TOPSPURS Jim Duggan's TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR site
The thoughts and views on THFC updated daily from Jim Duggan - Shelfside season ticket holder, White Hart Lane resident & supporter since the early 1970s (last updated 25/04/02 22:56 PM)

25^th April 2002 – Weekly round up (again!)

Site updates: Many apologies about no site updates this week – a process that worked fine last week when I could not use it for another reason suddenly did not work this week. Not that much has happened this week, apart from more discussion about the season ticket price rises.

Liverpool – No Dilemma: If we win, like we have the last three time Liverpool have played at the Lane, it will mean that the Arse cannot be caught by Liverpool – good. A Spurs win is what we must hope for in every match, and although the possible outcome will mean an Arsenal Championship and possibly a double – so be it (although it will be shite for us). Arsenal will have won and Liverpool will have lost it over the whole season and not one match & any Spurs fan cheering a Liverpool win is a c**t in my opinion – just like they were at Old Trafford in 1999.

Liverpool – Match Preview: No matter what happens, I still go into most Spurs matches envisaging victory and Liverpool is no exception. Spurs are a massive 7/2 with Corals in a match that I would normally price us up at 7/4 – 2/1 – and it looks like a decent price for a change because Liverpool “have” to win.

No news from the Snout as yet apart from it is likely that King will probably be ok and Iversen almost definitely be ok, and that the players are off to a hotel for a couple of days to prepare for the game. The snout also reports that Barry Ferguson is a player “we are interested in” and developments should be noted on that score, although he appears to be a bit young for the English Grampus8 equivalents just yet.

TOPSPURS player of the season. Like the footballer of the year, topspurs will have two players of the season, one decided by the webmaster and another one voted for by topspurs regulars. Details to be sorted out shortly.

Despite some of you fearing that I am going to give it to Mr Ed, I have a got it down to two who will claim the crown Sully won by a mile last year. Mr Ed will duly trot in third for his consistent performances and it is not too difficult to think of the defender and midfielder who are in the running for the top honour.

Vote DruidSpur on the Official Site: While no one gives a shit who the topspurs player of the season is, it is important to vote for Davies on the poll on the official site. While this will be a little harsh on Ledders, he is already an established first teamer and it is Davies who should be a regular first teamer in the attacking midfield role. Being player of the year despite being an oddjob man this year should add a bit of pressure to see him starting in his favoured position at the start of next season, as well as making sure he signs a new and improved contract. The only worry with doing this is the curse of the player of the year – Rsol, then Carr who appears to have lost it mentally as well as physically and Sully who has not been the same this season. Surely this can’t happen again!

ENIC/Season Tickets/THST etc. Full comment on all of the events of the week tomm but a couple of things to keep the mind ticking over! That ticket next season will cost £55 – a 20times increase (exactly the same as a programme up from 15p then to £3 now) – and will the extra money they take off us actually make a difference?

21^st April 2002 – Weekend Round Up, Bolton & of course the season ticket prices!

Bolton 1-1 Spurs – Same old Story: This story is old, but it goes on! Spurs take the lead playing well, Spurs ponce about with ball over-elaborating everytime, try to defend a one goal lead & miss chances on the break before conceding a daft goal – Some old Same old & while this is not so important in an end of the season match – we cannot afford to let it halt our progress next season.

On a happier note – I’d like to thank John (Meatloaf) Stevens and his charming wife Allison for making us so welcome over the weekend and showing us some great old fashioned hospitality – it was one of the most memorable experience of the season.

Site Updates: Due to technical problems and me working away from home (yes I do have a day job to pay for ENICs plans) I have not been able to update the site during the week – Hopefully I can sort this now with updates coming at the link below & apologies for all the confusion: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jmdcon/jmdview.htm

The Season Ticket Price Rises: We all knew and feared what was coming, but it still does not take away the blow of having such huge increases. I’m too knackered to go into it all know and will formulate a proper response later in the week – but which ever way you look at it, it stinks!

http://www.spurs.co.uk/tickets/seasontickets.asp

Season Ticket Prices	2001-2002	2002-2003	Increase	Increase
West Stand Upper - Centre	£850.00	£1,200.00	£350.00	41%
West Stand Upper - Centre	£850.00	£1,050.00	£200.00	24%
West Stand Upper - Centre	£850.00	£950.00	£100.00	12%
West Stand Upper - Next to Centre	£795.00	£875.00	£80.00	10%
West Stand Upper - Wings	£705.00	£775.00	£70.00	10%
West Stand Lower - Centre	£670.00	£750.00	£80.00	12%
West Stand Lower - Wings		£695.00	£25.00	4%
East Stand Upper - Blocks D, E, F.	£690.00	£750.00	£60.00	9%
East Stand Upper - Other Blocks	£615.00	£685.00	£70.00	11%
East Stand Lower - Blocks 26, 27, 28	£580.00	£650.00	£70.00	12%
East Stand Lower - Other Blocks	£560.00	£595.00	£35.00	6%
North Stand - Upper Adult	£485.00	£585.00	£100.00	21%
North Stand - Upper Junior/OAP	£242.00	£242.00	nil	nil
North Stand - Lower Adult	£430.00	£495.00	£65.00	15%
North Stand - Lower Junior/OAP	£215.00	£215.00	nil	nil
South Stand - Upper	£585.00	£585.00	nil	nil
South Stand - Lower	£495.00	£495.00	nil	nil

(thanks to Fred Dowry – a man who has not missed a competitive Spurs match since 1989 or any match since 1994, a true Tottenham Legend - for providing me with the numbers)

The only way it can nearly be justified is by buying relatively young and champions’ league quality players over the summer – AND EVEN THEN it must be part of a package of measures to increase revenues for THFC. It is lazy and unjust to just go for the most inelastic section of the Spurs market – the season ticket holders - without doing other options such as THTV, Pay Per View Spurs games on the net, selling media right etc. The memo about how the club view season ticket holders is disgusting – we are the most loyal, but repayment for our loyalty is to have our discount taken away from the club shop and being the sole source of increased revenues (so far) – just how happy will you be when they buy this poxy golf club and relocate the training ground with our additional money? Its not as if it is an old training ground.

