to have first dibs on the “1” in Harry’s 4-5-1.
1 is also the number of league goals Harry’s No. 1 striker has scored this season.
It does make one one-der. :freu
nah, he just looks up to him – kerching
Well the goals vdv and crouch have shared is ‘significant’ vdv has said it himself.
We have options, but harry feels like he has to start vdv every game so how do we get two strikers on the pitch at the same time?
What that means is that he has to choose btw four strikers of whom are all different but none of them really stand out.. Like vdv or bale, or modric. Who knows maybe defoe can find some form again…
The window seems to have degenerated into a game of Striker musical chairs – Unfortunately the tune being played is Mahler’s 3rd and it ends somewhere around about 11.59 on the night of the 31st.
Until Maureen works out whether he needs another striker or Suarez figures out what a big club is without the aid of Ajax’s marketing director and a diagram or Sunderland blow all that wadge on Keano, we’re all stuck on the bloody merry-go-round.
But if we pay £30m for Carroll I’ll personally kick in DL’s windows and beat Kevin Bond to a pulp with Harry’s phone.
Poor ol kevin bond, what did he ever do to deserve it..
At least show the man some dignity and use a baseball bat
Agreed, get me some proven continental culture rather than the quarter season wonder from oooop norf…
When Huddlestone returns, the team will pretty much pick itself and we also have cover for every position, although an injury to BAE means Bale goes to LB and we lose his attacking threat, assuming the rest of the team feel like passing to him.
The only area we are short and which needs tweaking is one top class striker. Suspect HR will keep Defoe and Crouch, who seems more effective in the CL than in the PL.
We have players to sell whose fees will fund this move.
So close to being the finished article.
But we seem to be a loaning club now instead of a selling…
:hae:
I think we will eventually find buyers for the players we wish to offload and after that, we need to find and sign the final piece in the jigsaw.
The worry is that by the time we raise the funds from these sales, our target(s) have gone elsewhere.
I would not be surprised to see Krankie, Keane, Pav and GDS sold this window, plus Woodie, O’Hara and Townsend sent out on loan.
Was expecting Corluka to be sold as well, but looking less likely now Walker is on loan to Villa. May still happen as we could use Kaboul at RB and with Khumalo now joining us we are really stacked out with defenders.
But not left backs