Man City vs Spurs - From LoveMeSpurs to Wristslitter, the tale of a depressed Spurs Fan

So tomorrow night sees what should have probably been a Champions League decider now turned most likely into a desperate need for points to stave off Liverpool in fifth place. I’m not quite sure where it went so wrong or how but it has and our season has now ended, unless there is a miracle even greater than Chelsea now winning the title.

I have to say it’s quite a depressing thought how we fizzled out. Just when we thought a corner had been turned, the same old inconsistencies that have plagued successive Tottenham teams throughout the Premiership era are back to haunt us with a vengeance. It’s been hard to stomach watching us these past few weeks, we have gradually retreated into our shell and Saturday was a low point, where we failed to create a single clear-cut chance against in my opinion the worst side in the Premiership. You know it’s a bad weekend for a Spurs fan when Chelsea and Arsenal both losing coupled with West Ham slipping further through the Premiership trap door hardly even registers a piss take. In fact looking at Arsenal’s defeat it makes our 3-3 draw and the pathetic way we started the match even harder to stomach, added to West Ham’s capitulation against Wolves. Two average teams we should have put away and failed to do so.

The whole situation smacks of incompetence and unprofessionalism from the team and the manager. Harry’s excuses are becoming ever more clichéd and tiresome. How many more days must we suffer “one of those days” before “one of those days” becomes every day? This is supposed to be the best Spurs side since the 1987 vintage and player for player it certainly seems that way, so why the sudden and steep decline? Harry was on MOTD last night, in the comfort zone of his media buddies and all he could offer was “The players seem to have not performed to as high a standard recently”. Seriously Harry is that all you have to offer? There was the usual talk about how he wants to win a Championship with Spurs and how we need to build, all very true and all very admirable but unfortunately the issue with building is how much we can trust Harry with the job. Given the mounting speculation over the England job as well, is it wise letting trusting Harry with substantial funds only to see him do a foxtrot oscar at the end of the season. I think his appointment was always meant to be a stop gap but he surpassed expectations last year and is now struggling to meet them.

Next year it will be altogether harder to qualify for the Champions League, there’s no doubt if City are successful in securing a top four finish, they will raise their spending to an even higher level. Fourth place could well be a scrap between us, Liverpool and of course the Country Bumpkins from down the road. What we had this season was an opportunity to consolidate and build on our success last. For whatever reason, whether it be the board, the manager or a combination of both (as I suspect), we didn’t strengthen in the areas that we needed to and failed to do so again in January which has left us back on the outside looking in. I look at the ridiculous pallava over Stratford in January plus the distraction of bringing Beckham into training as a key point when the management of the club both on the football side and at boardroom level took their eye off the ball and our season has now climaxed into the forgettable mundane spectacle of mediocrity.

However there is of course yet another game to bear tomorrow, as we face the nouveau riche of Manchester City (or Citeh as they pronounce it in Northern Land). The irony of playing almost exactly a year to the day at the scene of our greatest moment in Premiership history is all too apparent and we go up there in far more deflated spirit and with a far more depleted side. Bale, Huddlestone and Ekotto are confirmed absentees, whilst Crouch and Modric are also doubts. Plus of course there are our usual roster of walking wounded with the likes of King (so painfully missed this season), Woodgate, Hutton and Corluka to name a few. I think this is a game possibly to restore the VdV and Crouch partnership, because Harry seems insistent on pigeonholing Rafa into the side, without seemingly have any real semblance of a plan on how to utilise his talent. I would like to see Lennon get a start as well as Kranjcar whilst Danny Rose, one of Saturday’s few bright spots keeps his place in the team. So my team would look something like this

Unfortunately though I can’t see us winning or even scoring, my prediction is 2-0 to Citeh and closure on the season.

Please find the original post in my Spurs blog The Glory Game