‘Le plus ca change le plus ca la même chose’

Mike Carabine

All the Arsenal fans amongst you will immediately recognise the 19^th Century French proverb, the first documented usage of which was in a work by the great Alfonse Karr. More familiar to the rest of us is the translated version in George Bernard Shaw’s “Revolutionist’s Handbook” in 1903, “the more things change, the more they stay the same”.

 

 

 

When I wrote my last blog on 1^st September, the sun was shining, I wasn’t the co-owner of several High Street banks and West Ham United were bumbling along under the tutelage of Alan Curbishley. Looking back some of my comments were strangely prescient if you consider subsequent events;

 

·         3^rd September – AC decides he has been undermined by the Director of Football and quits.

 

·         12^th September – XL, our shirt sponsors, go into administration. Cue much embarrassment as we have to play firstly with naff patches on the front of our shirts and then duplicate shirt numbers. It emerges that Bjorgulfer Gudmundsson has taken over the bank debt personally before the XL Group goes under.

 

·         7^th October – Landski Bank, owned by BG, goes into administration too.

 

At least the way in which we went about securing a new manager gave the impression that we knew what we were doing, with short listing and interviewing taking place swiftly and with a minimum of fuss (at least compared to Our Friends in the North East!). The fans favourite would have been Slaven Bilic but he couldn’t be persuaded to forsake Croatia (or wasn’t considered depending on who you believe). So we end up with Gianfranco Zola as boss, a fine footballer who played in a style West Ham fans appreciated, but with little practical experience of managing and even worse a Chelsea legend!

 

A reasonable start has transformed into a terrible current run and a match against one of our bogey sides, Everton, was not what the doctor ordered. Last December I headed to a freezing Upton Park and watched us throw away an early lead in a Carling Cup quarter-final, with Yakubu profiting from a mix up between Danny Gabbidon and Rob Green to score the winner with a couple of minutes to go. On Saturday I was heading back to the pub after playing in a 2-0 defeat but at least cheered by the news that the Irons were ahead. As we hit the outskirts of Chelmsford, 5Live flashed over to the Boleyn Ground and my worst fears were realised 1-1. When two minutes later they went back my heart sank, 1-2. When a further goal was announced almost immediately after I made the fatal mistake of thinking we had equalised – oops!

 

The last time we kept a clean sheet was back in February, the worst run ever by a Premier league side. Rumours abound that the Club is to be sold, but who will buy with a possible £30m + payout to Sheffield United hanging over us?  

 

Still things could be worse I suppose, Alan Curbishley could have been successful in his rumoured pursuit of Joey Barton at the end of last season!

Freedom of Portsmouth? Freedom of Tottenham more like!

We all learned recently that a week is a long time and much can happen from the Banking crisis but the last week has raced by. Late last Saturday there I was checking out team news on the BBC website and not really wanting to go to the Bolton game on the Sunday. I spot a story on the homepage about 1,700 runners being stranded at Honister Slate Mine near Keswick and telephone my parents to let them know, them being Keswickians and all that,  but they think I am joking so we put on our respective televisions to see if its on and then Mother says “Ramos has been sacked”. I’m then thinking she’s winding me up only to put on Sky Sports News and find out she is correct and that Harry Redknapp might be on his way. 10 minutes later he is on the telephone saying “I’m signing in the morning” and as they say the rest is history.

 

Poor Ramos? Well yes and no. He was given no more time that Jol to sort it out but like the end of Jol’s reign I – like many other Spurs fans – could not see where the next point was coming from and with 8 games played, 2 points, 7 more games against the top four so assume no points there, that left 23 games from which to raise the 38 points needed to reach the supposed safety margin total.   As a consequence we set out for White Hart Lane with renewed enthusiasm won the game though Bolton were poor and on Wednesday – courtesy of Bank of Ireland – Duncan and I saw the 4 – 4 great escape and I’ve just watched on http://livefooty.doctor-serv.com the Liverpool game and another Lazarus like comeback. Thank god Sid Waddell does not commentate on Spurs games he would suffer a cardiac arrest.

 

So Spurs may be back, the jokes will subside to some other team (I hope) and Harry will make us the world beaters that Juande was supposed to as Martin was before. Probably not. Clearly Harry’s man motivation skills are second to none and players that could not put one foot in front of the other can now compete for 94 minutes and not know when they are beaten. What does this say about their desire and discipline? Sadly not a great deal but it does show how important leadership on the pitch is. On Wednesday “Jol like” substitutions got Arsenal into trouble and lost them an important 2 points and today Keane’s withdrawal seemed to act as a pick me up for the Spurs team.

 

Robbie has not had the best of it so far at Anfield but his play today was good and reminded of his time at Spurs. For Keane we should now read Modric as he has shown this week that he may be able to take over that mantle in time. These days there are nearly as many subs on the bench as players on the pitch and you can use 3 so they do. Is it really necessary? Years ago we only had 1 sub and he was not slavishly used and certainly the strikers did not always get pulled from the action. A good striker will score with his first kick or his last – depending upon when the chance comes – but all too often the chance falls for someone else as he has come off to get a clap from the crowd? If Lineker had come off every game his goal tally would have been far lighter but these days it is accepted and I think Managers and Coaches should think that one through.

 

This week Spurs also announced the new 60,000 seat stadium. If it gets built fantastic because the atmosphere in the stadium would be worth 2 goals. Having been to The Emirates Stadium this week and seen the Arsenal fans up for the game I can tell you the atmosphere was electric and probably a bit intimidating for the Spurs players.  What’s more the view wherever you sit was excellent and it is certainly on a par with Wembley Stadium. If Spurs can get this built and adequately financed then it might make them the big club they crave to be and Harry suggests. Yes we have a great fan base but we only have a 36,400 capacity; about 2,000 more than West Ham who from Harry’s comments may not be as big a club. I’m sure they’ll let him know all about that when we play them next time and he might want to have a chat with Paul Ince about the reception he might now receive.

 

Until then he has a big job on to look at all the recent signings and decide what squad changes he needs to make. I wish him and our Chairman good luck with this as Harry is good at spending the transfer budget – as Portsmouth and West Ham might tell you – and our Daniel is going to have his wits about him come January that’s for sure.

 

Until then keep up the good work and Come On You Spurs!