Hello. Remember me?
Monday, November 14, 2011 at 1:13PM It's been a fair few days since I last blogged. I've spent past International Breaks drafting and crafting articles to amuse and entertain whilst waiting to welcome back Spurs. Can't say I've been that inspired this past week. Less so for the sake of keeping up appearances. I apologise for that. It's not like there hasn't been any worthy points of discussion.
Spurs spy
The whole Olympic Stadium debacle can be summed up as follows:
"We're going to hide our bullshit by covering it up with your bullshit"
"That's what we're going to do"
That's basically it. Since when has anything not been susceptible to corruption? 14-0 suggests something in the bidding process was shady, not that I'm complaining personally being pro-NDP. Politics and business, dirty tricks and deflections...are we shocked? End of the day, we're not moving to East London and Gold and Sullivan are going to remain despondent (running track) even if Brady continues to churn out propaganda about 60k+ West Ham fans turning up at Stratford.
Whether Levy took it too far or not remains to be seen.
Boris ITK
A regular of Glory Glory dot co dot uk had a conversation with Boris Johnson. He shared the main discussion points on the forum, with photograph included. No cryptics. Spurs annual report out soon so we might see an update on where the NDP stands with the government. The main jist of the ITK:
An offer of £7.5m has been tabled to Tottenham Hotspur, from the Mayors office to help with regenerating the area and jobs if they stay in the area.
A new station will be built in close proximity to help with congestion.
Daniel Levy is being very stubborn apparently!
Not sure about that figure quoted (hence stubborn chairman I guess) but would dearly hope and pray the new station becomes a reality.
N17 > the sheer volume of people in and around Stratford station on a weekend
Gazza
Did you manage to catch the Paul Gascoigne interview? Ignoring the host, I tuned in regardless. Gazza was the player I idolised when growing up. Even before he signed for us, I was a tad obsessed. Powerful, mesmerising and a genuine personality back when football was football, before it started to self-mutilate. You can cite sadness and tragedy and pity but I prefer to remember his time at Spurs and 1991 in particular when he practically dragged us screaming (with joy) to Wembley before self-imploding on his second visit. He hasn't had a drink for a while, hope he never has one again. Fake breasts practical jokes aside, they don't make footballers like him any more.
I love you Paul.
England
Discussed this on Twitter, I just don't get that emotive kick out of watching England any more. It's not that I'm not patriotic or not proud, just there's a lack of spark and no excitement when we take to the field. Other than perhaps crossing fingers that Scott Parker doesn't get injured. Italia '90; every time I see flashbacks to it, hairs stand on the back of my neck. Euro '96 too. I don't know, perhaps modern football has left me a little disillusioned thanks to my dislike of so many of our untouchable internationals. There is so much wrong with the whole England set-up from grass roots to the FA and the media that I have some how managed to marginalise myself.
The media have always built us up to knock us down and perhaps as underdogs we'll perform better (England Expects no more) but there's a sense that club football has surpassed national aspirations. For me at least. Once upon a time had you asked me 'World Cup or Spurs title win?' - I would have struggled to answer it. I probably need to go away and think about this in more detail because I know it seems like I'm abandoning my country but I'm not doing so because we're 'not that great' or always under-achieve. I'm seasoned at disappointment, considering what the 1990s were made of supporting Spurs. Even under Graham and the pre-Jol 'era' before Martin rebooted us, I never considered turning my back on my club.
Why have I allowed myself to turn my back ever so slightly on my country?
Death and taxes
Jan trial for Harry. No surprise there. Either they're p*ssing in the wind or have more than enough evidence to make an example out of him. Will be embarrassing (considering how high profile Redknapp is) for the HMRC to go to court only to see the case thrown out or found in favour of England's next manager©. Harry has always been confident, laughing it off. Bravado I'm sure. Fact is, I can't influence or change anything relating to this court case and anyone associated with the club (manager, coach, player, whatever) are simply custodians of the shirt I adore. Daniel Levy appointed him and it has worked a treat. We have stability and we have swagger. Regardless of what happens (he could be found innocent of any wrong-doing, he could be found guilty, he could be found guilty and be sentenced, etc) and whether he is with us next season or not, the club will still be looking forwards. Levy, no doubt, has had contingency plans drafted for months and months.
