No disappointment like a Spurs disappointment

yiddo

Good article by Ally Gold (author of the recent book "Ode to Jol") lifted from FTL

No disappointment like Spurs disappointment

I don’t think I’ve ever been so angry in my 25 years as a Spurs supporter. To see a lead vanish that quickly and with so little fight, it made my white and navy blood boil. As a Lilywhite fan through the 90s, I was used to mediocrity, but this was something else.

Yet, it could have all been so different. Our latest signing had been paraded on the White Hart Lane turf before the match and the stadium was rocking. The first half brought with it the promise of something wonderful, even after our big money striker went off injured early on.

Then it all suddenly went very wrong. Revelling in the lead, we sat back and invited disaster. At the final whistle, I wanted to rip the head of anyone not wearing white. To make it worse there was Pleat standing like a befuddled clown on the touchline. No hysterical running and skipping onto the pitch at the final whistle this time was there Dave?

For me February 4th, 2004 marked the depths of despair. We’d surrendered a three goal lead at home to Manchester City, who’d managed to score four goals with only 10 bloody men. There are post-match moods and then there was the black, all encompassing rage that descended on me for the next week. I was inconsolable.

Small children buried their faces in their mothers’ jackets as I marched down Tottenham High Road with a look that would have caused Hannibal Lecter to cower at the back of his cell. Most things in life you can forget the next day, but not Spurs. While a win can have you walking on air, a heart-wrenching defeat can eat at you all week. Everyone’s an idiot - the manager and his poor tactics, the clumsy keeper, the flimsy defence, the spineless midfielders and the misfiring strikers. Why can’t the board splash our budget on Carlos Van der Goal? He looked great on that YouTube compilation.

Nothing quite skewers through the heart of perspective as much as a Tottenham cock-up, especially one that was snatched from the jaws of victory. I actually get headaches and feel under the weather after particularly crap games. Is that actually medically possible? Can supporting a team make you physically sick?

Today was a bad day. We didn’t lose last night, but in every respect it felt like a defeat. Only Tottenham Hotspur can go from the sublime to the ridiculous in 90 minutes. But here’s the thing, today’s pain is a galaxy far, far away from the misery of 2004.

The days of the terrifying Dean Richards/Anthony Gardner defensive partnership and Ledley King playing in midfield because there was simply nobody else are a distant memory. European qualification was the unlikely dream each summer. Today’s Tottenham Hotspur is barely recognisable.

Other teams’ fans can only look on in envy at our team of young starlets who will only get better and better. From Lennon to Huddlestone, Dawson to Defoe, King to Keane, Chimbonda to Jenas and Robinson to Berbatov, we have the best first eleven and squad seen at the Lane in years. The fact that we argue over whether a young England international striker or Ireland’s record goalscorer should start is a measure of how far we’ve come.

The man who probably garners the most respect at the club from the media and other side’s supporters is Martin Jol. Yet his fiercest critics are Spurs’ fans. It was only this month that the big man was linked with a switch to the champions of England in a “sensational job swap with Jose Mourinho to reunite with W**k Arnescum”.

What has turned the Jolly Oranje Giant into the bumbling clown some Lilywhites have labelled him? We’re in the last 16 of the Uefa Cup, a position we haven’t been in for 21 years. We’ve got a great chance of reaching the same stage of the FA Cup on Saturday. Despite the disappointment of last night, the reality is we’ve got a League Cup semi-final on Wednesday were the scores are level and we’re 90 minutes away from a cup final. Anything can happen.

The league form hasn’t been as good as last year, but we’re only eight points behind the pace set in our best season for decades. With the amount of extra games played this year – we’re only four matches short in January of the total played in the whole of the last campaign – there was bound to be some slippage somewhere. We haven’t the experience of playing on four fronts that the likes of Manchester United and that lot up the road have built up in the last 10 years.

You could argue that the football hasn’t been as pretty. However, a statistician would probably suggest that after 36 games last season, we’d scored 50 goals, whereas at the same point this campaign that total is 54. Undoubtedly, and much to Lawro’s delight, our away form has been a thorn in our side. Those lost eight points can probably be found smirking in those away losses. Has the loss of an experienced midfielder leader and battler in the Davids mould been the biggest problem away from home? The much younger Zokora was presumably meant to take on that mantle, but ala Essien, the Maestro’s first season looks to be one of adjustment and settling.

Yet Jol is the fall guy. Has delivering our best campaign in recent memory and a return to European football not earned him some respite as he tries to battle on all fronts at a club that has been sleeping for years? People forget that he’s still trying to adjust to the Premiership, English football and all its complexities - he’s the only foreign manager currently managing a side outside the top four. Like a new player who storms the league in his first year, he has to adapt as teams learn to counter his moves the following season.

So, sure it was frustrating last night and I could have taken a sledgehammer to the nearest red-coloured object or person, but it was an anger born of raised expectations. After years of dross and heartbreak, the club has been rocketed in the space of two years into a position where the Premiership and Europe is taking us very seriously. The chosen road may have a few bumps along the way, but the big bloke leading the way is definitely taking us in the right direction.

by AllyGold -

Robxxx7

Very well written and shares my own sentiments ... i remember watching Spurs home and away in 1976/77 (showing my age :eek: ) and watching a very poor team get relegated and manage to get promoted the following season... but we were not a good team ... I remember being at the UEFA cup final in 84 and watching the makings of a good team (if not inconsistent)

Gone through all the 90's through turmoil, change of managers, splashing cash on players who were not upto it ... then when Levy took control, we started to change (albeit the Hoddle era wasn't great) ..With the introduction of Santini and Jol, alot of players were shipped in and quite a few were shipped out ... the nucleas of the team has changed, we have young players with an awful lot of potential....

Our expectations have changed because we believe that we have a nucleus of a good team, we have players that are the envy of other teams.... perhaps as fans we are trying to run before we can walk .... sometimes you have to make little steps before you get to the holy grail ... either way i'm in the camp of sticking it out with Jol and see how he learns from this season ...

COYS

Hatch99

excellent article, very weel said

Eamo71

Hatch99 wrote:

excellent article, very weel said

I read this on glory glory.net and felt immediately cheered up. Have to say I'm pumped for the return leg. I think we can do it!

el diablo

good article, sums it all up, really. the next few weeks will shape our season...