It is true that I have not had time to read all the stuff from over the weekend both from the Club and the Trust, but things like the Ticket Charter is the equivalent of the “Cones hotline” set up by John Major – nonsense. The fans will trust the ticket office when the simple operation of putting tickets in envelopes is made error free & when they do not see tickets advertised on ticket agencies when real Spurs fans are missing out. All they need to do is ring up and buy the tickets back – find out who they gave the tickets to and ban the bastards – with a threat to bar them from the ground if they do not reimburse the club the money they spent buying the tickets back. Unfortunately – this would involve action and not words, and seems unlikely to happen.

I keep getting told that ENIC are much better than Sugarlump because they are more transparent and we are kept informed of what is going on. Well what is the point of being kept informed of what is going on when nothing apart from stitching season ticket holders up is happening. Even at lowly Southampton, a half time vote was done by the fans to chose the home shirt design – why was something like that not done at Spurs? Cos it would require effort without direct financial reward and thought of the supporter wishes.

This brings me on to the role of the Trust. First of all I would like to say that the people involved in the trust have all given a lot of their spare time up and are unpaid (like people who run independent websites) to help other fans and their commitment to helping their fellow Spurs fans should be applauded. But – is the Supporters trust an effective vehicle for getting Supporter pressure on the board so that things are done for the benefit of Supporters?

While I am the first to agree that after the horrors of Sugar we need a period of stability and togetherness at the Lane, this must not be used to cover the club taking the piss. Have the Trust ever criticised the club? What would it take for them to do this? What if everyone emailed them about the season ticket prices and said they wanted action – what would they do? Unless it is only me that is unhappy about the price increases, they need to reflect supporters views and generate some action.

I have already been subject to a snide reply to a comment on the wallyboard about the Trust with the usual scare tactics of all dissenters are not true fans and that it was much worse before etc – there is only so long you can say it was much worse before. As I have said above –we need stability and a stable platform to build both on and off the pitch but there should always be debate. Things are much better at Tottenham now – but virtually all of that is related to Glenn Hoddle – I cannot tell the difference between ENIC and Sugar, except that ENIC seem to be getting away with things that would have brought the house down if Sugar had done them, purely because they are not Sugar.

As I said, more later in the week – but in terms of action – what can we do? Protest in the strongest terms possible to the Club/Trust? Yeah but what will it actually achieve. We are fucked – I’m renewing as I want to watch Tottenham – and that is the crux. I am ambitious for Tottenham and want Spurs to be the best and know that money is needed – fine – but money can be generated from other sources than season ticket holders. I know it will not be easy & wish the board good fortune in getting good players to come to the Lane over the summer and the next few seasons – but if they want my respect – the need to show the loyal fans more respect.

Tell me what you think at Nayim@topspurs.com or better still get on to the Trust.

From the THST: In the interest of balance, please find to follow some comments from the THST:

We've been putting as much pressure as we can on the club to be as open as possible. A small example: With our encouragement Spurs will be the first Premier League club to publish a Ticket charter. It will explain exactly how ticket allocations for next season will work, who'll be entitled to what and when. This should mean  no mess-ups like we've had this year and previously when we apply for tickets for away games or cup games and so on, or home games if we're not season ticket holders.  We expect to have more input to the detail of the Charter before it is published and will continue to do everything we can to make the ticket allocation policy fair. We don't know how well it will work, but at least we will now know how it ought to work, and I can promise you we'll be policing it very carefully indeed. Please let us know of any problems or thoughts you have on this over the coming season.

Also, we've gone to great lengths to put over your opinions to the club. We've told the club very clearly that we want them to be highly ambitious, that we need to see results and that we want to see a return for our incredible loyalty  and a financial contribution by fans way beyond most other clubs over years of disappointment and frustration. A conversation that the Trust Chairman Peter Haring had with Daniel Levy, Spurs' chairman, is reported below and it reflects this, and we have every intention of letting the club know exactly how our members feel. Please let us have your reactions. We promise to pass them all on to Daniel Levy.

Some people are concerned that we should be doing more to make sure that the club is always in tune with the supporters. We can promise you that for every bit of progress we've fought for there is more we would love to be able to do. The Trust exists purely for the benefit of Spurs supporters. We have limited resources and can't do everything we'd like to, which is why every supporter should join the Trust. It costs £10-00 a year and the more members we have the more influence we will have and the more we'll be able to do. We've achieved a lot already, but there is so much more to do. Can you imagine a year or so ago having the sort of information and access to the club that all members of the Trust now have? So, can you imagine how much more we could do if everyone who truly cares about Spurs was prepared to join up?

We'll keep fighting on your behalf, but please tell us what you want so that we can do it as effectively as we can.

This is Peter Haring's report of a conversation he had with Daniel Levy on Friday after the announcement of next season's ticket prices. "I had a long conversation with Daniel Levy late on Friday night. I told him that many people were very unhappy about the ticket price rises, some extremely so, and that virtually all supporters would probably feel that the overwhelming priority is to catch up with the leading clubs. If supporters tolerate such large increases it will only be if the club shows that it is absolutely determined to achieve this. He said they are, and agreed that he and the club will be judged on what it achieves.

He said he knows he will take flack over the price rises, but he's done it entirely in the interest of the club. He said that most of the biggest increases are one-off adjustments, such as the North stand coming into line with the South, and the West stand realignments. They believe that to do their jobs properly they have to get the relative pricing right at some point. They considered phasing the increases in over a few years, but decided to do it all now, in one fell swoop, because otherwise it would prolong the agony and fail to maximise income for too long a period. He says he understands the risks and has taken the decision that he believes is best for Spurs. (He also said that there will be many benefits to the Thomson deal, such as discounts, vouchers for free Spurs shirts with holidays booked etc., which could seriously offset the increased cost of tickets without reducing Spurs' income, but this will come out later, and isn't the main point.)