And let's be honest. This is THFC. It wouldn't be THFC if there was no drama unrelated to football at some point.
The window; can you feel the draft?
Bale to Barca. I'm sure I saw a few 'headlines' covering this. That's the Jan transfer window gossip-puking machine being switched on, very gently humming as it builds up to full motion come 2012. It's November, if its early enough for Coca-Cola to start showing their Xmas ads then its early enough for half of our players to be linked with moves away.
Movember Update (day 14)
Movember update.
Visit The_Fighting_Cock 'My mo space page'.
We've also been updating the page and the thread over at The Fighting Cock forum with weekly photos and updates on the growth and styling of our majestic moustaches.
To donate or join the team, click on the link and ‘donate to my team’ or ‘join team’. Rejoice the 30 day journey of moustachery.
Almost at the half-way mark of the month now, and I'm still sporting the Lemmy look that is being mistaken for the Village People Blue Oyster club moustache. Classy.
The Fighting Cock
It's a podcast. It's on itunes. It's also hosted here on DML but its the website you need to be visiting - click here to see it. You can listen to the pods, sign up to the forum and generally get involved with all the debauchery. Your mother is welcome too. Blogger wannabes/contributors also most welcome. Our fledgling community accepts all lost souls. We all know how fragmented Tottenham fans are (especially on-line) so if you've been rejected from one of those forbidden closed off message boards or simply want to mix your football with topical matters such as how to execute the camp-fire method, feel free to pop in and say hi.
16 episodes in we've decided to have ourselves a logo make-over which will go live later on this evening (click on the image below for a countdown...yes, a countdown because we're nerdy like that).
@RickyTFC @ChicagoDanTFC @Flav_Bateman @tehTrunk
@TheloniousFilth @Alex_Prole @Spooky23 @sibsTHFC
www.thefightingcock.co.uk
Not that we actually have a logo at the minute. Hence the necessity. If you listen to the pod and can't get through the first 10 minutes of random chat but take the time to post your abuse about not liking it, remember its not you rejecting us, its us filtering you out ;)
Love the shirt.
Reader Comments (19)
Wondered where you had got to. Welcome back. I hate these international breaks!!
Gleaned from places where you glean things from....
Wet Spam - cold feet, so how do we get out of this? A. Ask the fans.
Boris and NDP - announcement within 3 weeks (hopefully)
Engerrllaaand - Darren Bent - 'nuff said
Harry - we all prey all will be ok, but then Engerlland will come calling. He's patriotic you know.
Bale to Barca for £35m? Hahahahaha.........................................at the moment.
England - am with you on that.... I don't even get excited when we're in a tournament!
Levy/Tax - according to what I've seen, HMRC are moaning about approx £250k of payments made by Mandaric to one of Harry's Monaco bank accounts. I could be mistaken, but don't most millionaires have accounts abroad to avoid paying tax?!? Maybe the issue is more that to do that you have to spend a certain %age of time in that country. It would say if anything happens it will be Mandaric who goes to prison and Harry will get a fine.
Daily Mail reporting that we're close to agreeing a £100k per week contract for Modric...... though they say he won't sign it until next summer and only if we qualify for CL.
Not impressed with you flouting the rules of Mo by essentially growing a beard...
...whereas I, well, I look like Freddie bloody Mercury!!
It's stubble and I need a shave.
the cartoon at the top always used to feature a fine crop of jet black hair. now it is a bald head. have you become so obsessed with Daniel levy that you are now copying his 'hairstyle'?
You read me like a book.
Scotty was too old, remember ? Haven't seen a better performance in front of a back four since . . . . . . . well, Ledley in 1947 or whenever it was.
just remembered who Parker looks like with his new hair. it's taken me ages, but it finally cme back to me. Go to YouTube and check out talking heads - anything from the stop making sense extravaganza will do, but go for Psychokiller, since it's a great song anyway. Then see for yourself - our Scotty bares an absolutely uncanny resemblance to a young David Byrne.
