How uniquely Tottenham. Could any other team in Christendom have managed to plough on with such determination towards ignominy, when offered quite so many opportunities for glory?The Tottenham Way
I’d like to think that when a player signs for Spurs, he is sat down and given a good thorough education on the club’s history. He is instructed in the tradition for playing football in a certain style – keeping the ball on the floor, moving it around slickly. The Blanchflower quote is drummed into him – “Glory… doing things in style… etc.” If the player in question is foreign, this quote is the first English he masters. He learns the names of every member of the ’51 Championship-winning push-and-run team, and dutifully sits through hours of black-and-white footage. He worships at the altar of the Bill Nick double-winners. He is sat down and forced to watch the one-touch extravagana that was Darren Anderton’s goal away to QPR in November 1993.
The reality? Probably money and nightclubs; but after games like today’s I wonder if the first thing they are taught on driving up through Bill Nicholson Way, with rigorous attention to every conceivable detail, is how to shoot themselves in the foot in any given situation. You are now a Tottenham player, and it is therefore your duty to explore every avenue for self-destruction, before ever proceeding to victory.
And for good measure, that kamikaze message is then presumably drummed home in the huddle before every game. If the FA were to decide retrospectively that the entire Everton squad took a bung for today’s game, and awarded the three points to us, some idiot in lilywhite would probably pipe up and suggest a rematch instead.
Ruthlessness: Not Welcome at White Hart Lane
A strange old game, because while enough to reduce grown men to tears of despair, it was by no means an awful performance. For so many of our lot, the laudable and the deplorable waltzed merrily hand-in-hand. If they were making lung-busting 20 yard runs to slide in and win a tackle one minute, you could blinking well guarantee that they’d be caught dawdling in possession the next. Adroit movement to create a clear goalscoring opportunity was duly matched by an inaccurate finish. It’s Tottenham in a microcosm. When we were good we were very good; when we were bad we were horrid. Ruthlessness had a look, but was firmly ushered away, and now seeks an abode elsewhere.
Sliver Lining. Honest.
Our heroes’ penchant for the mind-bogglingly infuriating has sunk to new depths, but I honestly believe that if we take time out from throttling the nearest small animal (I’m considering storing in my back garden a small pestilential rat, or rabid dog, or Thierry Henry, just so that I can come stomping back home after days like these and give the vile creature a damn good kicking) we can appreciate a few glass-half-full conclusions.
As mentioned, this was no awful performance. For the second away game in a week, we have done a jolly good impression of a home team. The notion of sitting back from kick-off, soaking up pressure and assessing the situation was given short shrift, as we dispensed with subtlety from the first whistle, and went at it hammer and tongs. Sure, Everton had their chances, and in the first half our defence conducted a couple of stringent examinations of precisely how the term “suicidal back-pass” ought to be defined, but we made one shooting chance after another. Against Wigan they all whistled just inside the post; this time, as with Villa last week, they all seemed to arrow a foot the other side.
Kranjcar’s cup continues to runneth over with new and ingenious ways of causing panic in opposition ranks, and Lennon really does seem to have mastered the art of the inviting cross. It’s not just a one-off, a hazy estimate suggest that four out of five were whipped into pleasingly dangerous areas.
I can think of games just this season (Stoke, first half vs Sunderland) in which we’ve had plenty of possession but struggled to create a genuine goalscoring chance. There has been a lack of movement off the ball, which has clotted our creative juices (notably of Hudd) and led to too much dependency upon the cursed long-ball game. By contrast, over the course of the last few games (and I even include the Man Utd match amongst these) there has been a distinctive buzz of movement in our ranks. Yes, we need to convert rather than rue our chances; and by golly we need to beg, steal or borrow the ability to wrap up a game when leading 2-0 going into the final 15 minutes; but on a broader front there is at least the sense that we have the capacity to create sackfuls of chances.
The counter-argument is that for all this approach-play loveliness WE STILL DIDN’T BLOODY WIN DID WE? Well, granted. When the time came to dig in and fight to the death, we were found wanting. And two points from what really ought to be six, will almost certainly come back to make rude gestures at us come mid-May. Fourth is still in our own hands, but if are to make it we seem determined to do so in the most excruciating manner possible. How uniquely Tottenham.
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14 replies on “Everton 2-2 Spurs: Doing It The Tottenham Way”
We were floundering soon after our second goal. Should have brough Jenas on earlier – he may just pass sideways, but he can close down and doesn’t give the ball away.
It was obvious to us watching that Bale needed more support than a player like Kranjcar is going to give – why wait for the first (and in the end second) goal before making that change?
Lets start looking at the management. Last week Ary subed Krancjar after we equalised and he was the best player on the park. This week he bought on Bale at halftime and thats where Everton came back through. Ary also did it against United when he took off Corluka and bought on Huton and the goal from Rooney came through Hutton. I love Ary but just maybe as a tactician he is not up to the top four stndard? Only the end of season will tell us that, but there are some very worrying signs here.
AS for Sprang blaming Krancjar for Bales deficiencies. What a halfwit!!!!!
