White Hart Pain
May 8, 2006 by admin
Filed under Uncategorized
Forgive my mood today if I descend into rant-mode on a few occasions. I’m being serious when I say only a Tottenham fan could truly understand the magnitude of what happened yesterday and feel that another little part of the love we feel for the game has been chipped away.
There are so many questions to ask and have answered that I don’t know where to start. For those who haven’t been following then I’ll give a brief rundown.
Spurs and Arsenal were sitting 4th and 5th with one point separating them going into the last game of the season. Spurs were playing West Ham United at Upton Park in London, Arsenal were at home to Wigan Athletic in their last game ever at Highbury before moving to their new Emirates Stadium. And so the scene is set.
For Spurs this was the biggest game we’d faced since the 1991 FA Cup Final, undoubtedly our greatest challenge especially since it was the scumbags from down the road who were breathing down our necks. Double inspiration to succeed you might say. On Saturday evening the Spurs squad stayed together at a hotel on the Isle of Dogs. During the night ten of the first team squad and staff were up vomiting and experiencing diarrhoea as the result of food poisoning. I will repeat that last bit. On the eve of Spurs biggest game in nearly two decades, with a Champion’s League potential bounty of £30m riding on it, TEN of the first team squad and staff were struck down with food poisoning.
Anyone who has had food poisoning will understand the debilitating effects it has on you, now imagine having to play the hardest 90 minutes of football in your career. When the club reported the serious problem to the F.A. Premier League and West Ham they were met with understanding from their opponents and complete indiference from the governing body.
Tottenham requested a 24 hour postponement of the game to give the players time to recover a little and get some fluids and food back into their systems but were denied even a four hour delay by the Metropolitan Police who didn’t want to let the fans stay in the pubs around the ground that long.
Now here comes the murky bit. Spurs big local rivals are Arsenal. Arsenal’s chief executive is David Dein. The same David Dein who is one of the top power brokers in the Football Association which runs the English game. Richard Scudamore is the head of the F.A. Premier League and a close friend of David Dein. Richard Scudamore was at Highbury yesterday with his close friend Mr Dein when the call from Spurs came to him to allow a 24 hour postponement of the game. Without making the relatively short journey from North London to East London to assess the obviously serious situation Mr. Scudamore decided to deny Spurs their request and told them that if they didn’t fulfil the fixture yesterday at the agreed time then they would be fined and docked points.
Add this to the facts of a 5 star hotel giving food poisoning to ten Spurs players and staff on the eve of the game and another fact that NO other guests of the exclusive hotel were poisoned. Sound fishy to you?
Add in the £30m of Champion’s League money that would be rather important to a certain red and white North London club who are moving to a new stadium which has already emptied their coffers and you have a mystery that the old bird from Murder, She Wrote would love to sink her dentures into.
I’m not saying that anything did go on but looking at it objectively, it’s not anywhere beyond the bounds of possibility. When large amounts of money are involved there will always be corruption. Whether it’s an Arsenal supporting chef at a hotel or two old friends who give each other the nod and wink to stand firm on certain issues, it is al corruption. It destroys our game and sometimes it breaks people’s hearts.
If you had spent the time on the Spurs messageboards that I have then you’d see what yesterday’s circus means to us. The players put themselves in physical danger by playing, some heroes like Edgar Davids ran themselves into the ground for the cause and we’ll never forget that but my question is this: why did they have to?
When players are collapsing on the pitch in the warm up and vomiting in the tunnel before the game. When they can barely walk never mind run, is this a fair situation for a game to go ahead? When the Premier League have the power to use common sense but instead rely on the old boys network and keep their closed shop closed, is it a sport anymore or is it sports entertainment like WWF wrestling?
Most of all, is there anyone left at the top level who really cares more about the ideals of football then they do about a collection of notes with the Queen’s head on them?
Be aware that I only included your comment this time becuase you admit that Lennon is a far better player than Walcott will ever be.
I thank you.
Have no idea how good Walcott will be since I’ve never seen him play but Lennon played aces against us at Highbury. No argument there, he looks like the real deal, though he could always turn out to be another Jermaine Pennant.
Lennon gets pretty good press on most of the Arsenal blogs by the way, though obivously a lot of gooners will shit on anything coming out of White Hart Lane.
Hear your food poisoning was actually a virus…
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA
STILL LAUGHING
WEST HAM’S OUR FEEDER CLUB, WEST HAM’S OUR FEEDER CLUB. so “do do do blah blah” these “little time players” does that include Jermain Defoe, the same Jermain Defoe we took off you, who should, in all honesty, be in the england squad?! What about the spurs rejects you got? Zapoora, scored one good goal, which was good, but nowt else. Need i continue?!
Oh and btw, it was 25 years ago, 6-1=5, basic basic maths mate! as Alan said, get your facts straight.
“Jean-Michel” You sound French? ever thought of joining the Arsenal team? you’d fit in pretty well there… Btw mate, you might also want to re-read previous comments before harping on about “10″ players injured, when originally you wrote “12″. Then to top that up, whilst trying to prove your point, you only used 9 examples… come on mate! The french are supposed to be relatively intelligent!
Hi Alan
Can I draw your attention back to the main facts that I raised on May the 8th and my complete faith in the advice I was given where the effects of two of your first team players having some form of illness, which was not food poisoning, has now been confirmed (please visit the following link http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4761715.stm). It would be so nice to see an apology from yourself for raising such rubbish on a forum site, as I initially pointed out.
