By Tony Attwood
Arteta didn’t mince his words over Saturday, saying “We are very disappointed and very, very angry as well,” he said. “I never felt that we were at the level that is required and I am very much responsible for that. We have to look in the mirror at ourselves of what we can do better, what we have done and the will and the desire and the way we run and the way we want it.”
Meanwhile we heard that legal papers have been served in the $70m legal claim against Newcastle Untied’s chairman. He is being sued for “having allegedly conspired with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in a campaign with the ‘malicious intent of destroying’ the family of the state’s former intelligence chief, Dr. Saad Aljabri.”
Al-Rumayyan is the governor of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund that purchased 80% of Newcastle United a while back and had the Newcastle supporters parading round the city with sheets tied to their heads. He also seems to be a friend of President Trump and is chair of Saudi Aramco, which sponsors FIFA, Formula 1 and the International Cricket Council.
The Newcastle case is one of claim and counterclaim among members of the same family and does question the “legally binding assurances” that we were told were given that Saudi Arabia would not control Newcastle. The claim now is that the public investment fund of Saudi Arabia is not the state, which seems a bit feeble from the outside given the way Saudi Arabia is funded through its oil exports.
In more amusing news Tottenham Ho have instructed (yes INSTRUCTED) radio and TV stations not to refer to the club as “Tottenham.” At least that won’t worry us too much because we are always happy to oblige with an alternative name, but for the club apparently “Tottenham Hotspur” is acceptable as is “Spurs”.
This rather bonkers development of telling broadcasters which name to use appeared in an email which The Athletic uncovered
Now as one who was born and brought up in Tottenham, I must admit it certainly wasn’t a particularly nice area when I lived there just off the Wood Green end of White Hart Lane (so undisturbed by the club lurking at the other end). The “club” as apparently it still likes to be known, apparently feels that “Tottenham” as the area of London in which they are based, is an appropriate name for the club. Apparently the Tiny Totts argue that neither Manchester United nor Manchester City are referred to simply as “Manchester”
This of course shows the total lack of understanding of not just the real world but any sort of world, by the club and its administrators. To call a club Manchester would leave listeners or readers unsure of which club was being talked about, so people often call the clubs “City” and “United”. Because we like to be awkward we call the ManC and ManU.
But there is no other Tottenham club of note (although one might argue there is not any club of note called Tottenham) so this seems a bit silly. However, there is one way in which the club might have a point. As many have noted, matches at the Tottenham Ho stadium are often quite slow and uninteresting, and so a commentator using the five syllable name “Tottenham Hotspur” rather than the monosyllabic “Spurs” does use up more time when nothing is happening on the pitch. So I can see the club’s point – the long name does cover up the lack of on-pitch activity.
The Tiny Totts have also issued a new club badge, which is exactly the same as the old club badge but without the words “Tottenham Hotspur”. The decision to make this change apparently came after their design consultants took nine months to decide what on earth to do with the badge. In the end removing the club name seemed the best way forward, and I guess those of us who know the club’s history of just two League titles in 129 years since entering the Southern League and then later transferring to the Big Boys league, can understand why.
It is all a bit silly but the club did give us all a laugh at the end saying, “In a world full of Uniteds, Citys and Rovers, there is only one Hotspur and therefore the club should always be referred to in full, TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR or TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR FOOTBALL CLUB.” (Their capitals not mine).
It’s all very different from Arsenal where the name changed from Dial Square to Royal Arsenal, then to Woolwich Arsenal, then The Arsenal and finally Arsenal. But the club never once had the notion of telling either the supporters or media what name to use. We still sometimes chant “The Arsenal” – and why not?
It will be interesting to see how much of the media will kowtow to this latest Totty edict. But one thing is for sure. We’ll still call them the Tiny Totts.
It should also be the case that we all stop referring to them as a London Club and start calling them the club from Middlesex!
Footnote: Tony, I must have walked past you a thousand times as I was brought up within minutes of you (although born closer to Highbury….thank heavens!) and had the misfortune of going to school in White Hart Lane. Any chance you were at the same school?
Another day another round of endless attacks on Arsenal, inevitably led by managerial disaster that is G Neville, and sadly swallowed gleefully by wat too many of our own, supposed fans. As I say. Sad.
I was listening to the BBC 5 Live radio commentary of the Newcastle game yesterday and in the build up to the Liverpool game the studio commentary team gleefully reported it would be a good time for Notts Forest to play Arsenal as both teams were suffering from a serious loss of form! The rather mean spirited continuity links person with a rather
large degree of vitriol went onto to say that Arsenal, even in the last 5 games, when Liverpool weren’t playing their best had dropped more points than LIverpool. Now this was conveniently including the loss to West Ham but even then Arsenal had only one less point than Liverpool. If he had gone back six games & not 5. Arsenals form was 2 points better than Liverpool and even he gone back 10 games, Arsenals from was still better. So a very spiteful use of the statistics.. Is there any wonder Arsenal ‘fans’ are calling for Arteta out again this morning if they believe all of this manipulated drivel. And anyway, how can one loss in 16 games be presented as a serious loss of form. A serious loss of players, but if they listened to Arteta he is saying that he won’t use this as an excuse. I turned the radio off at that point!