So White Hart Lane it is then. Levy has still got his foot jammed in the door that has just been firmly closed like the salesman that he is, and will no doubt go down the litigation, Judicial Review route just to save his face but the game is over. Stuffing another couple of million down the throats of barristers, the only group that make bankers look poor will do nothing to salvage our pride.
We tried a smash and grab and were thwarted. In a move worthy of Al Capone we attempted a takeover of the West Ham rackets and were slapped down. 'Well why not' some of you may ask, 'they'd been run over by a bus and their wallet was lying there.
How long before the NPD becomes 'currently' viable again we will have to see. Until the blush fades from Levy's face probably. A year? Two years? Sometime? Never? There will be recriminations and tears, blood may be spilled. Spurs may be sold on. Who knows.
But this morning I feel used. We were sold a false prospectus. I loyally sent the e-mails and signed the petitions; gasped at the architects' projections; dutifully followed the twist and turns of the planning application; celebrated when we triumphed. Was it all just a few weeks ago?
But suddenly it's not viable, dead in the water, perhaps it always was, but I bought into it. The history, the tradition. 'We are Tottenham from Tottenham '.Then a cheaper opportunity arose. Not in Tottenham exactly but near enough. In West Ham's territory but who cares about them, they're going down anyway? Might as well hold their heads under the water and make sure.
There will be anti Semitic undertones to the aftermath.. We are 'Yiddoes'; cocky; on the rise, at the moment; nobody likes us but we don't care. We're in the Champions' League, anything goes' It's all about the money.
The King's new clothes are revealed for what they are: a mirage conjured up by the the Levy acolytes. But we got swept along in the tide of those that know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. And just as in the Hans Christian Anderson tale in 'The Little Mermaid' where the Emperor was deluded into thinking that his invisible garments were the latest fashion, he is revealed as naked after all.
Look at the skating rink; the public concourse, think of the naming rights, the income flow from 55/60,000 seats. Is it right? Is it fair? Is it just? Is it the proper way to conduct ourselves? Do we have no standards or dignity? It's only business after all.Anything goes.
The fact that we are a wealthy club and getting richer, that we have a ground nearly as big as Man.City and Chelsea; that we have planning permission for a new complex on our own doorstep apparently counts for nothing. Tottenham High Road may be a dump but it's our dump and perhaps we should address the problem in proper partnership with Harringey now.
We might just come round to this view now that we have no alternative other than to delay the inevitable for as long as possible to save face. The new financial rules that were supposed to protect us from the ravages of multi billionaires are going to make it harder apparently. Poor plucky little Tottenham condemned to mid table mediocrity for the foreseeable future until eventually the rational take back the asylum from the financial idiots. And just as we were about to inherit the earth.
I take no satisfaction in correctly predicting that we wouldn't get it. The whole episode has made me feel shoddy and has bought shame on the club. There's only one thing worse than trying to mug an old man in the street and that's trying to mug an old man in the street and finding ourselves flat on our backs in the gutter when he turns out to be a Black Belt Karate Master.
This view won't be popular; it will finally prove that I have no ambition, that I'm lost in the past, living on memories of the Glory Glory days. But then I'm a 'Yiddo' and I don't care either. But I hope it strikes a chord in the consciences of some Tottenham fans. We need to conduct ourselves properly on and off the pitch.
Don't get me wrong, West Ham taking over the OS is doomed to failure, probably a slow lingering death, hastened by their probable relegation. But once the words 'legacy' and 'vandalism' started to appear the Tottenham raid was doomed to failure. No public body could support it. The fact that the opposition case was a tissue of half truths and that our business plan was coherent is irrelevant in the Heritage stakes.
Stand by then for the Hackney Marshes Development Project. Or the 'Move to Wembley Consortium', I mean its not far really. Or the 'Ground Share with West Ham Proposition' They're not so bad when you get to know them. Resist all such temptations.
Meanwhile we could just make the Top Four again or even win the Champions' League. In other words fans it's all about the football and in that area we are not doing too badly. It will all stew for a year and then I hope the NPD will emerge viable and blinking in the dawn of a new day. Hopefully only West Ham will remember our darkest hour since the sacking of Martin Jol but I doubt it.
