“Tow,” I said, for when faced with a crowd I often put final vowels in words one place earlier than they should be. It’s better than the Emirates.
There was a silence. I went on. Spurs plan to construct a 17,000-seater single-tier stand which will be the biggest in the UK – so the famous White Hart Lane atmosphere won’t disappear into the ether like it did with Arsenal’s new gaff.
“According to the urban dictionary,” said Father Jack who had become extraordinarily coherent on moving to England, and who knew these things, “gaff in this context is the Irish word for ‘house’.”
“Tottenham’s ground can be noisy,” said I, “but it can also be quiet. Same as any ground. You have to be incredibly jurassic to make a noise all the time, no matter what. Do you want to have a chat with your neighbour and hear what is being said, or will grunts suffice? If the latter, build a single tier.”
More nodding took place. I read on…
“With the extra money coming in on the NFL deal, Spurs shouldn’t have to suffer nearly as much financial austerity as Arsenal did when they bought their new stadium. They’ll be able to hit the ground running much more easily.”
“£6m a year for ten years,” said Lisa who knew money things. “That’s £60m”. There was applause for that calculation, for there were still some men from the Northants/Rutland hinterland whose image of women was somewhat backward even for the provinces. “6.6% of the debt before interest, and only to be included in the sums if Tottenham play as many Champions League games as Arsenal. If they stay in the Europa that whole profit and then some is removed and very few clubs if any get 60,000 in the group stages of Europa games.
“Perhaps it was meant to be funny,” I replied. “After all, Bill Nicholson, once said, ‘It’s magnificent to be in Europe, and this club – a club like Tottenham Hotspur – if we’re not in Europe…. we’re nothing, we’re nothing’.”
We contemplated.
“Four. The best players won’t keep leaving,” I read aloud, and there was a-laughing a-plenty.
“Surely they sell them, the players don’t leave. In fact Adebayor, won’t ever leave.” We did more a-nodding.
I continued reading. “Five. It will be a nice stable home for the kids to grow up in.”
We pondered who had come through the ranks without first playing for another club’s first team and then being transferred in. Tottenham’s equivalent to our current team of Wilshere, Coquelin, Bellerin, Gibbs. (We can’t count Walcott and the Ox as they played for Southampton first and Ramsey played 16 times or Cardiff). We thought of Ledley King and Jake Livermore.
“Six. The club is going to remain at home in Tottenham, proving loyalty (probably).” There was silence. “It’s a Woolwich Wanderers joke,” I said. “I don’t think he’s read The Club that Changed Football.”
“What does the Telegraph sports social media writer actually say on that point?” asked the even more coherent Father Jack.
I read on. Tottenham have “stayed put through thick and thin, which might not necessarily give them an on-field advantage but, er… let’s move on.”
We collectively shrugged.
“Seven. They might just have found a manager to stick with.”
Enjoying the earlier collective shrug we now took a collective intake of breath. “Blimey,” said Mrs “the dog”. “Have they no sense of their own tradition?”
“Eight. Daniel Levy has always had a masterplan, and the rest of us are only just starting to see it.”
There was silence. I decided to read on.
“Like Shawshank Redemption’s Andy Dufresne, Levy has been quietly preparing the ground for years, waiting patiently for his chance to strike.
“Only now is he able to crawl right through those disgusting sewers (not actually that dissimilar from Tottenham High Road on a bad day) and out into the open air. He’ll pop over to the bank of increased matchday revenue to pick up a cheque before settling up on the beautiful, sandy shores of regular Champions League football.”
Spontaneous outbursts of applause are always nice, and this one seemed one of the best. We raised our glasses and sang the traditional round of “It’s happened again,” and the meeting broke up at around 5am as we all prepared for another busy day in the office.
Or not, as the case may be.
PS: As we left Sir Hardly turned to me and said, “Was that supposed to be a joke.” I considered my response carefully before hitting him.
Elsewhere….
10 July 2014: Arsenal sign Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona for around £30m. He became an immediate success being the club’s top scorer in his first season and showing an unending drive and passion while on the pitch.
More occasional ramblings: Tony on Facebook.
A twitter @UntoldArsenal
King Tutt!!!
I thought Club Level was expensive, but those extra 500 seats at WHL must be going for £10K a game if it’s going to bring them more revenue.
However, there is one revenue stream we have all missed – secure parking. Spurs could build a massive underground car park, charge a tenner to get in to the match, and £100 to have a fighting chance that no-one has stolen or torched your car in the 90 mins.