I believe DL's position is this;  the club will do evertything it can to maximise revenue. He assured me that every penny the club raises will be invested in the club with the sole intention of making it as successful as possible. He backs Glenn Hoddle 100% and will do everything possible to help him build the squad he needs. But they will not borrow to buy players or throw money around irresponsibly. He will not jeopardise the club's survival. They have absolutely no intention of paying dividends to shareholders. They could not make a public commitment to this effect because if, for example, there were a real collapse in the share price of the type which could actually threaten the club's existence (rather than the current decline which is common to most clubs), it may be necessary to consider paying an extraordinary dividend, or buying back some shares. This is standard for all public companies, but he tried hard to assure me that there was no realistic prospect of paying dividends because their sole objective is to make the
club successful, and that needs all the money available. The shareholders will make their money from the long-term increase in the value of their shares if Spurs becomes truly successful, but they have to be in it for the success of Spurs, not for any short term pay-outs, because there won't be any.

If we accept that the money being raised by all the means possible, including sponsorships, TV money and ticket sales, is not being raised to enrich shareholders' cash-flows but for investment in the club, we have to look at how the money will be invested. He said that there is virtually no transfer market. A tiny number of clubs will spend real money, but most are too scared or too poor. Spurs have to sell some players because the wage bill is astronomical. For example, Jamie Redknapp's wages use up most of the Thomson money. (His medical, BTW, was the severest, most demanding they could devise.) But to sell a player, you have to find a buyer who is prepared to pay the players' wages as well as any transfer fee that may be required. He said Spurs are not reluctant to spend money on transfer fees if the players Glenn wants are available, but he said some of the wage demands are just absurd and could threaten almost any club's future. That is one reason why they are placing an enormous emphasis on youth development. That is something they can get on with regardless of the condition of the transfer market or the economic climate for football clubs, and its a way to give Spurs a competitive advantage.

He repeated a few times that they've appointed Glenn to manage the team and will always back him 100% with all the resources they can make available to him. They will take risks but they won't allow Spurs to do what some other big clubs have done. He said what he's said to me before: he has no right to put the existence of the club at risk. He has to make sure its still there in five or ten years' time. They desperately want to bring in  top class players and let some players go, and are working very hard on this, but
won't make promises because deals are never easy to predict and the current market is especially hard. My personal opinion is that they have done the hard, unpopular things that they believe needed to be done, and are prepared to take the criticism for it
and be judged on results. In putting up prices they are asking us to make an act of faith, but this is the last time  they'll be able to ask it unless their actions justify it. I've told them many times, as forcefully as I can, that Spurs supporters have been incredibly patient despite immense frustrations and disappointments, but now, finally, we need to see the benefits of our patience and loyalty. I believe we have made this very clear and that they understand it. Now we'll see what happens.. "

Please let us have your thoughts. We will pass them on to the club because that is what we are here for:-  we can't always change things. The club was determined to put up ticket prices this year and we couldn't stop them. But we can and did find out why, and we can let them know exactly what we think. Reaction so far suggests that many supporters feel the new prices are excessive and can only be justified if the club makes major signings this summer and goes on to achieve real success on the pitch next season; the
Trust will continue to hammer this home to the club. Also, people are not happy to find that there will be no refunds if there are
 not two home cup-ties to use the vouchers for. Is this acceptable to you? But please tell us what else you think about the new prices. And tell us anything else that's on your mind about Spurs. It doesn't have to be just about tickets. Our job is to make sure that the supporters and the club understand each other better, and with your help that's exactly what we're trying to do.

19^th April 2002 – Weekly round up

This Week - Redknapp: The third week without daily round ups and I can only apologise – problems with my FTP package which should definitely be sorted next week, but regular readers of topspurs knew the major news of the week back in December anyway - (many thanks again to the snout!) & I would like to wish Jamie Redknapp an injury free and successful time back at the Lane. Redknapp’s page at topspurs has been up although not publicised for a while at www.topspurs.com/jredknapp.htm and no, there is not a kphillips page up there - yet!

I’ll get me Clogs: With all the off the field stuff this week, you could almost forget we have another important match to see us win the championship of the Premiership crap when we travel to Bolton. Our three previous matches against the Trotters this season has seen us score 13 goals to 2 in three wins but it should be a lot tougher against their top notch as opposed to second team journeymen. A win up there and points from our last two, notably 3 at Leicester should see us finish above crappy old West Ham and into a respectable and equal Premiership highest 7^th.

Team news is that Ledley is struggling & Iversen, shock picked up a knock, and we are already without the usual suspects – although Irish goalscoring hero Doherty, Clemence and Treacle (I think) should all be back in the frame, and to be honest – it is more about attitude than individuals as if we want this, and combination of our players should be good enough to turn them over – just as long as they want it – something that did not seem evident the last time we played a team of clog wearers.

Snout Stuff & another TOPSPURS exclusive: The real reason for reading this crap is for info from the snout and it has been plentiful this week:

Diego Forlan – you know, that Man U clown who is going to do his best to outstrip both Gary Birtles and Peter Davenport as Man U’s worst ever striker – well word has reached me that Poyet put him on to Tottenham and we were the first English club to speak with him – but after lengthy discussions THFC did not think the deal was right for the club, and passed him on, Alan Brazil style to Man U. That’s what the word is!

Davies Contract: Not much has been heard on the Davies contract in recent weeks – and while we will all go mad when the likely hikes in season ticket prices are revealed later in the season, it is fair to say that not one of us would mind some of the money going to give the DruidSpur a substantially improved contract. The good news is that word has reached me that the Davies contract is “not far off” and hopefully this will be signed for 5 years very soon.

Hoddle: The great man was not to be seen on Weds and it was confirmed that he was aboard looking at players in an international friendly. Rumours that it was the Luxenbourg – Liechtenstein match as players from these countries are all we can afford above Bosmans are not true!