Too many spineless and gutless freeloaders in the team. Weak in the tackle and weak in the head. Nothing makes my blood boil more than seeing someone whimp out of a challenge. Bunch of pathetic heartless pussies. F*ck the lot of them.
So no one is blaming Defoe for missing the penalty or only taking one chance in about 7 .I feel we struggled to-day when they came at us in the second half but we should have killed the game by then.Defoe and crouch tried but missed to many chances and assouu was pants with the thudd not much better.Still think we need to get rid of Jenas,bentley,hutton,woodgate (only as leds is getting a new contract) and pavachenko with Muntari,Upson and Bolettli or something like that he plays for the special one in Italy is 20 and looks very good.This idea of a fourth striker is nuts go get one who will push the other 3 for their places thus creating competition .Sandro would add more cover in midfield and a keeper aswell.This would give us a chance of 4th which at the minute i feel we will drop out of finishing 6-7th.Just my views but feel we are light when defoe is not there and sometimes not that dangerous when he is.
Well lads you may be gutted but Davspurs is Heart broken and i cant even watch my beloved spurs it hurts even more when my own fans call me various names like your a twat and so on. Growing up in the seventy s Supporting Spurs with Utd Everton and Liverpool on your door step it makes you tough i soon had a fight every day in school till no one dared and i was the top cockerel so calling me a twat is nice .Now the reason for the twat is energy cheats and me exposing them on blogs this is not grassing and is something i was brought up not to do. All my relatives support Everton Liverpool or utd and finding out one of them was using Ephedrine two years ago staggered me and learning this drug was banned from cough mixture for causing Heart attacks and strokes. This made my discovery even more disbelieving till players all over Europe were dropping dead during games . And i stated thinking could this be EPHEDRINE causing these deaths so that is why i started my campain because mixing this drug with caffeine is a deadly cocktail and the drinks they throw on are caffeine based .This is not o say my theory of footballer dying is the truth far from it but something that kneaded highlighting the reason drinks are thrown on is dry mouth from using energy so i have noticed a lot of chewing this year instead and players spitting drinks out well done .So why did Everton come back like lazarus did from the dead and tim slim Howard save the pen and why cant i watch spurs play some teams . well its all in this blog. and it all action loads of energy.
Davspurs,
Was ephedrine the reason Defoe missed the penalty?
Just when you think you’ve seen it all and feel like Spurs can’t possibly wind up you up any further.
There’s still a long way to go, but this side hasn’t the quality up front or at the back to maintain a top 4 place.
I’m officially off the top 4 bandwagon.
Was it Ephedrine that saved the penalty well without a piss test and blood the answer should be no .But because this drug is so fucking easy to spot it could be yes .And it may amaze you but watching Sheffield utd last year beat Preston Paddy was one of a number of players on my energy watch and he failed a drug test for Ephedrine but he bought it from a chemist in cough mixture .If you doubt me like you always do look at Cahill AND howard on sky thin and high on octane energy and ill looking .I would love to talk about Harrys tactics but how can i when all i see is managers trying to explain and save a penalty from a player on fire with a team that played on Wednesday on a wet energy sapping pitch and you lot want me to slagg defoe of and crouch fuck off it wont happen unless i no the team we beat is not cheating .I have just heard Fulham manager who i like but he is also in charge of energy abusers saying the reason they beat Sunderland who gave utd a fright was they have two good strikers bobby zamorah and cant think of the other one utd fucked him of for being crap no its because your team are also shrinking with every game and domt tire
I must be the only spurs fan not feeling to bad tonight, happy with the draw, I’m from the same small town in Ireland where the young Seamus Coleman’s from and I know the kid, when he came on I knew he was going to take his big chance, and I’m happy for him. Spurs blew it but we’ll bounce back.. Come on u spurs!!!!!
Hey. How rude! Not saying it wasn’t bale’s fault. I’m saying his poor defending means he needs solid support. I’ll put your comment down to some misguided anger at the result.
And BAE was a walking red card waiting to happen. Hard to argue with that half time sub, IMHO.
Hey spang, agree on the BAE comment, but how about Corluka switch to the left and Hutton on the right. Bale is pathetic!! Yes angry at the result. I blame the manager in this case.
am i the only person wondering what life would be like if we’d given bobby zamora a bit more time?
Zamora? Can’t think of a clean comment on THAT. I blame some of the older hands on our coaching staff – someone should have been screaming into Harry’s shell-like that putting Bale at left back for an entire half would end in tears.
Very well written and argued.
I think that Harry has to take some of the blame here. Attacking when you are two up soon after half time is fine but their aught to be Plans,A,B and C for situations later in games.
Substitutions seem to be designed to run the clock down rather than to counter those of the opposition.
A lot of support for the mental weakness theory but these problems are better approached as footballing problems and could be could be solved by better coaching and tactics.
Holding the ball when ahead, not giving away possesssion quite so easily.
And most essential, take your chances.
But and I have to say it, we are not doing too badly just making sure that the final third of the season is going to be unnecessarily exciting.