People's History of Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Hotspur have long since had supporters’ groups in all parts of Britain and abroad. A long history of signing star players from the United Kingdom and Ireland has cemented links with Wales, Scotland and Ireland, where Spurs were especially popular in the sixties and seventies.

“Tottenham is a dream. It’s a fugue-state induced by the slow emerging patterns and the push and pull of attack and defence. When we’re losing it’s a meditation on the impermanence of life. When we’re winning it’s an affirmation...
“This feeling right now that you’re feeling? The feeling you felt when Lamela’s perfectly-weighted pass split the legs of Otamendi and found Eriksen? That’s the process of winning. That moment that Eriksen coolly took a first touch and you knew that the next touch was going to put the ball in the back of the net?
“The ball hops over Hart’s leg. The ball ripples the net. The scream emerges. The theatre of celebration begins. I scream, I jump, I hug strangers, I hug Jonah, Jonah grins ear to ear, I’m singing. I’m singing. I’m singing... That’s the best feeling in the world... the moment of potential. The moment that the scream is building in your throat...”

Now it is over to Daniel Levy and the board to make Tottenham football accessible. Not cheap, football sadly never will be, but affordable. Short-term income gains must not outweigh the long-term benefits of making supporters feel welcome.

Manager Mauricio Pochettino’s grasp of what the club means to the fans exceeds his command of English. And they play the Spurs Way, fast, flowing football, anxious to get the ball forward.

If you build it, we will come but the temporary fans, the South Korean tourists, the curious, they may be filling the spare seats and Stubhub’s profits now but they’ll go elsewhere in a flash. Spurs are about loyalty and longevity. Gloryhunters and football hipsters don’t come to N17

Spurs have a flourishing corporate section but the body of fans are not day-trippers or flash geezers. For many the expense is harder and harder to justify.

This is modern football: the prices, dates and kick-off times for the convenience of a largely uncommitted television audience not the paying supporter, late changes too and football potentially every day of the week so no chance of planning anything else in advance.

Spurs had made themselves hard to love. It was not so much the lack of trophies but the absence of any coherent plan. Never mind ‘aiming high’, we weren’t aiming at anything, as well as having spent big on a striker who apparently wasn’t aiming at anything much either.

However, at the Trust meetings we hear feedback about the bank wanting guaranteed income streams and maximising revenue to justify the loans. Money, in other words. If it is the people’s game, this opportunity will be wasted if ticket prices exclude vast swathes of the fanbase

Due to be complete in time for the start of the 2018/19 season, it looks like it won’t be the generic modern stadium with its cool, sterile lines and atmosphere to match. There’s a skywalk, hotel and a retractable pitch for NFL. Frankly, so what? Get behind the team, so the stands rise close to the pitch and we have an ‘end’, at 17,000 capacity we can make it ours and make some noise.