Little Piggy: Scanning the list of reserve and Bosman players the other day, it dawned on me that Barmby at Liverpool is just about perfect for Tottenham – cheap, talented and very much a Hoddle player. Word has got back to me that the club are also aware of Barmby’s talents and Hoddle still likes the player so we could expect some action there, and anything less than £3m is a decent deal (provided the wife has a 150 mile exclusion zone).

I have given Barmby plenty of stick as he has behaved like a prick since he left the lane for a road of mediocrity, and there was that great moment when the dog ran on the pitch at Goodison a couple of years ago with the chant “Nicky Barmby Spice” but I’d have him back as he was a quality player and someone who could fit into the Sheringham role properly as opposed to Ridgeley’s interpretation of it and is still young enough.

It will be funny to think that the team full of promise at in Spring 1993 will finally be reunited – Sheringham, Anderton, Barmby and possibly Walker! – It just shows the harm and the start of the Rot which happened in the summer of 1993 when TV was removed.

Anderton Testimonial: While some of us may regard seasons of non appearance when there is not a major international tournament at the end of them benefits for Anderton, the club quite rightly are going to mark his 10 years at the club (something they should have done for Walker).

A likely cast list will include Hoddle, probably Jurgen Klinsmann, possibly Gazza, possibly Nayim and of course Anderton (no doubt clogging up the central midfield, with either Hoddle or Gazza forced to play wingback). The game will probably be in Aug like the Bill Nick match.

That bleedin Red Logo: Bored of the debate – not because it is not important, but because nothing can be done now - which is why it is last on the list. Here are the two new shirts for next season:

The debate is over – if you think the club were right not to consult fans, patronise us with financial realities and then still expect us to shell out £40 for a home shirt – go out and buy one. If you think they took the piss, ignored the supporters trust and took us for granted and want to teach them a lesson in unsold shirts and lost revenues – the only language the understand – don’t buy one – or delay it til well into the season. 70’s replica – lilywhite shirt and cockerel on a ball for me as ever next season.

And just a point on that – Levy in the patronising language of a primary school teacher tried to claim that they worked hard to make sure that the logo was not red on the away top. While this may be true, it seems obvious that a red logo on the navy blue would not be able to be seen – so it was always going to be a colour that would show up.

Trying to claim a victory when there was n’t one I think – which leads quite obviously to the question “if the logo on the away shirt does not have to be Red, why does the one on the home shirt have to be red?”. Answers on a postcard to “we did not ask this at the time as we were too busy looking at the money” competition. As Charlie Whelan said, Everton got One2One to drop the Red……….

Interesting Stuff from a Norwegian Message Board: Many thanks to my good friend Oystein Haugen, who runs the best Spurs site in Norway (http://home.c2i.net/ogen/) for forwarding this on which was posted on a Norwegian Message board. Most of these “my mates the barber of the accountant to …” are usually full of Bull but this seems to stack up and is repeated here, my comments in between:

"I've got a client who attended an analysts briefing with Daniel Levy about ENIC, by client is a Spurs fan and got a bit of Spurs news out of him, if you're interested read below. Apparently wages will never be more than 55% of turnover, and contracts are made up of 25% of bonuses. The aim at this stage is to get into the Uefa cup most years and the Champions League 1 year out of 4. The briefing took place on 10th April and Levy was pleased with the Kappa deal and the impending Thomson deal (apparently it's more lucrative than Arsenal's new deal.)
(Jd) Good news – profit related pay and a good financial basis for the club. I am pleased ENIC are placing sensible financial structures within the club. Business realism 1 in 4 CL and mostly UEFA but once we get into the top4, I hope we can stay there and believe Hoddle is the man to keep us there.

The West Stand is going to be made all season-ticket, whereas prices in the Paxton will rise by 20%. They've set a limit of 23,000 season tickets, because ST holders turn up late and don't go to the shop. Next season games will be classified as A, B and C, to get a ticket for an A class game you have to have been to 2 class C games (I don't know how it will work if we have A class games near the start of the season).
(Jd) All season ticket West Stand would be good idea – but what about all the corporates, where will they go? The tickets based on Loyalty is a great idea – but getting the ticket office to run it efficiently is a totally different matter. ST holders don’t go to the shop as much as some twats took away the 10% discount! But the funny thing is with season ticket holders – we are loyal, have gone thro thick and thin, and have funded much of the ENIC revenues over the last year – we should not be treated badly for the sake of some glory hunter who just watches one game a season. If this is true, ENIC will have a massive problem – make no mistake.

Levy admitted that we paid too much for Richards, but at the time they had to, he thinks that Richards has done 'just about ok'. Apparently Hoddle decided during pre-season that Rebrov wasn't good enough for the job he had in mind for him, and the board aren't too happy with Hod's 2 minute sub usage of Rebrov cos it's knocked his value down so much, but they think they might make some money out of Keller as he was on a free. The Spurs doctor thinks that Carr will be better than ever next season.

The board have 3 priorities, first team, youth set-up and ground, however in order of importance they are youth set-up, ground and 1st team (sorry), Hod knows this and is 'happy' with it. The club is £15m in debt, but ENIC have a £25m cash shell and £20m locked up in Autonomy.
(Jd) Wrong order – get the first team in the Champions League and the rest will sort itself out. Just how many players actually come thro the youth ranks to be given a chance? The Debt is an issue, as I thought we spent all season paying it off

As for transfers they've identified 4 or 5 players they're confident of getting, he also talked about a Bosman free transfer which was practically signed and sealed, my client asked if it was another slow injury prone midfielder, to which Levy replied 'No comment', but I think it's safe to assume he meant Redknapp. They also think that the new golf course could help swing a few signings their way.

Overall some positives – but after the cock up with the shirt logo, they will face all out war if they balls things up over the season ticket prices WITHOUT showing some evidence as to how the extra money is being spent to bolster the first team. 

14^th April 2002 – Weekend round up

West Ham: One of the least interesting matches for a while at the Lane. The game followed the usual patter – Spurs take the lead, Spurs miss chances, Spurs fail to keep a clean sheet and points are dropped! In fairness they were a bit lucky – Pearce, like Weir for Everton before him, hit a wonderful goal – but we really should have made it safe before that.

