{"id":2558,"date":"2021-03-13T13:37:36","date_gmt":"2021-03-13T13:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2558"},"modified":"2021-03-14T21:29:14","modified_gmt":"2021-03-14T21:29:14","slug":"my-old-man-said-be-a-tottenham-fan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2558","title":{"rendered":"My Old Man Said Be A Tottenham Fan \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/ARSTOT_pic-1024x898.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2561\" width=\"699\" height=\"613\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/ARSTOT_pic-1024x898.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/ARSTOT_pic-300x263.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/ARSTOT_pic-768x673.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/ARSTOT_pic-75x66.jpg 75w, https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/ARSTOT_pic.jpg 1234w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 699px) 100vw, 699px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Prologue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Actually, he didn\u2019t say anything of the sort, thank heavens, because if he had, maybe I would have been. In fact, although I\u2019m sure he was a quiet admirer of the Arsenal, he never really said that much about football at all. So his offer to this childhood Barnet fan of a trip to the Arsenal &#8211; the actual ARSENAL ! &#8211; was met with a fair amount of surprise and a huge amount of excitement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That first ever visit to Highbury, under the floodlights and with the buzz of that huge crowd, rendered me a Gooner for life &#8211; although the original members of that band of fellows came a while later &#8211; but in a fairly small minority in my school, where most were \u201cLilywhites\u201d fans, ahem. Fortunately for my mum and dad, if it even existed then, I was unaware of the rest of that particular moniker. Even then though, at such a young age, it was special &#8211; the rivalry and hatred of \u2018that lot\u2019, whether in a playground five-a-side or a FA Cup semi-final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Greaves, Smith, Chivers, Gilzean and Sheringham have long since given way to Gascoigne, Lineker, Bale, the traitorous Adebayor and Bentley, and now even ex youth player and still Arsenal fan (\ud83d\ude06), Harry Kane. All Spuds, all resented, but probably none more so than con man Kane with his dangerous backs and cheating dives, all apparently within the laws of the game if you happen to be an England \u201chero\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s a bit of fun featuring a song about Harry Kane, a tribute to their striker who goes down easier than a whore\u2019s drawers on a Saturday night in Kings Cross, although the whole video is pure classical Spursyness. How fitting it should be written and performed by two Tottenham stalwarts bangin\u2019 one aahht on the old Joanna &#8211; Wallop ! He\u2019s Gone Down !<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(apologies, there may be an advert to clear but it\u2019s worth it)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Chas &amp; Dave: Wallop\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nEizaZTgMso?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Local History<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This game is happening at the Emirates and we all know about Highbury, so here\u2019s a little bit of possibly lesser known local history about Tottenham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tottenham, as a locality, has existed for over a thousand years, and a quick visit will suggest that much of the original area still stands. The original settlement was owned by a farmer named Tota, and Tota\u2019s Hamlet was mentioned in the Domesday Book. It developed into Tottenham and was sited along the old Roman road, Ermine Street, some of which is part of the present A10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the Tudor period onwards, Tottenham became a popular recreation and leisure centre for wealthy Londoners. Henry VIII is known to have visited Bruce Castle (Bruce Grove) and hunted in Tottenham Woods. The area remained semi-rural and upper middle class until the late 1870s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the 1870s the Great Eastern Railway arrived, with branch lines from Enfield and Walthamstow, and the area\u2019s low-lying fields &#8211; the often referred to Tottenham Marshes (Marsh Dwellers) &#8211; and market gardens were rapidly transformed into cheap housing for the lower middle and working classes, who were then able to commute cheaply to inner London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The area has had a difficult relationship with authority from the Tottenham Outrage of 1909, to Broadwater Farm in 1985 and the Tottenham Riots of 2011. I never enjoyed going to White Hart Lane and running the gauntlet out afterwards &#8211; even when I managed to get in for our League clincher in 1971 but had to watch as a stabbed Arsenal fan was passed over our heads to get to medical assistance. Our team, on the other hand, seems to have quite enjoyed the short trip to N17, winning the league on their ground more times than they have !<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year though is supposed to be a momentous one for the Spuds as they always, ahem, win the League in years ending in \u201c1\u201d. This year, of course, is 2021 and they are craftily placed in 7th position, all ready to overhaul Man City who are sitting precariously a mere 23 points ahead with 11 games to play. Of course, the whole \u201calways\u201d win in years ending in \u201c1\u201d is such a load of nonsense, as a glance at the Holic clock at the top of this blog will tell you. It is now, in fact, a mere 59 years, 10 months and counting since they last won the First Division in 1961.