I don’t have any particular reason t dislike Tottenham and their fans probably deserve our sympathy. However, the perennial media campaigns predicting their success and announcing that “this will be the year that Spurs.. etc. etc” do generate feelings of hostility. If it were not for this, St. Totterington’s day might be forgotten.
Perhaps, one day, Spurs will have another run in the ECL, but it has been predicted year on year and has not happened yet. Perhaps, one day, Spurs will retain the services of a manager for more than one and a half seasons. I would not wish to bet on either prospect.
The Telegraph article reads like it was written by a spuddie youth blogger.
I’m embarrassed for the Telegrapgh bosses.
The answer to the big question is ‘of course they could become bigger but that would take them years and years of success’.
Man City is a good example. They’ve had lots of money pumped into them for what, 10 odd years now and have had some silverware in that time (more than us!) but their global footprint isn’t as big as ours yet. It’ll take an awful lot of years of the Spuds being very successful and us achieving very little before they become a bigger club rather than a smaller club with a slightly bigger ground.
LOL. You guys are so sad!
I am a Spurs supporter and I enjoyed your piece. Banter is a big part of the passion of our clubs and let’s face it it wouldn’t be as much fun if we didn’t have each other. think you would miss us if we weren’t there. It was good fun reading similar to hearing Wilshere trying to put together three sentences…!
would anyone have predicted Chelsea and Man City being classed as giant forces in the game 20 years ago? Bournemouth in the premier league anyone? Spurs have always spent the money, but cr@p managers prevented success…..If the world best formula one car is driven by a 2nd rate driver, its never gonna win the title……I’d say if Spurs buy well and Poch improves the way they play. Then it could be squeaky bum time at the Emirates.
I’ve got no problems with Spurs and having lived in an area that was probably split 50/50 between us had many friends who supported them.
Potentially they could (and maybe even should ) be as big as any club in the world, but somehow it never really happened for them and apart from some cup successes they’ve not really achieved in a way that a club with their ambitions should have.
Will a new K60 plus stadium make a difference? Most likely, but like us they will struggle with money issues for the first period, but somehow it never seems to work out for them however they are fixed financially, so I see no change in their “fortunes” and they will continue in our shadow, but occupying a world class stadium.
Can they ? of course they could . They were as I grew up in Kentish Town in the turn of the 1950’s and 60’s. It’s all cyclical and they could be again. We built a very nice extremely practical stadium user friendly but leaning on the corporate side. It is quite possible that with this wall of sound Spion Kop nearer the pitch idea that their stadium might be more supporter friendly.
We like to poke fun at them from our current position but in truth they are the same as you and me , just born on the other side of the blanket. They have their own traits and probably are noisier than us and most of their traditional support lives in the same outer regions of North London’s overspill as ours . If our support can afford the exhorbitant prices to fill our place so can they at theirs.
They will suffer as they put the scheme in action but will be stronger after a while as will Chelsea and West Ham at their new rented subsidised palace. A lot of money is being thrown at Football it might stop at any time . Clubs that make provision to self fund by whichever means will be stronger in the long run . With all these new stadiums coming to fruition London’s football rivalries should be secure for some time to come.
And that’s a good thing.
I will bow to the single factor of the Arse “success” over the last 18 years of oneupmanship; the same single factor that the fickle followers of the team from South London call to be removed when things don’t go their way…the same single factor that brought a different brand of football to the Library then Ashburton, a brand more aligned with those Lilywhites of North London. Admittedly drawing admiring glances from the now hugely marketable new world of ‘brand football” where cash is king. So yes, without a certain Mr Wenger, who knows where the Arse would be?!….Would Bruce Rioch still be coach…unlikely as he’s struggled to find any gainful employment since. Wenger’s, Fergusons & Mourinho’s are very thin on the ground, but instead of being appreciative, the Goons believe they would have leapt from mid table playing mind numbingly dull football and enjoyed their success regardless of who was in charge and the single reason for achieving success was then hung out to dry when standards weren’t maintained. Say what you like about the Mancs…but they knew who to thank for their eventual usurping of their pals from Stanley Park. Be thankful of what you have, as nothing lasts forever!
Ged
It’s worth discussing . Many Spurs supporters ( maybe even you ) see this stadium project as a new touchstone for success, but there’s no guarantee as Spurs will have to find a team of quality to play in such world class surroundings. It’s been our albatross , but we’re on the up now and many successes are pretty much assured.
