Before the match this weekend, I was convinced there was a possibility we could get a result somehow. Recent history against City has been a mix of getting comprehensively and heavily beaten and some memorable wins, but it was always an eventful fixture.
City is by far the superior side yet has dropped six points to the same mob who looked entirely devoid of ideas against well-organized but limited sides like Southampton and Wolves, and easily beaten by Crystal Palace and middling European opposition.
Compare Spurs’ record against City with the other top sides over the past 5 years-in three matches against Chelsea earlier this year the players simply obligingly turned up, guns cocked ready to shoot ourselves in our collective feet, and meekly surrendered.
Similarly, in nine FA Cup semi-finals since 1991 Tottenham has lost every single one; a record for any team in consecutive semi-final appearances without actually getting to the final.
That this comes in an era where many sides fail to take the competition seriously is the more damning.
To return to City and the concept of the bogey team; mentally is hugely important. Away at Chelsea and Anfield, the players are beaten in the tunnel.
Spurs have had some brilliant results against City-some undeserved, some fortunate- but nonetheless, the Etihad does not hold a special place of terror in the hearts of Spurs players across many eras in the way Stamford Bridge does.
While Levy is busy building buildings, we know he’s been guilty of the biggest crime in any business – he hasn’t kept the main thing the main thing. We know investment in the playing squad has been ongoing, but it’s been generally misguided at best, a series of bad multi-million-pound buys has seen money spaffed-up the proverbial wall, one after another.
For all Levy’s talk of ‘DNA’ one of the biggest challenges he has had and failed to address in 20 years is actually getting a team to walk the walk as he talks his real estate business.
Dare I say it the DNA that is unshakeable is that most awful of hereditary diseases, ‘Spursiness’.
Until the trophy drought ends, Spurs will be stuck in the same mental cycle. To quote a favourite film of mine, ‘losers always moan about doing their best. Winners go home and **** the prom queen’.
Keep it Tottenham.
It’s The Rock
Con Air fan i see
Depends how you view it..Utd sacked Jose after he had won them the UEFA the League Cup..their last trophies.Much of this centred around Woodwards involvement in transfers like Pogba, absolute garbage, and Martial, over Sanchez on a free from AFC..it was a case of a Commercial Director interfering in the football side of the club..The club grew commercially but the football was poor though Ole got Utd to a UEFA Cup final..he was sacked as was Woodward.
I would argue that Spurs are less popular that at any time during the last ten years, commercially, and we have won nothing, as usual….I fundamentally disagree with everything you say bar that both clubs have sp#nked large sums on poor players…one of these two clubs Utd or Spurs can afford it.
Well, that means they are worse than the Burnley ‘owners’ who have pushed the debt they raised to buy the club onto the club’s balance sheet with lord knows what consequences if Burnley get relegated. A club like Burnley has to live with the possibility of relegation, just as Norwich do. That they’ve survived in the top flight for several years is down to Sean Dyche in the main. With new dodgy US owners, they might be in serious trouble if they go down. Which they might well.
They are worse than Moshiri splashing £500m to barely ever get into the top 10.
They are worse than Kroenke who didn’t invest a penny in his first 10 years of ownership, despite the stadium already being built and paying for itself. What’s more he leveraged a £200m cash pile courtesy of Arsenal profits to fund a stadium in LA, in effect making Arsenal FC supporters fund his NFL and Olympics dreams.
They are worse than the Glazers who put £600m+ of high interest debt onto the club, have taken a few hundred million out in totally undeserved dividends, have overseen a decline in football performance and, despite spending fortunes in the transfer market, have never managed to come up with a team to challenge for the title since SAF retired. Oh, and they have let Old Trafford turn into a second-rate leaking roof of a stadium.
They may not be the best, but rational analysis does suggest that they are not the worst either.
Morata? Kepa for quite a while?? All kinds of flops at Utd….
I try and steer clear of queens myself!
Billy Tonsils! Can always rely on you to sit on the fence and mince your words!.
Absolutely 100% sound and justified outrage.
Amazing how some people can’t see what is actually right before their eyes and support Levy.
“…created “Spursiness” as a reflection of their ownership…” Could not agree more. Spot on!
Lukaku?
