Tottenham is burning
Friday, April 8, 2011 at 12:02PM Dear Mr Levy,
As you gleefully play your lyre, singing arias whilst watching the death and destruction as Tottenham Hotspur burns to the ground as you look down from the comfort of your own personal Maecenas...ask yourself, when the fire is extinguished...who shall you blame? Who will take responsibility for this calamity? From the ashes, will you build on the devastated land a palace for your ego and eunuchs? Will you blame us, the common man, citing Stratford as a catalyst?
Or will you be overthrown?
What’s that? It’s too late? This is fidelity? It sure is. Faithfulness to your own beliefs to the bitter end.
I can only hope Chirpy is caught in the fire too. I think he’s best served up on a plate with a dab of jerk seasoning and Piri Piri sauce. You see, much like my feathered friend, I have a permanent expression of comedic shock on my face. Is this really happening? Are you truly sitting back in your throne eating grapes and watching this despondency and dismay play out before your eyes?
Why do you not listen to the people and their cries for help? Even your soldiers show discontent with their general. But that’s the crux of it isn’t it? You appointed the general yourself having removed your second in command. No more director of football. A wheeler dealer in his place. But we’re not fooled, then and now. We never wanted him in the first place. Any half decent coach would have kick-started our season when we sat bottom of the table. And now, two seasons later, we look set to return to the mediocrity that almost engulfed us. We are stagnating. Sideways stepping when it’s abundantly clear we should be 10, 12 points better off.
When you look for your scapegoat and make an example out of him be sure to remember that the blame should be shared between the both of you.
You for sticking with him and him for making nothing stick.
Where would you like me to start? How about I just throw one or two statements of facts your way and see how much of it you manage to catch? You may need to place your lyre down for a moment.
Two transfer windows and not an inkling of a world class forward. Instead, we’re left rotating the three stooges whilst we try to accommodate a midfielder who is best played centrally but is instead used in the hole in a tragically flawed 4411 formation that rarely proves to be fruitful. If we had two proper forwards signed in the summer along with a fully-fledged right back, a central defender to cover expertly when Gallas and Dawson are not available and in addition a new goalkeeper and better quality cover for Bale on the wing – we’d be challenging for the title. Instead we are struggling to remain in 5th spot whilst being humiliated in Europe because we have no tactical astuteness to go to Madrid and get a decent result whilst multi-tasking the domestic games.
Don’t give me all this propaganda about the red card and Lennon’s illness. We should have reshaped comfortably and contained Madrid with the odd counter thrown in for good measure. I reckon a 2-1 loss, possibly even 2-2 was more than achievable. If José Mourinho was our manager do you honestly believe we’d have lost 4-0? Do you? Of course not. Harry proving he can’t hack it at the highest level, completely at fault for our surrender and capitulation. Perfect for England.
Let’s go back to the summer again and the New Year. The failure to sign a forward. We get offered a midfielder, rejected from his club, and we lap it up because how can a donkey possibly deny itself from taking a bite out of the dangling carrot? Everybody knows that if van der Vaart had not been signed we’d have been forced to play a traditional 442 system and Defoe, Crouch and Pav would have scored a bundle domestically and in Europe.
Then again, probably not. Neither of them are world class and last season’s fourth spot finish was nothing more than good fortune rather than managerial shrewdness. Because our manager, mugged in Madrid (a second time), doesn’t have the knowhow on how to beat the big teams and inspire the side when the going gets tough. It’s all sound bites with him isn’t it? We’re under achieving and he’s still trying to enforce a down to bare bones mantra to hide the truth and his deficiencies.
In the New Year we should have signed Carroll. He's have been fit and able round about now to make it for the push. £35M well spent rather than sitting in your bank account earning interest.
The form of some of our players has been down to luck and aided by circumstance and nothing to do with his man-management. Bale was always going to come good. Modric was always best suited for the middle of the park. BAE was always a decent left-back. It's more than obvious. The team picks itself unless the team picked loses meaning a different team should have been picked in its place to start with although if tactical changes are made they should only be referenced if they don’t work and ignored if they do work. But mostly they don’t. Which is why we’re 5th with a handful of games to go and about to be (already) knocked-out of the CL in the quarter-finals.