I will bow to the single factor of the Arse “success” over the last 18 years of oneupmanship; the same single factor that the fickle followers of the team from South London call to be removed when things don’t go their way…the same single factor that brought a different brand of football to the Library then Ashburton, a brand more aligned with those Lilywhites of North London. Admittedly drawing admiring glances from the now hugely marketable new world of ‘brand football” where cash is king. So yes, without a certain Mr Wenger, who knows where the Arse would be?!….Would Bruce Rioch still be coach…unlikely as he’s struggled to find any gainful employment since. Wenger’s, Fergusons & Mourinho’s are very thin on the ground, but instead of being appreciative, the Goons believe they would have leapt from mid table playing mind numbingly dull football and enjoyed their success regardless of who was in charge and the single reason for achieving success was then hung out to dry when standards HE set weren’t maintained. Say what you like about the Mancs…but they knew who to thank for their eventual usurping of their pals from Stanley Park. Be thankful of what you have, as nothing lasts forever!
Can they , or is the real question are they ready to , in their own minds ?
“What people think about you is not important. What you think about yourself means everything.”
I think you are all a bit more worried about that club down the road than you are willing to let on…
Also please, try to actually win something (beyond a devalued domestic cup that is) before you get up on your high horses about how fantastic you are.
And finally a prediction for next season
You will begin the season with much fanfare and then in what is becoming traditional now tail off only to start asking for your managers head by christmas.
Then you will squeak into the top 4 and all will be forgiven for another year
rinse, repeat. ad infinitum
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth.”
– Carl Sagan.
You lot are obsessed with the Spurs, you still have this complex deep down that you are nothing but south London interlopers! If you think it is your god given right to be always above the Spurs you really are a sad lot. There is an old saying, what goes around comes around. The Gooners have had a few decades here and there when they have won things so have the Spurs, the Gooners have also had shit decades as well when they have courted relegation. The game is no longer about fans its about money. That’s why you have done better than the Spurs recently, but all that will soon change and they will be able to compete with you on a level playing field. If you believe anything else you really are deluded LOL
As someone has already pointed out, it’s all cyclical. A stadium on it’s own won’t guarantee success, however it will mean Spurs can keep up with the Jones’s financially. A question you guys need to ask yourselves is, Will Arsenal consistently maintain it’s current top 4 position once Arsene Wenger retires? We’ve all seen what’s happened at Manure since Fergie left. What Spurs new stadium (and dare I say it West Ham’s) will mean is that to a certain extent we get back to the days when 7 or 8 sides could perennially compete for the top slots and that’s no bad thing. The only thing that is missing these days is the ability for a just promoted side to establish themselves and win domestic and European silverware a la Nottingham Forest.
LOL excellent article to close the working week 🙂
I laughed a bit and I found it funny. And I am unanimous on this 🙂
I can’t help recalling that during most of WW2, we shared WHL with Spurs as our home ground.
And if by any chance Arsenal FC completely folded for any grievous reason, IMO, it would not take long before true lovers and followers of our national game in North London, joined in supporting Spurs.
This sounds like heresy, but take a moment and think about it. 😉
Nicky – you are right. In the second world war Arsenal played at WHL. In the first world war Tottenham played at Highbury.
Levy is a genius. That is a most interesting analysis of the future. It might of course be true, but you might also remember that last season, rather like our second double season, we started poorly and then did rather well later on.
Sorry you don’t like our cup triumphs of the last couple of years, but I do hope you appreciated the research that went into finding the Nicholson quote.
I read The Telegraph article (8 reasons why Spurs will be bigger than Arsenal). It made me laugh out loud, and not because its thrust is Spurs being bigger than Arsenal due to building a new stadium but because it so poorly written. It is very funny, unintentionally so.
The Torygraph
like
Comrade Boris
who likes
Lewis’ Cayman accounting
who all like the prospect of Comrade Boris bullying some Wonga out of the poor plebs in order to pay for this build (builder still not appointed, so they as in no one has any idea of what the final cost could be. Or you could choose to follow the model that the IOC or FUFA use to work out their budgets…a tried and tested model for inflating costs!
NotOverTheHill mentioned the Planning Application. I don’t believe that Mr.Lewis recognises the authority of the Local Authority, and I imagine that he imagines that it won’t be a hurdle what with his old pal helping to apply some pressure upon proceedings. They are, after all, Neo-Feudalists.
When Arsenal win the PL next season it will suddenly become a devaluated win 🙂
I will say something for Tottenham supporters. The quality of their contributions today, as always when we bring up a Tottenham matter, is vastly superior to the abuse and nonsense without logic that we get from a selection of Man C fans. Not all of course, but some.
