Gunnerblog

“We fully deserve to be where we are at the minute”: A Spurs fan speaks to Gunnerblog

2 comments October 28th, 2008

Arsenal and Tottenham’s rivalry is legendary. Each weekend, the respective teams results are qualified by comparison: an Arsenal draw seems much more palatable if Tottenham have lost. This season, many Arsenal fans have drawn almost as much satisfaction from Spurs’ terrible form as from our own performances. There is a symbiotic quality to the clubs existence – like all rivals, they are interdependent, and in part defined by their polar opposites.

And yet, one rarely gets to know what Spurs fans actually think. A discussion between Arsenal and Spurs fans so often descends into insults and jibes. With Spurs suffering a unique season, and the maddest of weekends, I thought I would turn to a Tottenham supporting friend of mine: one of the more genial and sane among his kind.

Adam is a twenty year-old History student from North London. He has supported Tottenham since he was five. He has held a season ticket for the past 15 years, as well as attending a large number of away games in recent seasons. His favourite current player is Ledley King, and his all time Spurs hero is David Ginola. I spoke to Adam yesterday at some length about the troubles that Tottenham has undergone. Whilst we all like to read about Spurs’ suffering, it was also interesting to get an insight on the Tottenham fans’ attitude to tomorrow’s game, and the Arsenal side they will be facing:

Adam, I believe I’m right in saying that in pure mathematical terms, this is the worst start to a season in Tottenham’s history. Does it feel that way?

To be honest, the win yesterday was greeted with relief more than anything. We have been the worst team in the Premier League so far this season and we fully deserve to be where we are at the minute; say what you want but if you don’t look like scoring you are always going to have problems. Yesterday the tide seemed to have turned a little bit, mainly because for the first time since Wembley (GS: The Carling Cup victory over Chelsea) the players looked as if they were playing for something more than their wages. I have absolutely no doubt that if we had stuck with Ramos we would have gone down, so whilst i have my issues with who we have got in to replace him, it was nice to see us act swiftly and efficiently for once.

The events of the past weekend were quite extraordinary. Ramos, Comolli and Poyet are now gone – who do you hold accountable? One of those three, or a man still at the club: Daniel Levy?

Whatever anyone wants to say about our personnel and weaknesses in certain areas, we have a better player than Hull in EVERY single position on that field. Yes, we are very thin up front, but if the manager gets the players to play for him and with passion, then in general you are going to suceed in the Premiership.  Ramos wasn’t doing that and therefore I have to point the finger at him for why we are bottom of the league. Comolli hasnt covered himself in glory, but I simply cannot believe that Ramos didnt have a say in transfers – that would be simply ridiculous and I feel that lazy journalists were using that line to fill column inches, irrespective of whether it was true or not.

Daniel Levy in my opinion has been an outstanding owner for the majority of his tenure, but his actions in the summer take some explaining. On the Keane issue, Gareth Barry and Ronaldo wanted out easily as much as Keane did yet they stayed at their clubs through a combination of tough chairmen and managers; if we had done the same then we wouldn’t be in half the mess that we are in at the minute in my opinion. On the Berbatov issue, I feel that Levy wanted to make a scapegoat of a player that for me, fully deserved his move – he never said he wanted to stay with us forever (unlike a certain Irish Number 10) and gave us two years of outstanding service. If we’d let him go in May for ten million less then we’d be in a far better position as we would have been able to bring someone else in after a long period of discussion and analysis – I actually quite like Pavlyuchenko but i do feel that we could have got someone in with him if we had had more time to conduct our business.

I’ve never liked Harry Redknapp as a personality as I feel he is extremely dishonest and disloyal, but I am willing to get behind him if he steers us out of trouble, which I feel he will do. Unfortunately, us Spurs fans are an extremely impatient bunch and I can’t really see him taking us to any dizzying heights, which will undoubtedly turn many against him as his limitations at the top level are exposed. Moreover at 61 it is also questionable how much longer he will stay in the game, so whether he has been brought in as a stop-gap to save us or as a genuine long term option will become clear in the coming years.

In general, people seem positive about the appointment which I can fully understand: we need to be hard to beat and bring in players that will toughen us up which i feel he will do, so overall it is difficult to be too downhearted, especially in the current position that we find ourselves in.

Harry has a penchant for signing ex-Arsenal players, as well as players who’ve played for him before. Considering that, I think it’s more than likely he’ll make a January move for Lassana Diarra, which would only serve to decrease the Frenchman’s popularity amongst Arsenal fans. Do you think he’s the sort of player Spurs require to help turn things around?

Absolutely. For years we have been crying out for someone just to sit in front of the back four and destroy the opposition attacks and he may well be the person to do it. To be honest, I feel that with his natural lack of creativity partnered with his incredible athleticism, it would be silly to overlook Jermaine Jenas for that position as he isn’t really doing it as a ‘box-to-box’ player, but with players like Modric in the centre (who was outstanding for the first time on Sunday in the number 10 position) it is absolutely essential to have someone in there to break up the opposition’s play and distribute it quickly to the creators, much like Flamini seemed to do for Arsenal last season. Diarra would certainly be a player that i would be earmarking if I was in charge come January.