We got rid of dos Santos and Taarabt – two players destroying their respective leagues with their new clubs, be it the former on loan the latter sold. We could have done with dos Santos mental strength and Taarabts composure. It's painful, the schoolboy errors witnessed. Painful.
We’re always playing our Plan B which means Plan B is in fact Plan A which points to the fact that if Plan B is Plan A then what is Plan B if Plan B is A and Plan A is actually Plan B masquerading as Plan A? With better players we’d be in are far better position than we find ourselves in.
We’ve done ourselves no favours with our European adventure which has simply papered over the cracks. What’s the point in progressing in the Champions League when we’re meant to be competing for a top four finish so we can qualify for it the following season? It’s all about the qualification, not the taking part. We’re never going to win it so why bother trying? It’s an absolute mess. And it pains me to witness my beloved club falling apart at the seams with bickering and in-fighting, dressing room afloat, lost in a sea of despair. What with squad trimming immediate, I expect us to lose Bale, Modric and van der Vaart in the immediate summer months – but we won’t fret as the profit will go towards signing that elusive world class striker leaving us with no midfield to create chances for him.
Disaster. Everywhere I look. Disaster.
You wanted back to basics? You got back to basics. This is football 101 and our ploy of ‘running around and kicking the ball a lot’ has finally collapsed in on itself.
The end is nigh. The fire started with a single match lit by your hands, Daniel, with further fuel added to the flames by Harry. It’s criminal that we’ve failed to compete with consistency and cohesiveness. We find ourselves in this position solely because of your mismanagement of the transfer windows and Harry’s player favouritism and abandoned first teams dumped out on loan. At least under Comolli we had direction, drive. All we have now is a manager winging it with battered feathers taking to the air for as long as a penguin can jump above ground.
Still playing your lyre, Emperor Levy? Your arrogance and self-preservation has once more destroyed all hope in N17. The blind leading the blind, you allow your general to march us into an untenable position and yet more failure. A battle that simply cannot be won. The dream is over. It's hart no longer white, but burnt black from the fire.
Play your lyre, watch us burn away. Watch us all burn away.
Yours tragically,
Spooky
Reader Comments (61)
Spooks,
Stepping back done.
Just felt that you were mocking us because we dared to question Harry. Yet according to most "we are playing the best football we've ever played".
Maybe I'm still hurting from Tuesday and last Saturday but I'm really scared for us.
Are we becoming a glorified Stoke?
Long ball/route 1/Knock downs/call it what you like/ is now the "Tottenham way".
The Kranjcar and Pav situations worry me. They are our only realistic hope for a goal but they can't even get 10mins in 180. The "Favourites" who keep them away have 2goals each entire season. My fear is that Krank and Pav and will leave and we'll be left with Crouch and Jenas.
Aren't we the new Pompey? Jenas and Crouch are among the poorest players in their respective positions in the world! Where will we take them when Harry leaves?
Trying to blame a sick Lennon for the Madrid fiasco? Man management? Lennon is furious. See tweets. Anyone who attacks Lennon is an enemy of Spurs.
We havent won since Feb. We've forgotten how to score (4 consecutive games, 360mins, 6hours of football!) We average less than a goal a game in the last 15 games. Yet we still persist with Crouch and his knockdowns - while Pav sits and watches from the bench.
Harry has done his best and we appreciate. But I appreciated more before I took note of his media manipulation and newfound arrogance.
Harry seems to have us in a chokehold. No one can question him. Levy has really set himself up. Should he attempt to even appear to be planning for change, the media will hang him. Harry knew what he was doing all along - thus the "two points, eight games" line.
We are dealing with a seasoned media manipulator. A superselfish conman. Getting ourselves out is going to be a murky affair.
Spooky, I didn't say it was a bad thing. You, like other blogs, give us a platform to write our nonsense/wisdom. I appreciate it. I actually think a fair amount of distance/objectivity from the authors of blogs is required to keep the comments from becoming too one sided and pally. Although I was glad you made your feelings clear on Stratford.
Are pav and/or kranky half as good as many of us (myself included) believe they are? I'm not so sure to be honest ...
