TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR: Fail To Prepare, Prepare To Fail

Find me a Tottenham Hotspur fan who doesn’t look at the pictures of Graham Roberts and Tony Parks holding the UEFA Cup after our penalty victory back in 1984 and feel a tear coming to their eye and I’ll show you a Spurs fan without a heart.

Tottenham Hotspur’s history is steeped in Glory, Glory nights when we battled the European hordes in big games at White Hart Lane and on foreign fields and came through victorious, all starting with Bill Nicholson’s 1963 side lifting the now defunct European Cup Winner’s Cup to become the first British winners of a major European trophy.

It may have been over twenty years since one of those fine pieces of silverware was held in the Spurs trophy room but tomorrow night sees a return to European action with the weight of expectation baring down on the club, the players and Martin Jol as last season’s qualification for the UEFA Cup is forgotten and the real business of winning the trophy begins.

The terrible start Spurs have suffered in the Premiership can’t be underplayed although the return of Captian Marvel Ledley King has brought a noticeable strength back to the back four and hopefully some of it will rub off on the increasingly nervous Paul Robinson in goal. Robbo has been a rock since he signed but all goalkeepers play better with confidence and after a shaky World Cup with England he’s came back, made a few boobs and lowered his confidence even more. We need the solidity Ledley provides to help Robbo reclaim his form and the sooner the better.

Aaron Lennon looks like being back in contention as well and the sighs of relief can be heard from North London all the way to Prague. The thought of losing Lennon for any amount of time, especially with new signing Steed Malbranque recuperating and Wayne Routledge inexplicably allowed to leave on loan for the season to Fulham, was a worrying one and hopefully he can give us the attacking spark we’ve missed so far this season.

My major worry is with Tottenham’s preparation. My attention was drawn to a quote from Martin Jol about how the club have been very thorough in their preparation including going to Prague to see Slavia play and studying their style. All sounds good so far doesn’t it? It all falls apart after that. I’ll quote Jol just to make the point stand out more:

“We can’t underestimate them. In the last three years in the UEFA Cup they have reached a semi-final, a quarter-final and the last 16.”

Sounds impressive doesn’t it and not quite the midweek party match some of our fans thought when the draw was made. Maybe so until you realise that SLAVIA Prague haven’t made it past the fourth round of the UEFA Cup more than once in the past fifteen years (thanks Mediawatch). Their city neighbours SPARTA Prague however have done rather better and in fact have a record that exactly matches that which Martin Jol has just attributed to Slavia.

Is anyone else starting to get a chill down their spine when they look at these quotes and wonder just how much effort Spurs have put into their research and if following Sparta Prague while they were supposed to be watching Slavia Prague is the tip of the iceberg, just how long can we expect to keep this year’s European adventure going?

I pray that it’s only the Tony Soprano look-a-like who has got the wrong end of this particular stick.