I wonder if maybe the fact we’ve got so used to it is what contributes to the slowly descreasing excitement about the game.  In recent seasons, Emmanuel Adebayor has held a bit of an ‘Indian Sign’ over Spurs, scoring against them six times in his relatively short Arsenal career. Has that been noted amongst Spurs fans and is he a player you’ll worry about facing?

I always believe that if fans are booing an opposition player it is largely down to a fear of him, and that is certainly true of Adebayor. We now have a song about him (which, by the way, I think is disgusting and will never sing at a game), and for me that shows an inherent fear of him among the Spurs fans. He does seem to turn it on against us and I have no doubt that he will be a huge threat come Wednesday night. Hopefully King will be there and be his usual brilliant self, but i will be seriously worried if I see us lining up without our captain marvel at the heart of the defence.

It’s clear King’s availability is closely linked to Tottenham’s chances of success – having played at the weekend, do you think he’ll be fit to start the game?

I actually don’t think there is much point in predicting when he is or isn’t going to play anymore – it doesn’t really seem to make much sense: he will play 90 minutes in one game, look absolutely fine, jog off at the end and then have to miss the next three games. What has happened to him is nothing short of a tragedy and I feel so sorry for him that he has never been able to receive all of the accolades that he deserves as England’s best defender.

It sounds very clichéd but I think I’d have to go for Fabregas. One thing that Darren Bent has got in his locker is serious pace and I feel if we had someone like Fabregas threading balls through to him then he would be in line for the Golden Boot. I also feel that with Fabregas’ nasty, niggly side to his game (I mean as a compliment due more to his intelligence and knowledge of when to give free kicks away etc) that he would be the perfect partner for Modric in the centre of midfield.

Heurelho Gomes has come in for plenty of criticism this season. What is your assessment of the Brazilian goalkeeper?

I think a lot of that criticism is harsh to be honest, and just another way for the press to get at us. He’s made one or two high profile errors, but has kept us in games at times this year and stopped defeats becoming maulings. To be honest, anyone would have been better than Robinson, and his willingness to come for high balls has been a breath of fresh air really – we all knew that he would make the odd mistake but I think he will win us more points in the long run than he loses. Also, which keepers have been perfect so far this year? I can’t think of any.

You mentioned Luka Modric before, and I know he is a player Arsene Wenger looked closely at signing. Since his move to Spurs, Wenger has remarked that he believes Modric to be too lightweight for the Premier League. Has this claim been substantiated by the Croat’s early Tottenham performances?

For the first time on Sunday we saw the 16 million pound Luka Modric, and to be honest it was a joy to watch. He was playing in a far more advanced role than before and the Bolton players struggled to pick him up. Considering he has only had ten games for us, it is a bit harsh to expect immediate adjustment from the guy, but after a decent performance on Thursday against Udinese and a great one on Sunday, it will be interesting to see how he fares on Wednesday, especially as Arsenal dont have any hugely experienced defensive midfielders in the squad after the loss of Gilberto and Flamini. Song looks good from what I’ve seen so I’m pretty sure that that will be a pretty pivotal battle and one which Modric will simply have to win if we are to get anything whatsoever out of the game on Wednesday.

For me, he hasn’t come good because he wasn’t actually very good in the first place. It was clear that England needed a new right midfielder in March and Match of the Day seemed to pick up on Bentley as the answer to all of our problems there, which probably doubled his price tag at the very minimum! It’s clear that he has a decent delivery, but I have been extremely unimpressed so far and I am beginning to attribute that to his general lack of ability over anything else – the effort is there, but the skill level and pace simply aren’t at the moment.

What would be a good result for Spurs on Wednesday? And finally, what is your predicted outcome?

For me, the game is either going to go with logic, or footballing logic. Normal logic states that you should give us an absolute hammering as you are better and more settled in pretty much every area of the park. However, football logic has a funny way of rearing its ugly head in games that are apparently nail-on victories either way, so I wouldn’t be suprised if we chose this year of all of them to pull a result out of the bag!

In fairness, i think it’ll be three nil to Arsenal, but if we show a bit of fight and if everyone plays for each other, the club and the fans then maybe, just maybe we can scrape something. A good result would be ANYTHING that increases our points tally, so if you offered me a draw now I’d be absolutely ecstatic.

It’s still Tottenham’s biggest game, and that in itself should act as motivation for our fans.  With the arrival of Redknapp and a first win of the season under their belt, Spurs will fancy their chances of an upset tomorrow.  It’s vital that our concentration is absolutely there: a slip to a struggling Tottenham would be too painful to bear.

Full preview tomorrow.  See you then.