What has happened to our club? The club that everyone looked forward to watching, because we played such good football, the players we had were top class, and we even finished fourth. We were fantastic to watch, and we were easily the top side in North London, regardless of what the table may have said. That season where we had Bale, Modric, Parker and Van Der Vaart are times that I will never forget. But, as per usual, within a season, three of these stars were gone. How did we invest that transfer money? Moussa Dembele, who struggles to get into our side now, and Gylfi Sigurdsson, who left to go back to Swansea, that’s how. That left one superstar in our side, and he finally had a chance to show his ability.
And my, oh my, didn’t he show it. Under the guidance of Andre Villas Boas (who in hindsight shouldn’t have been sacked), Bale single handedly dragged us to fifth place, and was easily the best player in the league. So what did we do? What did we do to our only world-class player? We sold him to Real Madrid, who at the time was slowly becoming the club who stole our best players. We had become Madrid’s feeder club just a few years after we had faced them in the Quarter Final of the Champions League. Now, I will admit that at the time It helped fans to point the finger at someone to take the blame for the Bale sale, when in reality it would be difficult to turn down that sort of money for a player who didn’t want to stay, and even refused to play and train for the club. Levy, being the businessman he was, spent the Bale money before we had even got it. He knew we would be able to pay it all back. But whom did we spend it all on?
Oh yeah, we spent it on players who are awful and couldn’t kick a ball straight even if their life depended on it. The players who were brought in to the club aren’t good enough to play for Tottenham Hotspur. Yet, in all fairness, no one could have predicted how badly Soldado and Lamela have been, but despite that, the rest of them haven’t performed to the highest standard. We wasted £85 million on absolute rubbish, and with the exception of Christian Eriksen and maybe Nacer Chadli, none of them were good enough in their first season.
That brings us onto this season. Could these players prove themselves to be worth the money we paid for them? Well, no they haven’t, and if it wasn’t for Harry Kane, who we didn’t actually pay money for, we would be mid table at best, and that’s the worrying sign for Tottenham. Spurs bought all these players, sold their best players and the only one who has been keeping them going is a youth player who was sent out on loan about seven thousand times, and even he has gone quiet recently. Where has our attacking flair gone? It goes into the debate of whether you would want attacking football and not win, or be defensive yet win. At this moment in time, I dispel myself from the debate because team is boring but doesn’t win, and don’t play attacking football yet still lose.
When you look back to our previous teams and wonder what has happened, there is no point in placing the blame on a sole individual. It is more than one person’s fault for what has happened, but rather than blame people, why don’t we just support our team, and hope that the club get the transfer business right. The last time all Spurs fans were behind a manager was Martin Jol in 2008. 7 years of a split fan base cannot be healthy for any club. As I have said many times before, Tottenham Hotspur are the southern equivalent to Newcastle. We get good players and when they show that they can take the club in a positive direction, we sell them, and buy nobody’s and hope that one of them can be sold on for profit.
Yes, mistakes have been made, and the club could have done better, but as a fan base and as the loyal supporters we are, we need to show that no matter what happens, we are behind our team and not fly planes over the Lane or have a mass exodus of fans. Just a bummer seeing Modric and Bale lift the Champions League last season and we got stuck with Emmanuel Adebayor and Paulinho!