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It bears no repeating &#8211; oh, yes it does ! &#8211; that the poor, success starved followers of Middlesex have never even seen TV footage of their win in colour &#8211; because there isn\u2019t any ! Grainy black and white was all there was in those days &#8211; 8 years before the first moon landing, 10 years before the Floppy Disc, 13 years before the Post-it Note and 18 years before the Sony Walkman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But things, well some things, change. Spurs now have a new stadium with a massive gold cock erected on the roof, and a miserable little grey cock installed as their manager. The stadium houses the longest serving hatch in the world; a whole brewery with beer served in bottom filling glasses which hilariously empty themselves over the fans\u2019 trousers when they poke around trying to see how they work; a cheese room; an under floor, slide-out American football pitch, but \u2026\u2026.. no trophy room ! That may be because they have long given up hope of actually winning anything ever again, or it may be due to fear of a repeat episode from earlier days at White Hart Lane, when thieves broke in and stole the entire contents of their trophy room. The two rolls of blue and white carpet were later recovered by police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Match<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first competitive match between Spurs and the Arsenal took place on 9th November 1896, and resulted in a 2-1 home win for the Gunners in front of a crowd of 2,000 people at the Manor Ground in Plumstead, South East London, where we resided from 1893 to 1913, leading up to the move to Highbury in that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since then there have been 202 games between the two clubs with Arsenal having won 82, lost 66 and drawn 54. From November 1999 to January 2008, the Arsenal managed a run of 21 games without defeat to the LWCs, but things have evened up somewhat since then. Suffice to say that in this most up and down of seasons, it is vital that we win this one. A confidence boosting good hiding for them would be nice, but this really is a case of any scrappy win will do. No suicidal, dangerous, unnecessary overplaying out from the back, just a solid, sensible, pragmatic win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week\u2019s VAR adjudications awarded Tottenham 2 extra points by giving them a penalty for booting the ball against a Fulham defender\u2019s arm which was pinned to his body, and denied us an absolute stonewall spot kick when P\u00e9p\u00e9\u2019s effort hit the arm of Eric Pieters, whose arm position suggested he was waving to someone in the upper tier of the stadium. The result is that we come into Sunday\u2019s game in 10th position with 38 points, while Tottenham lie 3 places and 7 points above us in 7th with 45 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Teams<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second leg of the Europa League tie against Olympiakos awaits just 4 days after this one, and remains our best and realistically only chance of Champions League football next season. That must surely have some influence on Mikel Arteta\u2019s selection but exactly what that will be is tough to predict. Calum Chambers was last week\u2019s surprise pick, and he did well at Burnley. The right back position could see another change with Bellerin, who worked hard on Thursday, being held back for the return. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see Mari back alongside Luiz at the back, as good as Gabriel was, with the latter also kept fresh for next Thursday. ESR will probably start on the bench as he is just back from injury, so Odegaard will retain his place. Partey should start, Xhaka seems inevitable, and while I would play Saka on the right and Pepe on the left, Arteta will almost certainly continue with Willian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, my almost certainly wrong guess at a starting eleven is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Leno<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Cedric, Luiz, Mari, Tierney<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Partey, Xhaka<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Odegaard<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Saka, Aubameyang (or Lacazette), Willian<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tottenham &#8211; no idea and, honestly, who cares ? Just give every one of them hell for ninety minutes and win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Holic Pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>bet365 are offering 31\/20 on an Arsenal win, or 12\/5 on the draw &#8211; bwin will give you exactly the same odds. If you are a new customer with William Hill, they will offer you 25\/1 on Aubameyang (or Kane, don\u2019t you dare !) to score, but only if you add the \u00a31 stake to your other bet. There\u2019s always a catch !<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Officials<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s sad and indicative of the influence that officials now have on results, that they can merit special mention. However, the referee will be Michael Oliver, 4th official is Kevin Friend, and Tottenham\u2019s 12th man, sorry, VAR will be Paul Tierney and Lee Betts. I was quite surprised to see that in all competitions with Oliver in charge, Arsenal have won marginally more games than we\u2019ve lost &#8211; 16 wins, 11 draws, and 14 defeats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kickoff is at 16.30 UK time. TV coverage is on Sky Sports. Seating is available behind a sofa near you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enjoy, Holics \ud83e\udd1e\ud83c\udffb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Prologue Actually, he didn\u2019t say anything of the sort, thank heavens, because if he had, maybe I would have been. In fact, although I\u2019m sure he was a quiet admirer of the Arsenal, he never really said that much about football at all. So his offer to this childhood Barnet fan of a trip [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2558"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2558"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2564,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2558\/revisions\/2564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}