DINKT – the final shows: Manchester, this weekend was probably the last place I’d have chosen to be, but it was the recording of the final set of shows for the football quiz DINKT. While we did well to get into the last stages from the 108 teams that entered, we were now pitted up against the serious saddoes and it looks as if our run has come to an end.

Star of this weekend was Lee Dumont who scored a magnificent 14 in a minute long specialist round he only knew he was doing on the morning of the quiz. Team captain Bernie Kingsley also did an excellent score of 12 in his specialist round in the other show. The away day Jonah – with a badge calling him Jonah did well & Meatloaf added some much needed glamour. I was virtually useless this time – getting difficult but do-able ones wrong & actually costing us a share of second place by telling the Gillingham bloke next to me one of the answers to a Tottenham related Gillingham question. While this sporting gesture cost us a share of second place, it did manage to clear my name from the “spirit of Taricco” match in the previous filming. As usual we got, really difficult questions in our video round and no one will ever forget Anthony Dinning!.

It has been great fun recording the quiz & would like to thank my fellow team members Bernie Kingsley, Danny Keene, Lee Dumont, Joe Thornton, Daniel Wynne, John Stevens and the awayday Jonah for some memorable weekends recording the shows in Manchester. I would also like to thank Stephen Green for being Stephen Green & urge you all to support the Lincoln and Cheltenham lads who have a good chance of lifting the cup.

Lincoln City – Money trouble: While we were in Manchester doing DINKT, chatting to Kev and the Lincoln lads we found out that there club is in financial trouble and into receivership, despite the sums involved in the debt being pretty small when you consider some of the money wasted in the Premiership.

http://www.redimps.co.uk/fans/view/second_feature_index/0,,10440,00.html

Click on this link & see if you think they are worth a few bob.

12^th April 2002 – Fall out from the Sponsorship deal & The Hammers

What were they thinking of? Fuck me – what a day! I’d just got in from a long day yesterday, and having known about the deal for a couple of days and the fact it was going to be a red logo I did not read in details the club statement too much before giving my verdict. Having more time today, I am astounded at some of the comments.

Levy: "If you also look at the Tottenham crest it also has red, so we have no worries there!"

Ferdinand: "As for the red logo, it is a little recognised fact that red has featured in the club crest, along with blue and yellow, for many years and will continue to do so. In any case, Arsenal and Manchester United have both worn blue shirts in the past."

Pleat joked: "The last six champions of the Premier League have all worn red, so it hasn't done them any harm!"

No worries there! Man U (like we give a shit about them) have worn Blue! & Pleaty’s jokes! You arrogant twats! You’ll be laughing on the otherside of your faces when 1000’s of these remain unsold, as they are almost universally unpopular. Rather than dishing out these glib comments why not consult the fans – the mugs that shell out £40 every season for the shirts – either via the Trust or the Internet. Opposition to this would have been enormous and mitigation could have prevented a scenario where most of the fans will probably not buy the home kit, with all the revenue implications.

The get out is the away shirt – which I understand is a Navy Blue version of the Italian National kit, with a white sponsors logo. This should appeal to those who have to have a new shirt each season but does not get away from the fundamentals of ENIC’s management and worsening relationship with the fans. Another one of ENIC’s “lives” appears to have been lost & the line between them and the old regime becomes more blurred everyday. After years of infighting – the last thing I want or Tottenham Hotspur need is tension between those in control of the club and the supporters. Any more division and in fighting and it is an even longer way back.

Organising a boycotts and/or protests will probably be counter productive in the long term getting Spurs back to the top – which when we step back from all this – is what everyone wants. After the flak that the Club have received today should alert them not to treat the fans with such disdain again – and being at my most generous, this is something they should learn from, as it is their first full season. If it is repeated, there will be real problems.

What would be good – would be to have a democratically elected group of fans that the club could call on to consult over ideas like this. But wait a minute, we have that – it is the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust – so why did the club choose to ignore their input? The THST emerge blameless from this as every one of its representatives did its best to put the views of the supporters across. While it is blameless, this incident does perhaps give an indication of the actual power it holds in terms of decision-making. ENIC may not always enjoy the luxury and benefit of well balanced supporters putting sensible propositions their way in a positive manner – if the fans think they are dealing with Sugar - the Sequel, I’m sure they will act accordingly.

In terms of the deals done by the club – £15m for Kappa & £5m from Thomson’s – I think we should be generally content. I don’t profess to know much about what has gone on, but friends of mine who work in the industry & know about these things are generally impressed by the financial deals that has seen Spurs get good deals in a depressed market.

I did not like the Addidas stuff – some of the dross put in the Spurs shop with a Cockerel on it was appalling imvho and the shirts had too much crap on them and the last batch were made of crap material. Kappa look to be a good kit maker - although I am worried that no option to the skin tight versions will leave a lot of the larger individuals either looking ridiculous or shunning the kit in favour of a more suitable alternative.

Thomson. It’s not the large multinational with global exposure for Spurs that we dreamed of, but neither is it something like Pizza Hut, a northern second hand car dealership or god forbid Chicken tonight. Its somewhere in between, a fitting for the club at the moment. There was a rumour a large multinational audiovisual equipment firm were interested in the sponsorship deal as well as another well known multinational alcohol manufacturer – and while both of these would have been excellent for the exposure of THFC worldwide – the former deal was only for a year while the latter did not match Thomson’s lolly.

While ENIC deserve plenty of flak for the arrogant way they have handled the situation, the actual aim of the exercise – to get, as much money into Tottenham as possible, seems to have been achieved. Now all they have to do is spend it making the team on the pitch better and stronger.