Just a point on the “fixated” comment – there is always one. The headline of this blog is “football news from an Arsenal perspective” and I think that is what we have stuck to through the years.
Goonerhaha and tw@t, if there is any blog out there about Arsenal that has supported Wenger from the first article of its existence it is this blog. Don’t you worry we know the impact Wenger has had on our club.
The irony of course is that it was Hoddle that recommended Wenger to the Arsenal board so you should be thanking us for all the success you’ve had since. To a lesser extent you should also thank Sugar for turning down the chance to sign Spurs supporter, Bergkamp.
WalterBroeckx
Indeed, I generalised when implying you all stand together…but you should all stand together
The voice of “Wenger out” was a loud one, and the fact it wasn’t shut down immediately, or even that it was allowed to gather the momentum to be heard does not reflect well on your club or more poignantly, the ‘supporters’ of your club.
I don’t think you can really argue that much of the polish has gone from winning the Domestic cups.
Thats not to say I wouldn’t gladly rip somebodys arm off for Spurs to win the FA Cup again!
My point is, its no longer considered a massive achievement.
If Arsenal win the league they will have earned the respect and the right to belittle Spurs.
But that hasn’t happened for a long time and I can’t honestly see it happening until Mourinho wanders off to pastures new again.
I remember the early 1960’s, ie the period when Spurs won the double. It is amusing when Spurs fans scoff at Arsenal for not having won a “proper” trophy for N years. They must have no sense of irony.
However, they have got Chas and Dave.
Danespur 🙂
I relish Spurs becoming a “proper” football club, it will make our rivalry matches much more worthwhile, after all it’s no fun winning all the time and being rivals with a so called second rate club. Welcome to the big boy league Spurs. 🙂
Once again the article is somewhat correct and somewhat hilarious, nobody knows what will happen after the new ground is complete and all the above is guesswork. What isn’t guesswork is the fact that your ground has never been full, the high figure is based upon season tickets given to boxholders and always counted as used, I have spoken to people who have worked there on match days and they confirm this.
As for the club that changed football, before you over-estimate the work of Wenger I suggest you take a look at the career of Arthur Rowe a Spurs man who is credited with the creation of the push and run (pass and move} game of the Spurs team of the early 50’s, then go on to his coaching in Hungary which was so successful that the Hungarian FA asked for him to come back. Who was it who first thrashed England at Wembley, it was the Hungarians, Wenger’s game is an expansion of that original style.
Spurs have been the more successful club in the past and considering when ENIC took over they were nearly bankrupt one can only consider their rise into a regular top six place in the PL a slow but steady success.
Whilst Spurs cannot claim to be as successful as Wenger’s Arsenal we are just as well supported, in fact our biggest ever gate is 6-7,000 bigger than yours and despite your amazing run in the CL you have won less than Spurs in Europe in fact we were in the quarter finals more recently than you I believe.
Success in the future will depend, unfortunately on income and in this Levy has impressed me, even though we all know his football knowledge is not the best.
Before ridiculous guesswork is passed off as fact all should wait to see what occurs in the future.
As for the new ground it has been hailed by Sporting Venue Architects as the first of a new generation of stadia and supporters and the atmosphere have been paramount in the design
Does this mean – pause for a sharp intake of breath – a change in the balance of power in North London?
Again….
There’s a world lying inside of Spurs fans head, that Spurs is really better than Arsenal. They’re too obsess to make different between dream and reality. Those guys from WHL are needing serious neurotic help. I seriously feel sorry for them. LOL!!
Is it true that Emmanuel Adebayor has converted to I..am? Was he ever a b..n again C……an? If he was, he would never have done this. Did he know the meaning of E…..el? I doubt. Otherwise he wouldn’t have sole his s..l to the d…l. West Hammers, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspurs have all or are deciding to increase their stadium profiles. Arsenal already have this stadium profile advantage over those their 3 London clubs that are now aspiring to catch us in this regard. Should we be stadiumly caught up, what will likely be the consequences against us if we are caught up? I think there will likely be some consequences against us later if we ignore taking the measure now that will forestall those consequences that may likely be staring at us on our faces. (1.) We will longer be proud of been the only London Club that have a modern high tech stadium in the England and the highest seating capacity in London. (2.) The 3 clubs of WHU, THs and Chelsea will generate more money from their gate takings and thus be abled to spend like us or better than us in improving their facilities and at the transfer market. As AFC have not long recovered from self imposed financial constraints and have started to win trophies again, those 3 London clubs could rival us better than ever by winning the titles we are likely to have won, as they will have increased spending power. Will it be a rat race if AFC embark without delays an Emirates Stadium seating capacity expansion project, soonest at the end of the 2015/16 season? Would Ivan Gazidis preferred seen us caught up and even be surpassed by those 3 ambitious London in a year or two? If his answer is no, let him put his head together with that of the Boss, Stan Kroenke, Alishar Usmanov and the Arsenal support group, on how best they can improve the seating capacity at the Emirates Stadium by 10,000 – 15,000. We must not be overtook by Chelsea & Spurs but always be ahead of them, facilities wise.
