I find it hard to believe that Tottenham Hotspur are in a Champions League Final on Saturday.
I became a Spurs fan over a game of mini snooker.
It was late 1986, I was 8, and the prospective brother in law, an Englishman and Tottenham fan since a child, was in Dublin to ‘Meet the Parents’ – before Robert De Niro made the concept famous. All that went well.
I had a mini snooker table and Steve, my future relative, bet me £5 punts. If I won a game, he would give me £5 punts. If I lost, I would have to support Tottenham Hotspur. I took the bet, as a brown coloured £5 punt note was a lot of money at the time. I lost. Maybe trying to salvage that fiver drew me into a life of punting.
First game
Steve was decent enough to bring me to my first game, a match against Portsmouth at White Hart Lane in April 1988. It was a huge thrill to travel for the first time on a plane with my parents to London over Easter. It was back in the day of the Aer Lingus ‘Young Flyer’s Club’, where the air hostesses would give you postcards and colouring books. Ireland was also a basket case economy in the late 1980’s, so a flight to London was expensive, a rarity. Tottenham Hotspur shirts were impossible to get in Dublin.
I had been sent a Hummel manufactured Tottenham kit, with the white shirt, the navy shorts and white socks the previous August. When you are a child, these type of garments contribute towards your burgeoning identity. It was an identity I was happy with, among the throng of Liverpool and Manchester United supporting children. English football was popular then, with many Irish stars at top English clubs. English football is popular now for arguably different reasons, due to the global nature and real quality of the Premier League.
The game at White Hart Lane was a magical experience. Tottenham lost 1-0 to Portsmouth, but the ground, the atmosphere, the world, ‘felt bigger’. I would be lucky enough to return to witness matches against Liverpool and Manchester United over the next couple of years. The Manchester United game was especially mesmerising, as Paul Gascoigne ran riot, just a couple of months before he graced the world stage at Italia 90.
As you get older, you begin to shape your own image as a fan, so I didn’t return to North London until the late 1990’s. An FA Cup win over Nottingham Forest in 1991 aside, the whole decade was a write off of mediocrity. I attended boring 0-0 draws against Wimbledon and Everton and I didn’t like the way Chairman Alan Sugar ran the club. Disillusionment set in and it wasn’t much fun as a supporter.
The description of Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson to his players – the ‘Lads it’s Tottenham’ – was so appropriate. We never won at Old Trafford. Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal were collecting Premier League titles. It was grim, the Christian Gross tube ticket episode the nadir. For a club which was known over the years as a top 4 contender and a ‘Cup team’, for Spurs, League Cup victories in 1999 and 2008 was a paltry return. It was all very ‘Spursy’. In other words, they’d always build your hopes up and let you down.
Progression
The takeover of the club by ENIC, the company controlled by billionaire Joe Lewis in 2001, was in retrospect, a game changer. Lewis installed Daniel Levy to manage affairs and Levy has proved himself to be a fantastic businessman in a cut throat environment over the past two decades.
Tottenham’s progression has been gradual, but consistent. Harry Redknapp brought the club into the Champions League for the first time. Mauricio Pochettino’s men challenged Leicester City for the title in 2016 and then Spurs ended with a record points total of 86 in 2017, their second place in the table their greatest league achievement since 1963.
My experience as a fan has also improved. Seeing Freddie Kanoute whip one in from 30 yards on my birthday in 2003; reporting on a 5-4 defeat to Arsenal from the press box. Managing to watch the great Manchester United team of Ronaldo and Rooney from the Director’s box (how I got a ticket is a story for another day). Hearing the Champions League theme tune at the old White Hart Lane. Seeing Tottenham batter Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. Going to the new stadium and inhaling its splendour only last month.
Holy grail
So is the run to the Champions League Final against Liverpool a surprise? Not considering the form of recent years, but it is unexpected this season. Tottenham have no record to speak of in Europe’s premier competition, the squad has been thin, and 19 defeats have been suffered in all competitions over the last nine months.
My head is telling me that Liverpool will win in Madrid; my heart says Spurs, naturally. It’s a one off, so anything can happen. I am not going, but I am not upset about that. I have lived the dream when it comes to attending sporting events and I was in Amsterdam to see Lucas Moura’s miracle. I just hope the team do themselves justice and it signifies a new dawn for Tottenham; an elite club challenging for honours regularly in their magnificent new home. It’s over three decades since that maiden flight to London, but the inner boy never leaves you. COYS!