From the THST

“Following the announcement made yesterday (11 April, 2002) regarding the club's new lucrative sponsorship deal with Thomson Holidays and the revelation that its red logo will be appearing on the new home shirt for the next 2 season's the Trust has contacted Daniel Levy. Daniel explained that Thomson insisted on the red logo, however mindful of the supporters' sensitivity on this issue, he has given the Trust an assurance that the away shirt will be navy blue with a white logo. It appears that the Thomson deal was by far the most lucrative sponsorship the club could have achieved. In view of the above, we would be grateful for your opinions on this which we will pass on to the club”

Transfer News - Redknapp: What a silly time & place to hold a Shirt Sponsor Press conference – just when our soon to be hero was having one of a number of medicals on his dodgy pins. Fingers crossed, but it looks like he will be wearing the much-debated kit next season.

Transfer News - Phillips: While most of us will be celebrating the West Ham win by watching the Sunderland – Liverpool match on the Box in a pub by the Lane – it appears that the 5 intrepid warriors of the last Spurs DINKT recording – Bernie Kingsley, Lee Dumont, John (Meatloaf) Stevens, Jason (the awayday Jonah) Barnett and the webmaster will not be the only ones heading North after the match. ‘-) Make of that what you will!

The small matter of West Ham: In all the commotion about the kit today, we have almost forgotten that we have the “top of the crap” championship decider against the Hammers to see who will be most likely to finish 7^th. I’ll apologise now for stating that I have virtually no ill feeling toward West Ham – a poor man’s Tottenham who try and do things the right way and have a fine tradition within the club. Some of the supporters leave a little to be desired though.

Despite a dodgy start and a couple of canings, notably 7-1 at Blackburn and a 1-0 caning by an inform Spurs where we hit the woodwork 3 times thro Ted and Leo, West Ham have put together a solid run which has taken them above us into 7^th with a game in hand. A modest achievement as it is not hard to rise below the top 6 in all reality, and something we should bear in mind when we review wherever we finish this season. West Ham have won their last 3 – something that teams in our midtable malaise do not do too often, and as for making it 4 – probably not. I think it will be close, but that if we play with purpose and want it, we should be successful and 2-1 has been a popular score these days at the Lane.

Injury news with Spurs is that Ledley is definitely out, as is Richards and Gardner is doubtful. Gardner will play if he has to, but in normal circumstances, he would be rested. The Doc will most likely get a place on the bench, as will Clemence. Some rumours are suggesting Hirschfield will be starting, but it is more likely that it will be Keller, with Sully once again on the outside for reason as yet fully explained. Whatever else – just hope Davies starts!

Team should be:

Keller - Perry, Gardner/Doherty, Thatcher – Davies, Sherwood, Poyet, Anderton, Ziege - Sheringham, Iversen. Subs (from): Rebrov/Doherty, Etherington, Thelwell, Clemence, Hirschfield.

A full range of Preview items appears at http://www.topspurs.com/thfc-countdown.htm

Spurs Monthly: After the revamp, I’d started buying it again, and I have to admit the first couple were ok, but the last effort was truly dismal. Loads of crap adverts and two pages devoted to “diary of a diehard – a bloke at University who follows Spurs on Ceefax! Nothing against the bloke – I’m sure he’s a top Spurs bloke, but die hards are people like Fred Dowry and his ilk who when they talk about matches refer to overseas pre-season friendlies in the late 80’s. Crap & as ever the advice is to buy a fanzine, even with the assorted horsemen of the apocalypse in the last issue, CADD is the best Spurs read around.

And finally1: Walking home last night I saw a sign for “Haringey Pensioners Rally” – lets hope our “pensioners” do likewise and grab the remaining 12 points which are all attainable. Come on you Spurs

And finally2: Sunday is the 11^th Anniversary of St Hotspur day. While we hope Boro do what we did for the Arse on Sunday, make sure you pay homage to the great events of that day by thinking about it during 12-2, and maybe even following this link in case your memory needs a jog.

http://www.topspurs.com/thfc-video-gazza.htm

11^th April 2002 – Thompson Deal & Weekly Review

Thompson: The Thompson deal, like the Kappa deal before it was one of the worst kept secrets around and at last it is out in the open & it has thrown up many things to think about, mostly relating to the fact that it is Red.

I am one of these nutcases who will not have anything Red/Goon/ JVC etc in the house & while I must say I am not that happy about us having Red on our kit, the more important thing is where the money goes. Who ever is claiming responsibility for being in control of the club (mostly ENIC when things are going well and money is not involved), need to make sure all of this money goes to Hoddle to build up the squad. No fucking about with golf courses, new training facilities when we already have a modern set of facilities built with the Sugarlumps money on his doorstep a couple of years ago – Good players, and before the start of next season. This summer is a one-issue summer – can the boardroom staff provide Hoddle with the money and sell the club to attract better players to the club.

In terms of the actual deal, the Standard are guessing that it is worth £5m over two seasons & in my ignorance I have no idea of how this stacks up against previous deals, but just hope they get the money in quick as the Leisure industry is not buoyant after the World Trade Centre attacks and subsequent military offensives and just what they hope to gain by advertising on a Spurs shirt is not really obvious – no cheap European packages for us for at least as season!

In the usual platitudes and backslapping over champagne that accompany these announcements – Levy did manage to piss me off with this comment:

"Tottenham Hotspur has a long, steeped, tradition for flair and style and I think with Thomson as a sponsor this will further enhance that image.

What the fuck does he mean? Thompson sell package holidays to low to middle income people households, just how will this enhance Tottenham? While it is just a nothing comment, shit like this worries me.

Red and Tottenham don’t really go – but it has been around in our history. For 6 years from 1890 to 1896 Spurs wore Red shirts with Navy shorts (changing them to the wonderful combination of chocolate and gold stripes – If only we’d have ignored Preston and stayed with that combo!). The current Club crest designed in 1957 to commemorate our 75^th anniversary contained a couple of Red Lions which survived the revamp of the badge in 1983 & the period between 1957 until Sugar arrived was just about the best in the club’s history – although the club crest only actually appeared on the shirt in the Mid 1990’s with the Pony kit.

Even at this early stage it is fair to say that many of the people who the club and Kappa will be looking to buy the shirts – are not happy at the red design (or the idea of a skin tight kit on a fat bloke) and will not go with it. The little “smiley “ is also pretty irritating in my opinion.