Goonerhaha, the ‘wenger out’ voice may have been loud but it was very much the minority, unfortunately it got more press than it deserved because of Piers Moron and some other loud idiots.
I agree so so strongly that Wengers retirement will be our biggest potential problem in the coming years.
I’m not so sure I agree that Pog is the only good manager you’ve had recently though, as I really think AVB would have done well eventually. Pretty much none of the players he inherited were suitable for his style and I think Pog would have had problems with them as well. IMO AVBs signings made Pogs job easier (but not easy!).
As has been mentioned, clubs positions are cyclic, but the better a club becomes, the smaller the extremes of the cycle are. We’ve been 1-4 since AW but before that for 20 odd years we were 1-12. It’s a very tough jump from 4-8 (that you’ve been recently) to 1-4, especially with the money Liverpoo, Manure, The Chavs and $iteh have to throw around. If we make the wrong choice replacing AW then we won’t manage to stay there…
Tony, there’s plenty of logic and not much nonsense from us City fans on your latest FFP article if you bothered to look. It might help if you didn’t spout so much nonsense yourself about topics you have little or no knowledge of, then there won’t be quite as many of our lot taking the bait and responding so vigorously 😉 I’ll also suggest you’re comparing apples with oranges here – this is a somewhat light-hearted article which involves a fair bit of banter with your North London rivals. If you published something about Spurs that involved making spurious allegations akin to those you’ve made about City then I suspect the response from the Spurs fans would’ve been less friendly.
Anyway, getting back on topic, as a neutral observer I find this an interesting question. Spurs are a big club no doubt so it would be a little remiss of any Arsenal fan to think they could never be bigger than Arsenal again. However, for it to happen will take a lot of time and will rely on making the right choices both on and off the pitch. The stadium project is a huge step in the right direction which will increase revenues considerably but Spurs will also probably need to be prepared to stop playing such hardball over things like player wages. Levy runs a tight ship but it’s a bit too tight at times. They also have to start giving managers more of a chance – I think Pochettino is a very good manager but they have to give him the tools to do the job to the best of his ability and that means letting him bring in the players he wants to fit into his playing style. If that means loosening the purse strings a little then do it.
It’s a shame really that a subject worthy of discussion eventually gets dragged down by inter club rivalry. I have lived through a period of Spurs dominance and now through one of ours. It is interesting though that since their last league win in 61 they have been happy to point out their 4 F.A Cup successes in the last 54 years which unfortunately now are totally devalued. Quite where that leaves their 4 league cup wins ????
Andy Mack
Agreed that AVB didn’t inherit the right tools and wasn’t given enough time to execute his plan, although he did understand where Bale would hurt teams the most, and that wasn’t isolated on the left…where admittedly there was a Spurs chorus calling for such and to Arry’s failings didn’t have the balls to persevere against crowd management.
Also agree that if Poch is given time (minimum 3 full seasons) we may well have found our own little gem. I understand, appreciate and love the tribalism that football throws up and it wouldn’t be football without it. What irks is the Neanderthals with not appreciative understanding of the game. We all want the best for ours and to see the other lot suffer. But I firmly believe that ultimately decisions made in the boardroom define the future more than any player bought and sold. Imagine….1996 headline…Tottenham appoint Arsene Wenger as head coach…both our clubs would have experienced very different recent pasts I suspect. All ‘we’ hope for (whether or not admitted openly) is that Poch (or the next one, or the next one) will be our Wenger!
