- Sunday’s referee likes home wins, sees few fouls and waves lots of cards
- Arsenal’s misfortunes. Is it really the case that everything is going against the club?
- Untold on Radio 5 this Sunday, the Sun predicts fixtures and North London Forever
By Nitram and Tony
There is an article in the Guardian headed “Daniel Levy, Spurs’ Pelé of debt structuring, may yet be vindicated” which in essence suggests that “Spurs are so well run they could basically exist outside Uefa competitions and make enough money”
And while we were pondering that one, we read on to find this review of Conte’s past management activities. “Arezzo went bankrupt. Bari went bankrupt. Siena went bankrupt. Juventus were docked points for iffy financial dealings. Chelsea almost went out of business after being bankrolled by a Kremlin-connected oligarch. Internazionale have been a basket case on and off for years.”
So could Tottenham’s finances fall over? The article doesn’t suggest this will happen under the convicted felon who owns the club, but notes that if the current owner sold the club he could make £1bn profit. And it asks, “Do we want precarious, manic success, the high that brings the low? Or a sustained, carefully medicated sobriety?”
Clearly, Tottenham fans don’t want sustained carefully medicated sobriety. Nor do they want to be reminded of the league table, which shows Tottenham eight points above Wolverhampton and thus the relegation spots; 23 points behind Arsenal.
The BBC noted on 30 Oct 2024 that Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou said he “always” wins a trophy in his second season. So maybe they will although…. they are currently only one point over half Arsenal’s number of points in the league. In the last 11 League matches they have won one (against the mighty Southampton), drawn two (against Fulham and Wolverhampton) and lost eight including the last two against Everton and Leicester City.
And yet Tottenham still get a good press. It’s basically about the different ways Arsenal and Tottenham are portrayed in the media.
There is an article from Rory Smith of The New York Times on the BBC web site, which contains the phrase, “you could interpret the last 24 years as a success for Tottenham,” adding that Tottenham are “a modern super club,” with the author questioning what big changes their fans actually want to see!
It is such a cockeyed argument it is worth seeing how the writer managed it. He argued that Tottenham are “part of the elite and that’s because they’ve been run really judiciously – they’ve sold well and sometimes bought well. You can quibble about how well they’ve appointed managers over the years and they’ve certainly been too impatient at times.
“They’ve moved into an amazing new stadium, they’ve got this incredible commercial revenue, they’ve done all these things – they’re a modern super club.”
But after some more of the same sort of chitchat we get to the point that ‘Smith feels like Tottenham haven’t been able to “take it on to the natural next step” and it is this that has caused most of the unrest for supporters.’
It is quite amazing how despite the massive disparity in achievements between Arsenal and Tottenham, not just over the last 30 years or more, but even the last decade or so, it is still Tottenham that are seen as a success and Arsenal as an abject failure. You only have to read today’s media and look back over the last couple of seasons to see how we are constantly derided as failures, and are always one game away from a disaster, whilst our neighbours are always on the brink of success. One good buy from the perfect team. One big win from that elusive trophy they so deserve.”
And so to the NY Times and Rory Smith who is the chief football writer, who clearly believes that “Tottenham are a Modern Day Super Club.” While speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Monday Night Club, Smith said: “I think Spurs are in a tricky position as a club and as a fanbase – to an extent you could interpret the last 24 years as a success for Tottenham”.
And as Untold does like to verify journalistic ramblings against the facts, we can see exactly what Tottenham have achieved over those 24 years for Mr Smith to interpret them as a success.
And yes over that period Tottenham has indeed won a trophy. The league cup. Over that same period Arsenal have won two League titles and seven FA cups and that hasn’t exactly stopped the media from calling Arsenal abject failures has it?
So Tottenham have “moved into an amazing new stadium, they’ve got this incredible commercial revenue, they’ve done all these things,” while Arsenal haven’t. Tottenham have “been to a Champions League final, they were regulars in the Champions League – that feels like success.”
Although their six times in 14 years in the Champs League pales into insignificance when compared to Arsenal’s 19 years on the trot, that yet again didn’t stop the media from calling us abject failures, for not winning it.
The article continues, “It strikes me that what Spurs want and need more than anything is a change of culture – they look at a squad decimated by injuries in January and they put £30 – 40 million into it to get through to the end of the season rather than always trying to survive on a shoestring.”
A shoestring? Really? In the last five years the Premier League Net Spending figures show Tottenham as the third biggest spendes…
- Chelsea: £-772.27m.
- Manchester United: £-539.16m.
- Tottenham: £-473.23m.
- Arsenal: £-469.33m.
- Newcastle: £-360.5m.
- West Ham: £-272.17m.
- Manchester City: £-263.01m.
- Liverpool: £-248.13m.
Despite that it is Arsenal, and not Tottenham who get constant abuse about how much we have spent, and this despite the fact that Arsenal’s spending has taken them from eighth to two second-place finishes, and challenging again, whilst Tottenham’s spending has taken them from 4th to 15th in the premier league
You couldn’t make this up, but actually they do.