Having seen an old David Byrne selling out on some shit dance track a few years back, I conclude that scotty ain't gonna age too well...
i dont get alot of free time, but like 15 mins just browsing the net for a footy read each day. of which they dont come much better than this 1. loved this article mate.
paul gascoinge is the best footballer england has ever had and will be for a long time to come. i was there when he destroyed arsenal at wembly 3-1. one of the most amazing days out ever!
Gaza like Greaves was one of the greats who was touched with a touch of frailty, lets hope he really has turned his life around. It says a lot, that despite all his antics and troubles, most Spurs supporters are still very protective of him.
As to England, I agree mostly with the exception being that you say the set up is all wrong from the grass roots to the FA. Where I differ is that I think it is from the FA to the grass roots. Words cannot describe how inept the FA is (look at the Capello re-appointment after the farce of the World Cup) and it is that ineptitude that flows downwards not upwards. As to the media it is corrupt and is used by clubs and agents in the most unethical way and we are bracing for another dose in the January wndow..
The sound of a new train station near WHL is music to my ears.
spurs muaythai , I love Gazza, but I dont think he is even the best English player that Spurs have ever had, let along England as a whole. I definitely put Hoddle ahead of him, an absolute master who - unlike Gazza - was just as good (if not better) when he played abroad. I used to go to WHL early and stand at the front of the Shelf just to watch Glenda warm up. Even in the kickabouts they used to do by way of a warm up in the old days, he was head and shoulders above everyone else - and remember that included the likes of Ardilles. Simply brilliant. Had he been born in Holland or France he would be held in the same regard as Cruyff and Platini today. Sadly for him he was born into the Neandethal world of English football in the 70s and 80s, and suffered from England managers - Bobby Robson included - who couldnt find the guts to build a team around him.
Jimmy Greaves was also a better player in my opinion.
But...no doubt Gazza was brilliant. Just goes to show how spoiled we were from the 60s to the very early 90s. We really did have some of the best players in the world. Aside from the English boys, you can throw Blanchflower, McKay, Ardilles etc into the mix. Only Man U could claim a similar succession of world class players during that time (Best, Law, Charlton, Robson), although L'pool clearly had the best team. Arsenal had NOBODY that comes close. Laim Brady probably the best of a very average bunch indeed.
plastic gooner morgan put me off watching the Gazza interview but he was the best player by a mile in my time as a fan (Pompey away in the cup - how mental does our end go when he scores?), loved him dearly and still do, altho Glenn (just before my time) has the aura of a deity which is pretty cool. New station? presumably a rebuild of the existing one? And just coz it was so funny, does anyone else remember seeing Karen Brady's son/nephew telling her to f- off after the game at Wigan that sent them down last May? lol.
Hey Spooky, I haven't been on here for a while myself. Are you still 'writing' letters to Levy (which were really cool) or are you now a half breed of Harry Hotspur and forum stuff?
Be great if you concentrated on the stuff you based the blogs name on again. Just saying bruv..
Easy tiger with the insult. No more of that ilk of language please.
Letters were easy to write when we were shit. I'm hoping we're shit again soon so that I rediscover my mojo. Having said that, I do have one in the works.
Seriously though, go back a week or two/three and I wrote some decent stuff. Be good to have feedback when I'm doing right, not just when doing wrong ;)
Could never watch Piers Moron, I like my swanky new TV too much to risk it.
Gazza is a legend who if he were playing today would be criticised as being the type of 'luxury' player that spurs have always had, (still seem to have as wll with the likes of the much dicusses VDV).
Politcians have acted as we the cynical public expected, so why al the shock / horror? Oh that's right it's Morons former employees at News Int shit stirring in between transfer windows.
That 'yellow ticker of FACT' doesn't write itself you know.
6 more days until spurs play again. *sigh*
John Johnson , what is your point? You don't read this blog but you want the author to write more letters?
Piers the TOff Morgan.Acts like a gooner,arrogant, and full of his own self importance.As to the great players debate.In fairness all clubs have at some time and stage,had a great player on there books.Even the arse,so it really all comes down to opion and in the majority of cases,the bais'ness of whom one supports.For example the gooners would throw up at us.Henri/Bergkamp.Then I would say yeah,but defenders were not allowed to tackle,as in days gone by.If they had had some one of the calibre of a Dave Mackay or chopper Harris up there backsides.They would not have looked so great.Then again that could be said of a good many others.