Is it true that Emmanuel Adebayor has converted to I..am? Was he ever a b..n again C……an? If he was, he would never have done this. Did he know the meaning of E…..el? I doubt. Otherwise he wouldn’t have sole his s..l to the d…l. West Hammers, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspurs have all or are deciding to increase their stadium profiles. Arsenal already have this stadium profile advantage over those their 3 London clubs that are now aspiring to catch us in this regard. Should we be stadiumly caught up, what will likely be the consequences against us if we are caught up? I think there will likely be some consequences against us later if we ignore taking the measure now that will forestall those consequences that may likely be staring at us on our faces. (1.) We will longer be proud of been the only London Club that have a modern high tech stadium in the England and the highest seating capacity in London. (2.) The 3 clubs of WHU, THs and Chelsea will generate more money from their gate takings and thus be abled to spend like us or better than us in improving their facilities and at the transfer market. As AFC have not long recovered from self imposed financial constraints and have started to win trophies again, those 3 London clubs could rival us better than ever by winning the titles we are likely to have won, as they will have increased spending power. Will it be a rat race if AFC embark without delays an Emirates Stadium seating capacity expansion project, soonest at the end of the 2015/16 season? Would Ivan Gazidis preferred seen us caught up and even be surpassed by those 3 ambitious London clubs in a year or two? If his answer is no, let him put his head together with that of the Boss, Stan Kroenke, Alishar Usmanov and the Arsenal support group, on how best they can improve the seating capacity at the Emirates Stadium by 10,000 – 15,000. We must not be overtook by Chelsea & Spurs but always be ahead of them, facilities wise.
I’m a Spurs fan and the answer to the question is yes. We COULD overtake Arsenal and we undoubtedly will at some point – because that’s what happens in football.
“It’s the circle of life. It’s the wheel of fortune…”
Whether or not we WILL any time soon – or whether it will be because of the new stadium etc – is a different matter entirely.
There are two things I don’t buy into when it comes to our beloved North London rivalry:
1) Its viciousness. For me, it’s all about the camaraderie. It should be light-hearted. Therefore, I’m fully aware of Arsenal’s current superiority and it doesn’t bother me. It’s healthy. I’ll even congratulate you on it. Congratulations.
2) The undisputed fact that one club is bigger than the other. Arsenal are currently BETTER, but both clubs are huge and their history of achievements, milestones, top flight status and player quality is remarkably identical.
When it comes to one club being better than the other, I don’t see the point in going all Jack Wilshere about it. Enjoy it. And I encourage Arsenal to continue enjoying finishing above us in the same way we enjoyed taking 4 points off you last season. There’s really no need to look at the possibility of Spurs taking over you as this dark apocalyptic future, because it WILL happen at some point, and at some point after that you’ll take over us again.
Goonerhaha – I think your point is very valid. If the Arsenal board had persisted with Rioch then we would have continued playing Platt way beyond his sell by date, Bergkamp would probably not have reached the heights and we would never have had Anelka (who at the very least made Arsenal a £25m profit), and Henry and Pires, and Vieira, and Petit, and…..
I’d say it was the board that gave us Wenger, the board that gave us the Emirates Stadium, and the board that persisted with Wenger despite the cries for him to all the way through the early years at the Ems.
My parents have a lot to answer for having deserted family roots to move across North London in the 60’s resulting in me going to school in bloody Tottenham (I swear that accounts for all the psychological scarring)……but that is not the point.
Whilst still a season ticket holder, I haven’t lived in London for years but still remember living in THEIR shadow up until 1970. IMHO though, I agree with others in that Arsenal fans do seem quite unhealthily obsessed with the Spuds. They sing more songs about hating Tottenham than they do in support of Arsenal (having said that, “It’s happened again” is still one of my favourites!). Personally I find this quite annoying that this obsession seems to dominate match days but then perhaps that’s just me. As I haven’t lived in London for decades now, I have a much diminished dislike of Tottenham as they have hardly been true rivals at all in the competitive sense. I have personally detested Man U far more (like sewer rats, it doesn’t matter where you stand you’re never more than six feet away from one!). Latterly, the teams that buy trophies have really got my goat.
Back on topic, however, I’m sure the majority of fans will not have a personal recall of N London in the 60’s. The Spuds were the bigger club then. It may take them a while to catch up but it’s not impossible………thankfully being in my 60’s, I doubt it’ll be in my lifetime 🙂
@KJ
I enjoy your optimism but I think the idea that taking four points of us in one season is some sort of yardstick of success is indicative of the current difference between the two clubs.
NB In terms of your absolute certainty about the future, I’m sure Leeds fans were certain they’d would become the top club in Europe or that Liverpool fans would have been certain they’d have won the premiership several times by now. Never say never, but equally there are no certainties in life either! And being realistic about things, you’ve only won the title twice and been the dominant club in N London for less than one decade in the last 130 years. Not exactly a top pedigree!
