When the line “Spurs are a well run club” is frequently reeled out. But as with many tired old stock phrases, if you take a moment to examine them, they really make a whole lot of sense.
As per a recent blog on here, I fiendishly dared to ask the question, when is the line “do a Leeds” going to stop being used as a device to discourage free thought and incite blind fear?
There is light and shade in football, as there is in life. One can do things to degree. Just because you aren’t teetotal, this need not be a sudden indicator that you are a raving alcoholic.
“That” interview with Juande Ramos is pretty mind blowing stuff. Even if you factor in that there isn’t a football manager in the world that has ever admitted their own wrong doings and sins, outside of a priest’s confessional box (and Ramos hasn’t bucked that trend) it isn’t difficult to draw very plausible conclusions that include his revelations.
Levy sells Berbatov, Keane and Modric. Levy negotiates out of a deal for David Villa, arguably when he was at his pomp. Levy replaces the sold players with Bent, Campbell and Bentley.
Levy negotiates out of a deal for Moutinho; sells Gareth Bale and replaces him with players that are – with the possible exception of Soldado – investments. Even then, it is believable that Levy & Co. looked at the Spaniard and thought if he “did a vDV” they could probably still get their money back.
The apparent insistence to inflict a Director of Football model on Tottenham hasn’t worked before, and isn’t working now.
Damien Comolli signs Pavlyuchenko. Who doesn’t have any English, and doesn’t understand anything. Baldini repeats the same mistake and signs Lamela; who doesn’t have any English, and doesn’t understand anything.
So is Spurs a well run club? Well from a business perspective, it’s difficult to make the accusation that it’s a poorly run club. It always operates with serviceable levels of debt and tries to seek out a path of least resistance. Few enterprises go “pop” by exercising caution.
But as a football club, there is little to get excited about.
It is easy to believe that the prospect of a new stadium always was, and still very much is, viewed as being “inevitable”, rather than something that got the board’s pulses racing. Proof of the pudding is that we are mid February in 2014, and so far we’re got a Sainsbury’s.
I’d hesitate to label ENIC as parasitic, after all, I’m not a communist. But I do like the idea of football embracing some rather more social libertarian traits. In simple language, clubs need to revisit the values of those who founded them, and stop calling fans client reference numbers.
Making a profit isn’t a shameful occupation. But on occasion, I’ve always felt that the phrase “shop soiled” didn’t just refer to a garment reduced because it had become a victim to poor housekeeping.
The legalised touting, the arrest of fans together with the encouragement of more arrests to be made, (the 3 charged with using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress, are in court this month) the banning orders issued to those arrested, before trial.
Oh yes, and the heavy handed match day stewarding all combine to make for grime inducing factors. Shop soiled.
We’re riding upon a carousel with ENIC. The seats are uncomfortable after prolonged periods, the ups and downs are all too predictable, and no matter how long the journey lasts for, you always end up dismounting at the very place you the ride began.
If Interim Tim doesn’t get 4th, then he’s toast. Of this I’m 100% certain. If he does secure Champions League football, and fails to repeat the feat at the very first time of asking. He’s toast. The better players will be sold, new hopefuls brought in.
Another manager will turn the handle that starts the engine. The music will start up. The gaudy horses will feel a slow grinding from beneath their boards, and the ride will turn and turn and turn again.
A mechanical process; a machine designed to pass away time in exchange for more money than it costs to operate.
We’re supporting a carousel, “Come on you Lilywhite nags going round in circles!”
