I’m Backing Stratford

Not exactly a well kept secret but time to don the Kevlar and fix bayonets.  A combination of  events have prompted me to blab and tell all…

Levy’s candid appearance on Talksport. Like it or not the guy speaks sense and gives me every impression he’s steering the ship in the best direction. Some will accuse me of  being a suck up,  but his is a path paved in common sense.

Yes it’s a little chilling in that a sacred spiritual home will probably end up as a combination of launderettes, bingo halls and most ironically of all …a car park. But who’s fault is this?If it’s THFC’s then they are guilty of having ambition.

I’ll be blunt here, I don’t care for the bulk of those demanding to stay and slug it out with the Haringey natives. Is it mediocrity that really binds us together? Is really our rallying call that it’s a hole, but it’s our hole. Is that a sane platform? Not in my name, mush.

Readers who have opted to inflict my nonsense upon themselves for a while might know that one thing that really gets my goat is talk of being ‘a real fan’ or a ‘true fan’. What the hell does that mean? Is there a chart somewhere that works out just where you sit in the foodchain?

If so, who devised this device, a ten year old? Season ticket holders, those who travel home and away. Those can provided documents to support they are at least the eigth generation of support in there family? Extra kudos to those who turn up to games attached to kidney dialysis machines? A what point do you get admitted to the inner sanctum?

To quote a recently unemployed man, do me a favour love.

The disinformation war has raged alright, but more like a jalopy that’s been burnt out by kids than a city being raised. What I find depressing is the cocktail of garbage Tottenham fans are being spoon-fed in sustainable doses by both the Anti Stratford Mob and the West Ham lobby.

The  high handed litany of Brady is cringe-worthy. Process, Legacy, Delivery and any other words you can corrupt or at least manipulate to gloss over a collapsing, shoddy, cheapskate, half cocked plan that stinks of desperation.

The bulk of the stadium will be recycled with zero landfill. There will not be a ridiculous running track around any Spurs’ pitch.

The Anti Stratford Mob are about as literate in their argument as dumb mother who when questioned by her child issues a simultaneous ‘Because I said not!’ and slap to the back of the legs. There is a lack of articulation in the Anti Mob’s argument is my point.

I’d hear them out if they had more to offer than a mob mentality rant intertwined with the threat of my treasured footballing memories being plundered by Droogs threatening to bring Billy Nick back to life so he can work as a table cleaner in a MacDonalds. My memories are securely locked up and no amount of bullying will sway me.

I’ve made this comment before and I’ll continue to make it. The relationship between THFC and the local community in Haringey could have been symbiotic. It could have been a focal point – that the Council worked in partnership with to enhance the area.

But no. This never happened. White Hart Lane didn’t fall out the sky last Thursday. For donkeys years Haringey has had this commercial diamond in the rough on it’s doorstep. What has it done to increase it’s value to the borough? What support has David ‘Commuter’ Clammy  ever given to this business? What advances have been made in transport links? None. Nothing. Nichts. Nada.

A relationship where one party solely feeds off the other is a parasitic one.

All this talk of being part of the Haringey community actually makes me quite sad.  I and the overwhelming bulk of supporters attending home games travel in excess of 35 miles to walk past Haringey folk occasionally stopping to buy a pint or a box of  Unlucky Fried Kitten.

It makes me sad because these poor locals have had an opportunity missed on their behalf, an asset so badly mismanaged they’ll be left with nothing at all. This is a community betrayed. Long before Levy & Co started weighing up their options. So don’t wave a bed-sheet at me on the High Roadand tell me you’re Room Service.

So what of the NDP? It won’t happen. I said to old Unc Norman Giller, a devout NDP supporter recently that maybe I was doing Haringey Council and all the locals with vested interests a shocking disservice. Maybe they don’t have their hands out for more money.

Maybe they’re just checking to see if it’s raining.