Mikey , my own sentiments too. I used to watch John White at one time my favourite player. I have always been the Arsenal family roots and all that but as much as I enjoy the rivalry with Tottenham I can’t be doing with the tribal hatred. I too am in late 60’s and remember the Nicholson team , I used to go and watch them as a 12 /13 year old away travel was impossible but a further 4 miles or so on a saturday didn’t make too much difference and I had mates at school from the dark side and they came to Highbury the following week . I often think those days were better when you could stand on the shelf in relative safety. Mind you in those days replica shirt marketing was not even thought of , perhaps a rosette and a bobble hat was all there was and it kept your anonymity safe.
Well well, can they. They sure do have a model to follow. ARSENAL have shown the world how to do it. For that Spurs will forever be indebted to us.
BUT What we have is the glorious history, the magnificent present and the right vision for future, which they keep changing every now and then.
Also we have a head start in commercial departments. That plus the on-field success, we have potential for huge growth there not sure the same holds true for them.
@para – winning all the time? I don’t think Arsenal beat Spurs last season, and in the last 5 years the difference between the 2 clubs has not been much. Arsenal have had the genius and longetivity of Wenger, and this is probably the biggest difference between the 2 clubs. That success, along with a nice stadium has meant that Arsenal have been able to attract the likes of Ozil and Sanchez – where Spurs often have to pay top $ for the second tier “rubbish”. Arsenal look really good now, and probably stand the best chance of winning the league in many a year – but otherwise they become happy to playing second fiddle to City, utd and Chelsea. For many a year Arsenal fans did not even bother about Spurs. But with Spurs doing a lot better than they were about 10 years ago, Arsenal fans seem to be a lot more focussed on Spurs these days
@Goonermikey
Thanks for your reply.
I think the Leeds situation was extremely different, as they were in dire financial state and forced to sell their best players – something that was only ever going to be made worse when Ken Bates took over the club when they were already struggling in the Championship.
Spurs have a shrewd owner, a manager they FINALLY seem to trust, world class training facilities, a world class stadium in the pipeline and extremely notable affiliations with football clubs and other sports teams in North America, South America, Asia and Africa. They’ve also been a Premier League club since its inception – like Arsenal and just five other clubs, I believe – and that level of establishment is very hard to mess up.
We essentially get a capacity crowd every week and have a 25,000 waiting list for season tickets. We’ve just signed what I believe is the key to massive improvement in Toby Alderweireld, we’re finally making a point of getting rid of dead wood, we’re finally looking to hold on to key players and the future looks undoubtedly bright.
A spine of Lloris, Vertonghen, Alderweireld, Bentaleb, Eriksen and Kane is strong (even you must admit that!) and I’m excited.
I’d never take anything away from Arsenal – they’re superior in almost every conceivable way at the moment – but I think, as Spurs fans, we have every right to be positive.
I love the rivalry we have. I hate the animosity – sometimes it goes way too far – but rivalry is healthy and I personally think that the closer it is, the better it is. I think it’s going to get closer and stay closer in the years to come. That can only be a good thing for any true football fan.
I’d love to see both of us fighting it out for the title for a few years, put it that way.
Just to add something else that is admittedly a side issue to the discussion which is about Arsenal and Spurs, and that is the West Ham conundrum. I think their impending move to the OS could potentially see a huge rise in revenues and perhaps make them ripe for a big money takeover. They’re not as big as Arsenal and Spurs in terms of support but they already have a sizeable, loyal, support base which provides a good starting point to build on. I said that Spurs could one day be as big, if not bigger than Arsenal, but they may be looking over their shoulders at West Ham as their move to a new stadium will happen 2 seasons before Tottenham’s, possibly more if there are any further delays at Spurs.
Great article Tony. Do you think the idiot who wrote the telegraph article was paid for it? Some of the spurs fans who posted on here were hilarious – imagine deriding the Arsenal for last winning a league title 10 years ago when your team last won it before most of their fans were born.
Amusing article and some interesting points, including from the Spurs fans. Not sure Levy is a genius though…AVB…The Bale squanderings..Baldini.?
The fact is, the media or sections of it are desperate for Spurs to overtake us……wait and see how they react if Spurs are a point ahead of us a couple games into the season…..the cringeworthy balance of power thing will rear its head again.
In reality, think Spurs have missed a trick, the time to take us was in the years of austerity, but fortunately, we have Wenger. Apart from maybe the odd one off that may bring Chas n’ Dave to the fore, think the only way Spurs will properly catch us in the next decade is if they get petrodollars.