The post either says a lot, or nothing, depending on where you sit. Personally, I'm dissapointed as I feel it says nothing.
Just poetry mate, love it but the comments page is really confusing (confused?). Why are people so literal? You'd think the world was made in 7 days by a bloke with a beard the way some of them have reacted.
If we ever got a manager that could equal the brilliance of Levy, we would rule the world. Without him, in this modern era, we would truly be nothing. He is our "#enger". I read (past tense) all of spooky's blog, and it is ambigious, so I just felt like letting people know the opinion of I'm sure a lot THFC fans.
I love these, and I love even more that some people think they're serious. Reminds me of conservatives in America liking Stephen Colbert because they think he's real and not a satirical character.
Spooky got to admit it your either on drugs or got some balls !!!!
I have had severe misgivings about "Our Arry" for some time. Yes he came in at the lowest point in our PL history, yes we only had 2 from 8, yes we have had the best season in recent memories etc etc etc
But lets look at the otherside of the coin...
BACK LINE.....We are in crisis WHY??? We have allocated two squad places to players who are never going to put in a full shift (yes i am reffering to King & Woodgate) greatest respect and admiration for both players but FFS if you had a car that broke down like these two ???? course you would get shot of it, sentiment is for fucking idiots. We have talent aplenty for the back line BUT....oh thats right they are out on loan !!!!
MIDFIELD .......Probably the potential to have one of the best midfields in the PL we have speed on the wings, muscle and tenacity from Sandros & Palacios and creative genius and flair Hudd & Modric, a heap of good squad players and then JENAS (sorry I have to highlight him as the weakest link)
STRIKERS ..... Each has his own attributes BUT they cannot play together and none are capable of playing a lone striker role, As much as crouchie has scored a few VITAL goals I am sorry he is not the playmaker Harry think, he is SO SO predictable any player with half a brain can neutralise him.
MANAGER..... Jose must have laughed his cock off when he saw Harrys formation...he knew he had us beat from the outset...What was the pre match statement "We are going to attack" Fuck Off Harry dont you mean we are going to but a marker up front and play long ball to him so he can Knock down and the opposition can clear it away. What happened then "Oh fuck we are down to 10 lets put our backs to the wall and stick with VDV" who we know is not able to play the role and subsequently ended up playing defensive midfield...
Once again anyone with half a brain could see within 5 mins that wasnt going to work BUT...it took Harry nearly 30 mins.......
AT LAST decided to alter tactics (Cos we were only 1 goal down) he displayed a wonderful understanding of the game....He put on the smallest striker we have to play a lone striker role against some of the best defenders in the world ?????
What happened then was a fiasco Defoe didnt stand a chance ..We managed to Hoof the ball out of our 18yd box Defoe did his best to retrieve and hold but within seconds Real had possession again and were attacking......Result inevitable
Either put on a second striker or take him off and strengthen the midfield and play on the break
AH WHAT THE FUCK DO I KNOW (about as little as Harry Rednapp)
"Just poetry mate, love it but the comments page is really confusing (confused?). Why are people so literal? You'd think the world was made in 7 days by a bloke with a beard the way some of them have reacted."
It wasn't made in 7 days? But Jack, it's written in the Bible.... it must be true..........
COYSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Great analysis Wandering Yid. BTW...its 3-2 at ht against Stoke. Long balls working a bit.
wow.......people should really read the comments page before posting.....
spooky, ambiguity at its best, not quite bremner bird and fortune but a nice piece. You certainly capture many of the competing emotions in my head and heart.
stoke at home, lost that last year 0-1, (funnily enough i remember screaming at lennon to man up when he left the field due to injury when we had used all of our subs, why is there always a symetry to these things !?)*
3-2 this year, nicely done, good management from Harry to play Crouch, would have been so easy to not have. Risky too mind, but fair play, it worked.
Results elsewhere going our way also, still not quite given up on 4th yet, maybe you're prediction about the mighty citeh imploding will come true after all eh?
And as for Madrid, whatever happens will be for the best, i just hope that there can be a little swagger on the way (through or home, matters not)
COYS
* just to state that i do not hold Lennon responsible for any of last weeks issues. Lenin may have a lot to answer for and that Franco chap, but not azza blud.