Guantanamo Lane

The only winners excluding the East London Lazio supporters club that were bouncing away to my left was the steward. Having spent the best part of the game informing people that they should sit, he now had the easy task of diverting them to the nearest exit, or preventing them from laying down in resignation.

As I sat there and allowed the final few minutes to dredge by I pondered my existence, I pondered life, and why I arrived willingly at this N17 torture camp.

Most of all though, I tried not to scream in frustration.

The game had started reasonably well. Spurs reverted to the tried and tested, i.e extinct 4-4-2, and did the basic things well. Pass quickly, get it wide, cross the ball and shoot, it wasn’t rocket science, it wasn’t inverting the pyramid, but it was effective, to a level. East London Lazio eventually got the measure of it though and the half-chances and snatched shots dried up, quite a feat given it was tipping down.

I am not going to pin one iota of blame on Tim Sherwood and the rest of his managing triumvirate for this defeat.  He did what he could in the time allowed to him, with the players at his disposal, my resentment was focused 20 metres or so above his head.

The board, the director of football, the brains behind our club. I hold my hands up. I along with many of you were swept along with the glory of signing player after player. I did however offer up reservations about the suitability of Franco Baldini, however, when he conjured up Erik Lamela, a player I had admired for a while, I allowed my concerns to happily slip away. Today however, after enduring another big/painful/embarrassing/soul destroying defeat they are back, but is he really to blame?

[authquoteleft text=”I am not going to pin one iota of blame on Tim Sherwood and the rest of his managing triumvirate[/linequote]

Who was behind the biggest footballing transfer fraud in the history of the game?

The summer of 2013 was pure smoke and mirrors, a ruse to have us looking one way whilst plants in the crowd carefully dipped into our pockets and run away with our cash and soul. In the excitement of signing young talent we all forgot that being ushered off the stage were players whose contribution to the club have been overlooked, or dismissed. I am not referring to Gareth Bale, but Clint Dempsey, Steven Caulker, Tom Huddlestone and even Jake Livermore.

Before East London Lazio scored the equaliser we had seen time after time our centre-backs being exposed by the long punt. As the ball dropped from outer-space, more often than not it was Carlton Cole or in the latter stages Modibo Maiga’s head that got to the ball first. Had I had access to Daniel Levy’s ear I may have asked him where is Younes Kaboul?

“Daniel where is Younes? Where is the player who hasn’t played for a year? You know the guy with the Ledley knee and only 18 months left on his contract? Where is he, why isn’t he playing?”

To which he would either have had me removed from earshot, or replied.

“He is injured.”

Mismanagement, ill judgement, ineptitude and most of all greed. Last night it would have been wonderful to play Steven Caulker but he saw the pound signs, the £8 million profit and sold him. We were told he was surplus to requirements as Kaboul was back, well he isn’t and hasn’t been all season.

Another nail in our chance of silverware.

The man who has felt the full weight of blame this week is our sacked manager Andre Villas-Boas. As I have stated before, he should not escape blame for what has happened, but perhaps he shouldn’t shoulder the full load. The truth is us mere mortals of football will never know who signed who, what happened post Liver-debacle and whether or not a Emmanuel Adebayor really was the spark that triggered Levy’s firing finger.

[authquoteright text=”Last night it would have been wonderful to play Steven Caulker but he saw the pound signs, the £8 million profit and sold him[/linequote]

However, what can be deduced is there is one man who can carry the can. Once again it’s Daniel. If a chef puts the wrong ingredients in the oven, he can’t blame oven, British Gas or the baking tray if the final result is inedible. He is in charge, he decides what goes where and when, and most importantly what goes in and out.

East London Lazio may have highlighted our lack of cover at centre-back, but Sherwood by introducing Zeki Fryers as an alternative to Danny Rose demonstrated that we are cataclysmically short there also. Rose until this season was never anything more than a squad player, a player we were all happy to see depart on loan, yet due to failings in the summer he was propelled to the title of “best left-back” at one of the top clubs in England.

As a club with a director of football, a technical supervisor and multitude of other modern sporting positions, it’s quite a feat to start a Champions League push with only one left back.

Tottenham Hotspur are in disarray. It’s an epidemic that sweeping through the club from the board down to the two chaps failing to serve beer in Block 39 at halftime.

As the minutes ticked past last night and the crowd, players and management lost their way it became clear, something has to change. That change has to be major, the short-termisim at Spurs is chronic and must stop.

Perhaps it’s time to stop looking at what has gone wrong over 18 months and instead look at what has gone wrong over 12/13 years. White Hart Lane, previously one of my favourite spots on the planet has become a torture camp, a place where i currently feel no joy and often wish I could click my heals and be transported elsewhere (1882 nights exempt).

I want Tottenham to finally figure out what the plan is and to stop making knee jerk decisions at the whim of someone who has failed for the best part of a decade. In what other industry would a chairman who has failed to deliver on so many levels be allowed to retain his job? 

I want to enjoy my football, this doesn’t have to involve winning 10-0 every week or even winning every week, but it involves making White Hart Lane a place I love, not a place where and orange jump suit is a necessity. I am not asking for bliss, I just want normality.

[author name=”ARLombardi” avatar=”https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/378800000789662677/0ad5704c93624459c70b906dab544185_bigger.jpeg” bio=”I read, I write, I speak, I edit for The Fighting Cock” twitter=”ARLombardi[/linequote]