Spurs or the just relegated Burnley or any club from lower tiers could become bigger than Arsenal IF we stagnate and consistently retrogress. Also IF spurs consistently improve off an on the pitch while we are not. But from history and judging by our current trajectory, that is very unlikely.
I wish spurs all the success they can get though.
Dedication to Brickfields Gunners.
PAPA’s NEW RALEIGH
A man was beating his son so angrily that people rushed at them to rescue the poor boy. When asked what the boy did, the father, breathing heavily answered “the foolish boy wants to wreck my new bicycle”. “Why would you do that?” an elderly woman asked the boy with pity. “I did not mean to ma” the boy replied in between sobs, “I was only telling papa how fast I would ride his ‘Raleigh’ to my friend’s house to show off”.
“So you haven’t ridden the bike?” the village headmaster asked curiously. “No sir, papa will buy the bicycle by month end”.
POT OF WEALTH
A very poor farmer was going to the market to sell the only thing his late father left him – a small clay pot of milk. He said to himself as he firmly held the pot on his head with both hands, I can sell this milk, and buy two chicks male and female. I will take care of them and get many hens and cocks that will fetch me more hens and cocks. Once the old store is filled with chickens and crates of eggs, I will employ someone to tend the poultry while I invest in a baby bull and two calves. They will fetch me many bulls and cows from where I could get buckets of milk everyday. Come to think of it, he said to himself, I will have to buy a truck to transport my many crates of egg and buckets of milk to the market. Momentarily, he held out his left hand as if holding a steering and his right hand as if engaging a gear. He started whistling a popular farmers’ song that says “if I am not lazy as a young man, I will become a rich old man”…ploocccckkk! The pot fell
Demilare – so many times the pot has fallen but the hope of chickens goes on because there is a cockerel on the top of their stadium. It’s that old call from the Spuds ‘aaaannyy cockllllllllll dooo’.
@ Damilare July 11, 2015 at 2:07 am – That was good, and it aptly reflects the Spuds – crowing about the bumper crop long before they are even planted in the ground!
And not worrying nor caring about potato blight and other pitfalls .
The burning question –
” The hardest thing to learn in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn .”
David Russell .
The Phoenix rises ?
Ashes to ashes , dust to dust .
To be born anew , burn we must !
Now the same 12 year-old blogger (using a picture he found on the internet) has written an article ‘8 reasons the spuddies won’t get bigger that Arsenal’ (ok, nearly that title). It really is the work of a child. So so so poor that I’m considering becoming a Telegraph journalist myself, but even I’d have to lower my standards of English (which is pretty basic as a NE London/Essex boy!).
Menace, Chicken Republic said chickens have rights too. I agree. No chicken should be denied its rightful place on the bbq.
Brickfields Gunners, Thanks. I hope they understand the African proverb that says you don’t count your chicks until your eggs hatch. I just hope they understand.
Damilare, It’s a tradition in English (British?) football that you always expect the very best too happen, and then complain fervently when I doesn’t happen.
Some teams do it more than others (Spuddies and Liverpoo especially) but no team is immune, even us as we have a large amount of simpleminded supporters that will do the same thing.
More chicken gallows humour –
http://www.gocomics.com/wumo/2015/07/07
Big knees up at the Coop tonight 8.30pm:cider,country accents,barn-dances, nookie with farmyard animals,Chas and Dave and the banjo kid from Deliverance, looking at pictures of the new toilet(the chicken pooper hutch)as seen in the video link,and going on about us coming from Woolich as if it affect Gooners.Big laughs.
https://youtu.be/qH0ERUge_GM
How the season will go.
1. The media will tells us that this is Tottenhams season, when they break into the top four.
2. The media will look to belittle Arsenals achievements, the squad, the manager, anything that moves. Arsenal can never be a big club until they win the league. No mention will be made of Tottenham not having won it since before Yuri Gagarin floated round the planet.
3. The media will fawn over Liverpool, still trying to make up for the fact hat they don’t buy papers or Sky subscriptions as a result if the reportage of Hillsborough. No mention will be made of the fact that they haven’t won the league for a quarter of a century.
4. Arsenal will finish above both clubs.
5. Arsenals achievement in doing so will be belittled. The other clubs lack of success will be due to their focusing on the building of their new stadia. No mention will be made of the constraints under which we worked while and after building ours.
6. Go to 1 for next season.
Same old pattern for the last 20 years. Hardly takes Nostradamus to predict.
@ Clockendrider -July 12, 2015 at 8:32 am – If Arsenal win either the EPL or the CL , it( the competition ) will be immediately and automatically be downgraded as being unimportant , just like the FA cup was !