Topspurs regular (and Anderton’s greatest fan) Michael Miller has used his net nous to set up a petition against the Red Logo. http://www.PetitionOnline.com/2783/petition.html - which is well worth signing if you are against having Red explicitly on our shirts. In terms of getting it changed, I cannot see how it is going to work. The new colour and image is part of the rebranding bullshit – so they are not going to allow the writing to be a different colour. While I would like to see it change, I cannot see it happening, even if there was a mass boycott of buying the new kits.

This money will be important to the club and it baffles me that they do not run these ideas by the THSTrust or better still use the internet to sound the supporters out about what they would like. They did this with some bar at the club that is now the Perryman somehtingorother – so why not on an issue as important as this? It has to make sense. In other industries, products are subject to review groups before being unleashed on the mass market to eliminate problems that the designers could not foresee – so why not football kits? Are we still treated as the Newcastle fans were treated by their odious directors – stick a Spurs badge on and people will buy it?

Not heard anything about the away kit so far – and this would be a great chance to ask the fans what they want – and answers beyond what would be my answer “not another fucking change each season” would help them design a product that the fans would want, and that would sell – which must be better for everyone.

As for me – I’ll be there as usual in my 1970’s replica Spurs kit – no sponsorship, no trims, none of the this new football gimmickry - just a navy blue cockerel on a navy blue ball on a lilywhite shirt & 100% Tottenham. £35 from the club shop.

Bury the smoking debate: Tucked away was the announcement about Smoking & the bizarre solution is that it is to be banned I the Paxton and West Stand. This issue has done the rounds for a while and seems to be based on what looks a hopelessly rigged poll on the official site (it never changes from 67/33 against Smoking at the Lane – although I hasten to add that I’m sure there is no wrong doing on the part of the club)

Let me say that I do not smoke and have to say that I do not like people around me smoking BUT I do recognise the right of others to have a fag in the open air at White Hart Lane while Spurs play with the emotions – and do not think this should be removed.

And what will the partial segregation do? Will I have loads of Paxton refugees coming over to the Shelfside so they can smoke, thus making my environment proportionately worse? And like the current so called ban, will it actually be enforced? Will some steward on the minimum wage really want to tell a massive nutter to put his fag out? Not happened so far!

This is what the club had to say:

Added Spurs Safety officer Sue Tilling: "This season we've experimented with no smoking in the ground while the game is in progress. That has been quite successful. However, there are areas of concern because everyone goes to have a smoke at half-time and therefore the concourse becomes very smokey and a health risk. So now we will instigate a trial season with two of our four stands being
completely non-smoking on matchday.

"That is the entire public area of the stands so in effect seating and concourse areas will be no-smoking. This trial will start with effect from the first match of next season and we will monitor it's progress. We are looking to fans for their assistance to make sure this new measure is the way forward. We have regularly polled our fans on this issue on this official website and non-smoking has always come out on top. The last poll, run for three months, ended with a vote of 29,000 to 14,000 in favour of a complete ban at the Lane.

7^th April 2002 – Weekly Review & topspurs exclusive “Sully off to Sunderland?”

Sully – To Sunderland? Rumours and more rumours and you have to say things do not look good for Sully’s future at the Lane at the moment. The story reads something like this – bust up in the week before the Middlesboro match and Sully’s slight injury that he would probably have played with is used as an excuse to keep him from the team. Things appeared better on Easter Monday when he was spotted at the Lane but things are rumoured to have got worse since with Sully possibly being used as a makeweight in the Phillips deal over the summer as Sorensen is on his way from Sunderland.

As I understand it, and this may be wrong, the issue is a contract one, and not a playing one with Hoddle. Whichever way you look at it, it is not good for Spurs. As much as I like Keller, I don’t fancy having him as number 1 at the Lane and options elsewhere look a bit thin – Walker back? or some Eastern European National keeper for less than half a million?

The KAPPA deal: The widely expect Kappa deal was formerly announced this week. The four-year contract with the Italian firm is the biggest in our history. Kappa, famous for supplying the Italian national team, also has a number of other top clients including AS Roma, Feyernoord and er… Blackburn and Man Shitty.

The new kit will be unveiled next week when Tottenham will also announce a multi-million pound sponsorship deal. Kappa replaces Spurs' current three-year deal with Addidas that comes to an end in July. The kit design will be very similar to the new Italian strip that was worn for the first time against England in their friendly at Elland Road last week. It will also contain Kappa's revolutionary Kombat 2000 technology that includes a unique elasticity that makes it more difficult for opponents to tug them.

The Addidas deal was a disaster – right from the amount of money Spurs got for the kits (a deal reportedly negotiated by Daniel Sugar which should have had a “Dad, I fink I done it wrong again” on the end) and the quality and range of the merchandise supplied by Addidas which was Mr Byrite with three horrible stripes on everything.

One issue with the kits is that while the tight tops will be fine for the players, for merchandising reason, they should sell the kit as a normal kit which fat blokes can be happy with as there will be a lot of unsold kits with all us fat boys wearing last season kit (or a topspurs t-shirt if this seasons kit has bobbled away).

Just had to laugh when I read that the poor old theSpursweb was gloating about being the first ones up with this info on Feb 14^th. Many people knew of this deal long before this and I chose not to put it on here (although I did make reference to it once this lot had put it on the web), as I did not want to damage a potentially good deal for Spurs, as it could have been commercially sensitive. Did they know that we were to wear yellow in the final at the start of Feb? The Cup final line up on the Friday? Did they know Sheringham was coming back at th start of May 2001? Redknapp/Phillips/Sully etc Does anyone from that site actually go to the games? The kit sponsors for next season are also known to the usual faces – but I’m sure the club will reveal all when good and ready and the deal sorted.

Armo off: Armo is getting himself back to fitness but whatever happens, Spurs will let him move on in the summer on a Bosman. Armo, who has been plagued with injuries during his time here but has still, managed 62 goals in 144 starts (29 more as sub) will be 31 in June and we wish him well wherever he goes next.