We tried a smash and grab and were thwarted. In a move worthy of Al Capone we attempted a takeover of the West Ham rackets and were slapped down. 'Well why not' some of you may ask, 'they'd been run over by a bus and their wallet was lying there.
How long before the NPD becomes 'currently' viable again we will have to see. Until the blush fades from Levy's face probably. A year? Two years? Sometime? Never? There will be recriminations and tears, blood may be spilled. Spurs may be sold on. Who knows.
But this morning I feel used. We were sold a false prospectus. I loyally sent the e-mails and signed the petitions; gasped at the architects' projections; dutifully followed the twist and turns of the planning application; celebrated when we triumphed. Was it all just a few weeks ago?
But suddenly it's not viable, dead in the water, perhaps it always was, but I bought into it. The history, the tradition. 'We are Tottenham from Tottenham '.Then a cheaper opportunity arose. Not in Tottenham exactly but near enough. In West Ham's territory but who cares about them, they're going down anyway? Might as well hold their heads under the water and make sure.
There will be anti Semitic undertones to the aftermath.. We are 'Yiddoes'; cocky; on the rise, at the moment; nobody likes us but we don't care. We're in the Champions' League, anything goes' It's all about the money.
The King's new clothes are revealed for what they are: a mirage conjured up by the the Levy acolytes. But we got swept along in the tide of those that know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. And just as in the Hans Christian Anderson tale in 'The Little Mermaid' where the Emperor was deluded into thinking that his invisible garments were the latest fashion, he is revealed as naked after all.
Look at the skating rink; the public concourse, think of the naming rights, the income flow from 55/60,000 seats. Is it right? Is it fair? Is it just? Is it the proper way to conduct ourselves? Do we have no standards or dignity? It's only business after all.Anything goes.
The fact that we are a wealthy club and getting richer, that we have a ground nearly as big as Man.City and Chelsea; that we have planning permission for a new complex on our own doorstep apparently counts for nothing. Tottenham High Road may be a dump but it's our dump and perhaps we should address the problem in proper partnership with Harringey now.
We might just come round to this view now that we have no alternative other than to delay the inevitable for as long as possible to save face. The new financial rules that were supposed to protect us from the ravages of multi billionaires are going to make it harder apparently. Poor plucky little Tottenham condemned to mid table mediocrity for the foreseeable future until eventually the rational take back the asylum from the financial idiots. And just as we were about to inherit the earth.
I take no satisfaction in correctly predicting that we wouldn't get it. The whole episode has made me feel shoddy and has bought shame on the club. There's only one thing worse than trying to mug an old man in the street and that's trying to mug an old man in the street and finding ourselves flat on our backs in the gutter when he turns out to be a Black Belt Karate Master.
This view won't be popular; it will finally prove that I have no ambition, that I'm lost in the past, living on memories of the Glory Glory days. But then I'm a 'Yiddo' and I don't care either. But I hope it strikes a chord in the consciences of some Tottenham fans. We need to conduct ourselves properly on and off the pitch.
Don't get me wrong, West Ham taking over the OS is doomed to failure, probably a slow lingering death, hastened by their probable relegation. But once the words 'legacy' and 'vandalism' started to appear the Tottenham raid was doomed to failure. No public body could support it. The fact that the opposition case was a tissue of half truths and that our business plan was coherent is irrelevant in the Heritage stakes.
Stand by then for the Hackney Marshes Development Project. Or the 'Move to Wembley Consortium', I mean its not far really. Or the 'Ground Share with West Ham Proposition' They're not so bad when you get to know them. Resist all such temptations.
Meanwhile we could just make the Top Four again or even win the Champions' League. In other words fans it's all about the football and in that area we are not doing too badly. It will all stew for a year and then I hope the NPD will emerge viable and blinking in the dawn of a new day. Hopefully only West Ham will remember our darkest hour since the sacking of Martin Jol but I doubt it.