Good and accurate article agree 100%
One of the key issues here is that ENIC and Levy have traded off the brand value of THFC when they purchased the club. They have traded off THFC being an established EPL football club with a large fanbase. They have traded off the property assets of THFC in North London using debt financing set against the reputation, brand, season ticket revenues, and TV broadcasting revenues. The one thing they have never done as owners is to invest their own money into the football squad to deliver any football success to the club. Historically they suck everything out and put nothing back in. They then spin a narrative of false ambition to sustain the support of the fanbase and to charge some of the highest ticket prices in Europe. They are a cancer to this club and have created “Spursiness” as a reflection of their ownership and business model. The fact that Kane and Son may never win anything during their playing careers with the club is shameful and disgusting and all down to the owners. My hope is that Uncle Joe will agree to sell if the right owner comes along and that Levy if he decides to stay becomes a minority shareholder with no say in any football-related matters and that new owners realise as do Fenway Sports who own Liverpool that you have to invest into the football squad to make it successful and then you maintain that investment to sustain that success. Everything else will follow in terms of revenue and returns on investment.
Almost every player over 15m tends to flop at this club. It’s embarrassing. You won’t see that at any other club
They are the owners so they can do whatever they want to make more money there is no control over them.If results on the football side were the main criteria then the stiff would have pushed Levy aside years ago. But unfortunately Levy can report back to the stiff that “our investment has increased from £25m to £3bn in 22 years.
Now I hope that boring persona who comes on here moaning about all the Levy Out posts comes in and defends his hero.
Over to you son we are all waiting.
I agree, most fans aren’t happy with their club’s owners. I bet City, Liverpool and Chelsea fans don’t complain much though…
‘Spursyness” is a an endemic state of mind that emanates from the boardroom.
Not only have ENIC and Levy subjected the fan base to so much false hope over the years. They have allowed a word that sums up failure to enter the Oxford English Dictionary with the Club’s name embedded within it.
That will be the lasting legacy of Levy’s time as chairman at Spurs, ‘that’ word forever in the English language. Utterly shameful, I hope he’s proud of himself…
Absolutely correct. Like many supporters, love the club but hate the ownership. Sadly, I think Enic are the worst owners in the PL. They have continued to deceive the fans and the MM for many years. I am amazed that any body takes them seriously in the world of football. Levy has even managed to get himself loathed by many of the chairmen of the PL and other European teams. How can anybody make himself so rich and be so useless in what some commentators mistakenly think is his primary job? A plague on the house of Enic.
To be honest I don’t think Levy has failed. I don’t see him as someone who is doing anything for the club , he is simply doing whatever he can to borrow money to create asset value in terms of real estate and property. The fact that the more people that turn up at the Borrowing Facility increases various revenue stream is the important thing..the fact there is a football team involved is completely incidental , it is the event and revenue generated that matters, and the borrowing it allows . When you take off the football shades as I have you/I realise that Daniel is quite simply a complete and utter c=nt with serious mental health issues..but he is rich ..he runs a commercial entity which responds to commercial pressures..what he doesn’t do is run a football club.
Daniel Levy is guilty of prioritising a business, namely property investment and development, which is not the primary business of a football club! Furthermore, in spite of an ongoing and utterly disingenuous facade to the contrary, ENIC’s sole motivation in owning THFC is personal financial gain. This is predicated upon a fundamental operating principle of maximisation of profit for ENIC’s principals, Levy and Lewis, set against the minimum amount of personal investment and liability that may be incurred by them.
Even now, Levy will only reluctantly back Conte financially in the transfer market, as to not do so would damage ENIC’s and Levy’s personal ‘bottom line’. There is nothing altruistic or ‘to dare is to do’ or ‘the game is about glory’ connected to it! Those famous emotive quotes, emblazoned on the concourses, are merely a sop to the
mug punters… pardon me, loyal patrons! The unvarnished truth is just this. A cold-blooded, soulless, mercenary, rationalisation of investment in the pursuit of personal profit by ENIC’s ownership axis.I have…. Over rated ..
TOWIE!!
In fairness do they exist in Essex? 😏
I didn’t even get a prom!
I must be a loser as I never got to f**k the prom queen!