Tag: English Football

  • Tottenham Dodged That Bullet (Unedited)

    I was out of town this past weekend for Memorial Day. The wife had found a cabin in the Vermont woods. A very last minute find and deal at the same time. I say all of this because we, as a family, were attempting to disconnect for three days in the woods and spend time together.

    Except for Sunday morning, when I had to take my phone, and hide in the back bedroom to watch and see if Tottenham was going to get relegated.

    I, several times in fact, had written off Tottenham Hotspur’s season. I had high hopes with Thomas Frank coming in at the start of the season, but I had hope, so there was my first mistake. I gave up on the team, first time around, at the end of 2025. For me, that was the moment that I realized that Spurs was not going to make the top six on the table, so not chance for European play next season. Then I gave up on the team, the second time, when they sacked Frank. Then the third time of giving up on them was when it looked like they were about to get relegated, and West Ham was going to squeak by.

    But the “Relegation Fight” turned out to be way more exciting than I expected. Exciting in a gallows humor sense, I guess. I mean, I was expecting the worst. And to be honest, I sort of felt like the club deserved it. (Not the players, of course. I don’t fully blame them for what happened.) Almost seven years of mismanagement was finally coming to a head, and in a weird way, I thought the only way for Spurs ownership to learn their lesson was for them to go down to the Championship, pay out the nose, and have a half full world class stadium on match day. And the true salt in the wound would be how American football would come into Hotspur Stadium and sell the place out.

    What I got was a mediocre match between Tottenham and Everton. The person I felt very back for was Pickford giving up a goal to these losers. (Good thing Pickford plays better in the World Cup than for his club.) But a winning goal is still a winning goal, and though Tottenham could have made it through with a draw, I was happy that the season did end on a win.

    That will leave next season. I hope Madison stays healthy and can get back into the starting lineup. Same thing for Kulusevski. Maybe some more help on the attack would be good. And the backline still feels like it’s missing one piece to make it solid. I’m not expecting Tottenham to win the League, but I would be happy with a top ten finish.

    Anyway… I got a World Cup to get through, and then I can start putting all my efforts into getting my hopes.

  • Tottenham: I Got My Hopes Up

    (I know that today is May 4th, and I don’t celebrate.)

    With everything going on in my life, and there is a lot, nothing awful is happening, I’m just very busy. As such, I don’t have a ton of time to sit around and watch football. This weekend especially, as me and my family were jammed packed with events. I am saying all of this because, I didn’t have time to watch Tottenham play on Sunday. Sort of…

    With all of the running around I had to do on Sunday, I didn’t think I’d be home in time to watch the match, but as luck would have it, I got home which allowed me to watch the last fifteen minutes of the game. This means that I was first shocked to see Tottenham ahead by tow goals. Then I watched Aston Villa score a goal, and the affect was that I thought Spurs were about to lose, only to actually watch Tottenham win.

    They won a match.

    They aren’t in 18th place anymore.

    I have a little hope.

    I am also aware of how much of a huge mistake “hope” is.

    I decide the best course of action was to start watching Ted Lasso again.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Who Are These People?, I Have Hope Again, and NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament

    ODDS and ENDS: Who Are These People?, I Have Hope Again, and NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament

    (Of course you’re not shy…)

    I don’t spend much time on Facebook anymore, ever since my nieces and nephews told me that only old people go on that site. As I am clearly not an old person, I have stayed away from Facebook. Except for the daily check in I do, because I need to check in and see what the other old people are up to. There is a section on Facebook I generally skip over and it’s the “People You May Know” part. Today, I decided to flip though it to see if I might know any of them. And I get what the algorithm is trying to do, which is connect people to me that my other “friends” know, so inherently, most of these people I won’t know. But, going through the list, I started to play the game of “Do I know this person, because they look familiar?” I would see a face, then ask myself, did I take a class with this person in college? Or, did I do a show with this person? Or, did I work with this person? Honestly, I can’t remember anymore, which made me feel old. Which is fitting as only old people go on Facebook.

    Stupid Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday went on beat Atlético Madrid at Tottenham. Sure, they did lose the on aggregate and are out of the Champions League now, but they won a match at home. And the whole team looked like they gave a shit. Which now means that they went out and gave all of us supports the feeling that hope was alive. That on Sunday when they face off against Nottingham Forest, another team fighting not to be relegated, that we have a Spurs team to root for. A team that doesn’t want to be embarrassed. A team that is willing to dig deep and fight to the final whistle. And just when I had written the club off, now I have to go back to caring again.