If you also have any influence on convincing your director, Mr Levy, of giving a public apology to the staff of the Marriott Hotel, West Ham United, and Arsenal for the near slanderous comments that he made claiming that this was some form of sabotage. My affermitive conclusion is that Mr Levy is a complete berk.
All of you that have posted on this topic really have proved without a shadow of doubt what a compete bunch of mugs you really are, and still have a belief that you are a club that are bigger and better than you really are – pathetic.
Also, Yiddo whomever you are, we will be your feeder club as long as you want, we’ll still score one more than you and beat you. I’d love to hear you choking on you own words after you learn that my facts are right, plus the fact it was 26 years 1980 to 2006 = 26, basic math plank. Maybe that’s why you follow a tin pot club like this being a brain dead norbert?
Maybe Spurs can try this one again next year in your quest for a Champions League spot, ha ha. I’ll sign off with the same point that I did originally – Champions League? You really are having a laugh
Alan, you’re way wide of the mark with your initial comments. I do think you owe an apology to the people you have slagged off as though they were part of some conspiracy against Spurs
The only insidious thing I saw going on were that Man U and Chelsea were both teams supporting the replay (presumably in the hope that Spurs in the CL affects one of their major competitor’s ability to compete in the longer term)
Sly comments about WH being your feeder club are also out of order cos with the amount of players you lot buy it seems most teams are your feeder clubs and in any case WH are quite capable of beating Spurs
I must question why Danny Murphy was left on the bench but players suffering from a stomach bug were sent out onto the pitch, this means that Jol must have thought that either Murphy was so bad that sick players were better or that really they weren’t as bad as Spurs subsequently would have us believe. Personally I think you lot are making a big thing about it only cos you lost
I believe it’s quite arrogant to suggest that a replay take place, you played the game, if you had won would you wanted to replay the game? Exactly!
Now Levy is making himself look a bigger tit than usual threatening to sue everybody from hotels to the governing body cos you didn’t win.
Spurs should be proud of what they did this season but despite all the money you’ve spent you deserve to be in the CL much less than Arse cos you had few cup games this year and with your 150 strong squad you should have done quite well anyway. Arse had injury problems this year and had to play in the cups for longer like Liverpool last year.
We heard all of this crap from Everton last year and about how they were now best team on merseyside, look at how embarassingly poor they turned out to be when they played with the big boys. You guys are starting off promisingly and could be good in a few years but dont forget the advantages Spurs have had compared to the likes of Arse this year so make no mistake you’re still absolutely miles behind them
Spurs and my problems with Mr. Dein and Mr. Scudamore (hereafter known as the Gooner Two) were that they were so reluctant to break up the last day of term party at the Library that they conspired to bend the Premier League rules about delaying or postponing games to force Spurs to play with ten players severely ill. Why would I ever apologise for saying that? It’s plainly the truth and is a view supported by the majority of Premiership clubs and chairmen as evidenced by their support of Spurs this week.
Their is a stench of Arsenal biased corruption running through the FA and the Premier League hierarchy that has not went unnoticed by the other clubs and I doubt this will be the last of the matter.
I’m not going to respond to your infantile remarks about feeder clubs and West Ham beating us, this year’s Everton etc etc. Anyone who’s read your previous comments on this site knows that you’re only happy when you’re trolling so I’m not going to bite.
I am sorry to hear that Arsenal suffered an injury crisis this year (God forbid!), must be the first time that’s happened to a Premiership club in a long time. Note to Ged: Ashley Cole being out doesn’t excuse Arsenal having a piss poor 3/4 of the season. Over reliance on one man band Henry is Arsenal’s problem as we’ll see next year when he heads off to Barcelona.
2nd note to Ged: one point ain’t miles my friend. History means nothing when it comes to the present situation.
Dammit, told myself I wouldn’t get caught up feeding the trolls again…
REO COKER: You been listening to Mike Parry on Talksport mate? Whether the players had food poisoing as was originally claimed or viral gastroenteritis is not the point, the problem Spurs as a club and I as a fan had was with the Premier League not postponing the game despite most of our first team being struck down with a severe illness. Stop changing the subject please.
BTW enjoy tomorrow. I know it’s been a long wait since 1980 but it’ll be memories of a good day out for you ‘Appy ‘Ammers to take back to the Queen Vic tomorrow and mull over your whupping by the Red Scousers for another 26 years.
You spurs want to know what Dein’s connection with the EPL is?
NOthing!
HIs connection with the FA?
Elected a representative of the clubs, by the chairmen of club’s including yours, manure and the russian mafia. So go get your facts straight before hunting immaginary excuses for not making the UCL.
Food poisioning…
Right… stomach bug not caused by the Lasagne.
IF you were so sick why didn’t an ex-england international like danny murphy start.
10 of your staff and players sick.
So whats the break up? A hammer suggested it was 2 players 8 staff.. give me a reliable source with the number.
Gunners out in a single game
1. Cole
2. Campbell
3. Toure
4. Eboue
5. Lauren
6. Hleb
7. Van P
8. Gilbert
9. Clichy
10. Bergy
11. Freddie
SO if you want 11 players out… there you have it!