Are Tottenham a BIG Club?

Article by e-Spurs Correspondent Dino Gallina

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So what makes a BIG club? History, championships, trophies, world fan base and superstars? Tottenham are definitely a club of “firsts”. Obviously first double winners in the 60’s, twice champions, first English team to win a trophy in Europe, the 1963 Cup Winners Cup. Back in 1901 Spurs beat Sheffield United as a non-league club. We also beat our enemy in the augural derby. So is Spurs a BIG club? Certainly till the end of the 60’s we were, then someone trod on a black cat. Sure we’ve won a few more trophies, but in general that doesn’t make us a BIG club.

I’m always perplexed how agents and potential players refer to Tottenham as a big club. In the eyes of the world, teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, Santos, AC Milan, Manchester United with Liverpool have that stigma of greatness. Successful clubs in their own right, steeped in tradition and iconic in world football. Of the new breed PSG, Manchester City, Chelsea and Monaco for example, it will take a generation for these new clubs to achieve the lofty heights Real and others have. False economies run these new clubs, false economies that flatter their achievements unlike Real Madrid and Co who achieved greatness prior to the gluttony of money that now exists in the European leagues. The absurd billions of Euro/pounds poured into these clubs would feed 10 starving nations around the world. Where would Manchester City, Chelsea and Co be if it weren’t for the millions poured into them by sheiks, Arabs, Russians whoever fits the bill.

Tottenham are the opposite, a sort of wannabe big club. We are sort of the “almost” bully in football. Now before all you detractors shoot me down, facts are simple. Yes we are the 14th richest club in world football, we are a “sellers” club, hence why we are always around the mark in the top 20 richest clubs. We haven’t made money by winning trophies? Nor championships? Nor through great marketing ability? We sell our best assets. Players! Instead of grinding the axe with such players as Berbatov, Modric, Bale and selling players of the likes of Van Der Vaart, we have people in the club that look at the bottom line. We have an accountants mentality, not a footballing ethos. Tottenham will unfortunately travel this path whilst we remain under the shadow of ENIC and all whom associated with it. We are a club craving the growth required to achieve the highest echelons of football, but we are constantly stunted by narrow minded owners/CEO’s. Sugars is one, Levy now is another. Their legacy will not make fantastic reading in the future. Sure we have a new training facility, so what. Our proposed stadium is nothing more than a selling tool ENIC will use to make money from the sale of Tottenham. The stadium is a pipe dream, always has been and always will be.

Say what you like about Arsenal, they have got the pieces in the right places, we as a club would like the pieces in the right places. BIG clubs have big dreams, and with these dreams come the taste of success. Through success you build a rhythm and desire never to fail, and not accept failure. In the EPL, Manchester United could play the second eleven, but they still played with a desire and willing that is instilled in them from day 1. So is Tottenham a BIG club? Do we possess the willingness, the winning mentality and the desire to be the next “ManU”? Under the current regime unfortunately not. Not until we stop in seriousness selling our best assets, not until we stop pretending we are a big club and start becoming a big club by laying the foundations for the next ten years, to strive to win two EPL championships, at least qualify for the European Championship four times out of the next ten years. To have a CEO with a solid and non-breaking mentality in the background who needs patience and place the right people on the ground and let them go ahead and do their jobs without looking over their shoulder every five minutes.

Purchase player required, not ones because Santa gave us a bucket load of money and we blew it on cheap booze and gambling. We need a manager who can identify where we fall short, build the foundations solid enough to hold the wall up for the next 10 years and beyond. It’s always easy sitting in our own homes and write what-ever we feel like, publish it, cop some flak, but I’ve often been amused at the terminology “Tottenham is a BIG club”, not yet. Nowhere near a big club. There are a group of clubs, such as Everton, Tottenham, throw in Newcastle, I’d say Aston Villa who are the next tier down from the top five, and by the top 5, I mean the current top 4 plus Manchester United. So are we a big club? Not until we attract players of the ilk Chelsea and Manchester City seem to do with the $ they possess, not until the Ark returns to North London with the new stadium, not until Levy and crew are allowed to run roughshod over the club as his predecessor Sugars did, not until we stop selling the crucial players required to be great, no until our brand sits beside the giants of world football, not until we stop the instability within the club, not until we start gaining respect and stop being the butt of all jokes in football, not until we develop a winning mentality that is second to none, not until we get the $’s to compete with the big boys, not until we have a genuine vision for the future and not until we stop being a club with the poison chalice.

Tottenham was a big club, glory days where the norm, it’s died. We live each year in the hope this is the one, but inevitably we find a way to shoot ourselves in both feet. Respect in life is paramount, whether its personal or Tottenham.

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