    Oh, my bracket is shot to hell. Not awful, but I did make some really bad picks. My problem with making a bracket for the tournament is that I will always pick the underdog. Sometimes it works out really well, making it look like I knew something that everyone else didn’t. Like how I picked TCU, VCU, Texas A&M, Texas, and Saint Louis. Of the first 16 games, I had picked 7 upsets. Maybe not the most logical system for picking winners, but I can’t deny who I am. I like giant killers.

  • Okay, So I’m Going to Talk About Tottenham

    I know what I said on Friday, and I don’t care. I need to talk to someone about Tottenham Hotspur after their match with Liverpool, and it looks like it’ll be the four of you who read this.

    So, I had written off the team as of Friday, being that Tottenham had a bit of a meltdown in their Champions League match (I don’t think they will make it past this round) and looking ahead, I saw that they were playing Liverpool on Sunday. And though Liverpool isn’t the same team they were last year and they have they issues of their own, Liverpool is still sitting at the top of the table while Spurs are swimming around the bottom. AND the match was going to be IN Liverpool also lead to my feeling of dread.

    But who knew that a couple of guys on Tottenham actually gave a shit? I’m talking about Richarlison, Tel, and Porro. From my perspective, Richarlison threw himself into this match, and had at least three solid scoring chances in front of the goal, all headers that were either blocked or were just outside. Tel also seemed to be digging and working for it. His play was improved and created several scoring chances. And the last was Pedro Porro, who was severally tested by Rio. I do have to admit that Rio might be someone to keep your eye on, as that guy looked like he was fearless out there. BUT, Porro kept up with him and stopped him, though it was close.

    I know that the one point they received from this draw didn’t change anything in the standings; it’s still a fight between Spurs, Nottingham Forrest, West Ham, and Leeds to see who will be relegated. Yet, getting a point for a team who hasn’t won anything in 2026 was like a weight being taken off their backs. (Mine too.) Also, Spurs got that point against a way better team on that team’s home pitch. So yes, going to Liverpool and getting a point does feel like a win.

    I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. Spurs still have a ton of injuries, and time is running out on the season. Lots of things can and will go wrong from now to the end of May. Yet, on that 90th minute on Sunday, just for a second, all did not seem lost. Hope showed up. Stupid and unfair Hope.

  • ODDS and ENDS: The Cold That Won’t Die, Writing in a Blazer, and Tottenham Woes

    (Cryin’ never did nobody no good…)

    So, I’ve had this cold for almost a week now, but it’s not a normal cold. Stuffy nose, post-nasal drip, coughing, but I don’t feel run down like I normally do when I have a cold. Also, this cold only seems to come alive for the first two hours of my day, and then all night when I try to sleep. Other than that, I feel rather normal. But the damn thing won’t go away. It won’t get worse, and it won’t get better. It just exists in a perpetual state of being… Neither gaining nor losing energy.

    I am sitting and writing in a blazer today. No real reason to be this formal, other than I want to sit on the couch, my computer on my lap, trying to think up three jokes to write about, with a blazer on. It’s not cold in the house, and I have no one to impress, just felt like something I should do. Like, how I should put jazz on, get a glass of wine, and catch up on some reading. Hell, here’s a picture to prove that this is really happening.

    So, Thomas Frank got sacked as manager for Tottenham Hotspur this week. I think it was a mistake, yet I also freely admit that things can and will get worse for this team. They just can’t get out of their own way, and with the injuries piling up, there seems like little chance of hope. Relegation is a very real possibility. I won’t blame Frank for this, as it seems like he just has had the worst luck for a first-year manager. I put the blame for this situation on Daniel Levy and Peter Charrington. Levy created an untenable situation where the expectation is that managers are interchangeable. Honestly, the team hasn’t been the same since Mauricio Pochettino was at the helm, and he was fired for a stupid reason like not being successful enough. Sure, do wish we could go back to those days when we were in the Champions League Final and at the top of the table in the Premier League. Honestly, I don’t put it past West Ham to get enough of their act together and make a run to get out of the bottom three, and kick either Nottingham Forest or Spurs down the ladder. I don’t want to see Tottenham in the Championship, but if that’s what it will take for the owners to get their heads out of their respective asses, then so be it.