End of an era for Spurs? Let’s hope not.

 I can’t shake off the feeling we are at the end of what has, for Spurs been a golden era. I just hope it’s not the case. The Harry Redknapp era has been just that until Drogba’s last minute penalty went in.  Chelsea’s last gasp penalty winner in the European Cup last night could cost us as much as relegation.  Yet I can’t begrudge them the victory any more than I can begrudge Arsenal their 3rd place, or West Ham their promotion.  This is despite the catastrophic effect the combined effect of all 3 could have on Spurs and the stick we are going to receive from those 3 sets of fans and the derision, or even worse polite sympathy from everyone else in football and in general.

It also reminded me that I am a Spurs fan first but a Londoner and an Englishman and a Brit next and in that order. In other words, try as I might, I can’t really want a foreign team to beat an English team, no matter the effect on the team closest to my heart that I have supported all my life.  When Drogba’s headed equaliser went in my heart leapt with Joy for a split second. Then my brain took over and for the benefit of my distraught nephew I said “Oh Bloody Hell”. Deep down though, I recognised the feeling. It was exactly the same way I felt when Arsenal beat Liverpool at Anfield to win the league all those years ago. It shocked me then but not quite so much this time because I had felt it before. I flashed back to that moment. In the build up I had said all the right Spurs fan things and kidded myself that I believed them but the honest immediate gut reaction was yes!!!  - A London club had won.

Coming 4th is an amazing achievement by Spurs. We all would have bitten your hand off for that at the start of the season. Apart from this ridiculous combination of circumstances it would have given us European Championship football next season. In one sense Harry and the team met our targets and if we are honest, it has been another year where we over achieved. It’s just that we nearly over achieved by so much more. Before the melt down after Christmas even winning the league looked an outside possibility.  Bad Luck came into it - again. Adebayor had goals disallowed from offside that weren’t. Chelsea had a goal allowed against us that didn’t cross the line. Man City’s last minute fluke.

Before Christmas, we played some wonder football. The best in the league. Even Alex Ferguson said so and that wasn’t playing mind games. It was there for all to see. It made your heart sing. The team did well to pick itself up in the last few weeks of the season after a poor couple of months to be in with a good chance of 3rd again. But at the end of the day, Man City dug deep; Arsenal proved stronger again in the League by one measly point and Chelsea won the European Cup. All 3 achievements were remarkable and it was the best Premiership season ever. Hats off and congratulations to them. Despite the damage it will do us, it should act as an inspiration, not a reason for recrimination backbiting and insults. We need to be big enough to take the brickbats, shake their hands and say “well done”, even if it’s through gritted teeth.

It has been an exciting pleasure to have been involved right up to the last second of the last match of the season. My fellow Spurs fans don’t need long memories to recall how miserable it feels for your season to be pretty much over by Christmas and worrying about possible relegation right into April.

However, as I say in the title to this article. I have a horrible feeling it’s the end of an era.

I am normally an optimist – but the following is preying on my mind.  It was always going to be a big problem to be able to pay for a new stadium, and be able to afford enough good players to maintain premier league status, even with Champions League income. Arsenal is the only club that I know that have managed to do it, which makes Wenger’s achievements even greater. This season they had lost some world class players, they were gone, mentally and physically. Wenger looked exhausted, I felt for him and felt he had been betrayed by some of the money grabbing players that had left. After all, they were rich already. How much more money do you need? Nasri and Ashley Cole can wave their medals in his face but how great would Arsenal have been if they had shown loyalty and they had all played in that Arsenal side this season?  Yet Wenger wouldn’t change their style. He said all the right things about their team spirit and determination – even though he had reached the point where deep down I think he had started to believe he might be wrong after all. He managed, one more time, to persuade that group of players that did not look like a team, did not look like they believed, to persevere against all the odds. To their eternal credit they went on that great run and achieved 3rd place. I wish they hadn’t but it showed they did have the character hidden deep down after all.

I have no time for the moneybag clubs and money bag mercenary players. I feel that Chelsea have bought success over the years and so have Man City and the behaviour of some of their players has been reprehensible. But again, credit where it’s due. Chelsea have long since turned into a “proper team” and their experienced players have dug deep and played for the team and each other despite feeling ill-treated by the management.  How much better for Frank and Co to have shown a “we’ll show you” attitude rather than “Sod it, I’m off then”. Man City have also shown true team spirit in the end and will be better for having done so next year, which is frightening.  And who can deny their fans the success after all this time? I am so pleased for them. Now the test is for the current Spurs team...they have done well but they have not achieved what they and we all desperately wanted.  Now, are they going to show a real team spirit and stick together, pick themselves up and try all over again? Or are the best of them going to chase off after the money, saying “it’s not about money, it’s about the chance to win trophies and play in the Champions League” I think I know the answer. Prove me wrong lads. Show you are true Spurs. The grass is not always greener. Cesc Fabregas would probably have actually won something this year if he had stayed with Arsenal. And although Nasri scraped the title with City, he may well have got it anyway if he, Nasri and Van Persie had all stuck together.

No doubt the players around Europe that have been making sweet overtures about wanting to play for Spurs will go quiet now and go elsewhere, which puts even more pressure on those that are already there and makes it even more likely that they will take the money and run.  The Spurs management and owners did brilliantly to get in Parker and Adebayor at the last minute and keep Modric.  If they had managed it two games sooner, we would be in the Champions League now instead of ruing the 1 point failure. It would be great if they could do it again this summer. But it’s not going to happen, is it?  If Bale and Modric and Adebayor all decide to follow the cash, even that wouldn’t be a disaster if we could buy in stars of similar quality. Of course we don’t want to lose them but you could strengthen the squad overall on the money we should be able to get for the pair of them. Except that now the top quality replacements won’t come. So we need this year’s squad to recognise they did not get us there this season, that they really should have done despite the bad luck, that they are good enough to achieve it next season.

Wouldn’t it be heart-warming if they and Van der Vaart said they were content to stay, and try to perform one point and one placing better next season? Better still, win the FA Cup. In my dreams!  Are they Spurs or are they mercenaries? We are about to find out...

 I disagree with Sam Allardyce when he said that there isn’t a West Ham way of playing football and others who say there isn’t a Spurs way.  There is. Basically its attractive stylish football played mostly on the floor, attacking by preference, with panache. From push and run on. For many years neither team played that way – even worse, for years Arsenal have played with that style under Wenger and we played like the old boring Arsenal but without the levels of success that George Graham achieved with it.

Martin Jol started to change it round gradually with limited resources but Harry really has brought that style back, combined with knowing how and when to defend and close down.

It’s also frustrating when some in the game dismiss the views of fans when they say we don’t know what we are talking about because we haven’t played the game at a professional level.   If you have even half a brain (which in my case is now dangerously close to the truth!) and have studied something for 50 years and watched thousands of games, including how players, directors and managers have handled situations,you really would have to be pretty thick not to develop opinions that are at least worthy of consideration by those on the inside.

So, fellow Spurs fans hold your heads up and be proud of some of the stuff we played again this season. Congratulate our rivals and join me in taking the stick on your broad shoulders with a (rueful) smile. And despite how black it looks, don’t give up hope because if we do so as fans, how can we ask the players to pick themselves up, like Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea, West Ham and Wigan all did this season, when all seemed lost?