Armo scored plenty of good goals inc the first of the new millennium when scoring the winner against Liverpool, but my particular favourite was a diving header against Palace when we won 3-1 in Gross’s season

http://www.topspurs.com/carmstrong.htm

Armo, never as bad as people made out, but not nearly as good as Klinsmann

Ledley & young player of the year award: Ledley has really arrived – International recognition and now being nominated for this award in his first full season. Good luck to Ledley in the award but the competition will be tough with last year’s winner Gerard (Liverpool), the badboy thugs Bellamy (Newcastle) & Terry (Chelsea), Vassell (Villa) and Ricketts (Bolton)

Youth Cup: Despite not getting to the final, the Youth team have done the club proud by getting to the Semi Final and hopefully at least a couple of them will make it into the first team at Spurs over the next few years. Burch, Kelly, McKie, Hughes, Henry, O'Donoghue, Marney (Malcolm, 78), Barnett (Bowditch, 65), Sutton, Barnard, Wettner (Galbraith, 52). Unused subs: Rutherford, Noto.

Peter Taylor and Brighton: Well done to Tottenham old boy and all-round good bloke Peter Taylor for sorting Brighton’s promotion

6^th April 2002 –Arse 2-1 Spurs

Jammy Gits: This game proved what a one trick team Arsenal are – oof the ball over the top on a breakaway for a quick forward to score. Spurs defended deep and apart from the two shots in 20 seconds which Arsenal scored from, Spurs were fairly comfortable throughout the first half. With Davies on in the second Spurs were more of a threat going forward and as the game wore on at 1-0 got more in the game.

Spurs had the ball in the net when Semen caught a corner and was challenged by Poyet. The outcome was either a goal or a free kick - instead the Pikey Keeper dribbled the ball 10 yards out of the area before clearing. What part of the rules is this?

With 10 minutes to go, Poyet was brought down in the Box by Semen – a penalty and surely an automatic red. Treacle had this when he was not even the last defender or even in the box come to that! but not this time, not even a yellow. When Ted struck it home it seemed we were in for the point we’d battled our way thro for and with the goons down to 10 we may have hung on but a dodgy late penalty saw us sunk for the third season on the trot at Scumbury.

5^th April 2002 – Thoughts on the Arse

Goons: There is no doubt this will be a tough one – Goons chasing the double and prising open all domestic defences at will while Spurs with 7 points in 9 easing into the comfort zone at the top of the crap in 7^th place.

The good news is that Spurs will have Ledley back for this game, but still have doubts over Thatcher, Ziege, Anderton as well as having the usual suspects and Ferdinand on long term injuries. Unfortunately we also have Sully unavailable for selection as a result of off the field activities as much as the slight injury he has but we all wish Keller an inspired afternoon in goal.

All the press are billing this as the goons just have to turn up, and while this may turn out to be true, it could work in our favour in that they already think they have won. It will be tough and getting away with a clean sheet will be a great result in the circumstances. There are structural reason why we go into this match in a position of weakness and while it will be no consolation if we are unsuccessful this afternoon it must be remembered that the gulf in ability between some of the players in the respective sides has been built up over years of mismanagement both on and off the field at Spurs.

Our task is enormous - our record against the top 5 away from home is a horror show. Last wins at Man U 89, Arsenal 93, Liverpool 93, Chelsea, 90, Leeds 95 and last time we avoided defeat Man U 96, Arsenal 98, Liverpool 96, Chelsea, 95, Leeds 96. As the events of Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge in the last month prove - we need 11 men on the pitch for the whole match and then some luck. Lets hope this is another step forward in the revival of Spurs – COME ON YOU SPURS.

Grand National – as a bit of half time entertainment, I suggest a couple of quid on Ad Hoc for the big race. The dictionary definition of the word - unplanned, off the cuff and makeshift – somehow make you think of the management of Spurs over the Sugarlump years. Kingsmark would also be appropriate and more forward looking, but has a hefty weight and probably would prefer a bit more cut in the ground. The Gooners may have the Wenger horse “What’s up Boys” but may need a “Red Ark” as the Spurs goals go flooding in and Chelsea will no doubt be on Paris Pikey after their “hero” Petit.

TopSpurs 4 for the field (as per the message board on Friday) – Ad Hoc, Paris Pike, Bindaree & Spot the Difference

No Updates: Work has meant I have been away from home all week and I will do a weekly review inc comments on Sully and the Kappa deal (first mentioned here in Feb) on Sunday.

1^st April 2002 – Spurs 2-1 Leeds

Onwards and Upwards: A fine win by Spurs – this time with grit and determination supplementing the usual flair. This was our first home win against a top side this season and should hopefully give the team some belief that they can defend a lead against a top team in the future (something that we have looked less than comfortable doing earlier in the season). Spurs 2-1 Leeds match report

Rumours were rife at the Lane today about the position of Sully at the club – and I hasten to add I am reporting the rumours and not what has or has not happened. The rumours were that he has had a bust up over his contract and “has walked out on Tottenham”. Not sure of any details and I hope this is just a misunderstanding or crap but it is said to be related to his contract and the dispute is between him and the Board and not Hoddle. I’d just assumed that he was injured after the Scotland – France match and I must admit I think this is still the most likely story. I hope there is no truth in it, or if there is that it is sorted sooner rather than later so that our player of the year in 2001 is back in the first team.

Fresh on the back of Sky making the Boro - Spurs match a 5.35 kick off, thus ensuring that no Spurs fan could get a train back and was forced into a 450 mile round trip by car – they have some wanky advert in the programme showing an empty terrace implying that somehow subscribing to sky is saving football – utter wankers – they are the ones killing the game in England and this is an insult to the fans and something we could do without in the programme.

December 2001	January 2002	February 2002	March 2002	April 2002
July 2001	August 2001	September 2001	October 2001	November 2001
February 2001	March 2001	April 2001	May 2001	June 2001
September 2000	October 2000	November 2000	December 2000	January 2001