Fan Interview Friday 23rd March 2018 Mark Sherer.

This weeks fan interview is Mark Sherer, Mark over to you. He looks a lot older now though!

AH: Tell us a little about yourself? 

MS: I'm a 54 year old estate agent living in Ilford, I live with my partner and have two girls aged 27 and 21 and a lunatic Labradoodle called Bobby. I Enjoy playing military golf (left right left right) and arranging and hosting quiz nights. Due to work always worked Saturday's however for one year did get a season ticket, 94/95 the year Klinsman arrived, block 8 west stand, the year of the famous 5, there was never a dull moment.

AH: When did you start supporting Spurs? 

MS: Probably around the age of about four, my family all from the east end were either Spurs or Arsenal fans, fortunately for me I chose right. Earliest memory was of a Christmas when my mum bought me a white t shirt and ironed on the Spurs badge, at the time it was best ever present.

AH: Your favourite player from every decade you’ve supported Spurs?

MS: Sorry but in truth I can't give you a favourite from all decades as I feel I'd be disloyal to my ultimate hero Steve Perryman. Although he wasn't the most skilful, I have always said if we had 11 Stevie P's we would have won a lot more than we have.

AH: If you could ask one of those players a question what would it be and why?

MS: Stevie P: How much did he regret not playing in the UEFA cup final after being suspended, (personally I was gutted and had mixed feelings when Graham Roberts lifted the cup up)

AH: What is your favourite ever Spurs goal?

MS: Oh Anthony horrible question lol, so many to choose from, Gazza's rocket in the semi final is right up there, but for me it has to be Danny Rose's first goal against the scum, I could watch over and over ( in fact sometimes I do)

AH: Your most cherished piece of Spurs merchandise?

MS: It was for a number of years a piece of turf from the hallowed ground after we beat Hull 1-0 in our last home game whilst in the old 2nd division. We won with the only goal coming from Stevie P and subsequently at the final whistle there was a pitch invasion. I personally stood on the penalty spot at the Paxton road end and nicked some turf, sadly after a few years my mum threw it away!! On the Saturday we went on to draw with Southampton to reclaim our rightful place in the elite league. 

AH: Funniest memory from supporting Spurs?

MS: Going to a game at the Lane with friends I was probably around 11/12 horrible day weather wise my mum made me wear a blue coat that had a hood. We stood in the Paxton Road end and it was in the day's you could buy monkey nuts from the guy's in the white coates.

Couldn't understand why everyone behind me were continuously laughing, until the rain came down and I put my hood up and subsequently got covered in monkey nut shells!!!

AH: Your best moment supporting Spurs?

MS:Sadly over the years not as many as I'd have liked, have to say the 81 cup final replay and seeing that brilliant smile on Stevie P's face as he lifted the FA cup

AH: Your worst moment supporting Spurs?

MS: Truthfully to this day every single time we lose to Arsenal, Chelsea or West Ham. 

AH: If you could go back in time and change one result what would it be?

 

MS: Again horrible question Anthony as there's so many too choose from, including stopping the scum winning the league at the Lane, to all the games we lost in various cup finals, but for me personally it would be the game against Man Utd when we were 3'0 up at half time.

I was at that game with a well known snooker player who supports them and although I couldn't afford to, I'd bet him £100 we'd win, oh boy was I cockey at half time, not so cockey at the end, and believe me he didn't need the money

AH: Ever been involved in a Family feud regarding football?

MS: Was about 11 and went to Highbury with my brother who supported the scum, half time we were losing 1-0 and he did not stop winding me up. We won the game 2-1 and in the car on the way  home I was none stop winding him up.We got to Blackhorse Road station and he pulled tbe car over, he looked at me with daggers and said "get out" I saw his glare and despite pleading with him, I got out. I thought he'd come back but sadly he didn't so with no money on me for the only time in my life I had to beg for money, thankfully I managed to get home!....

Thanks to Mark for taking part. New one next week.

Opinion Piece: Our New Home

We are very nearly there, the stadium has grown in front of our eyes, perhaps more impressive than any of us thought it would look like. You see the artists impressions, they look amazing, but you never really know what to expect until its built. You think you do, you have a vision of it in your minds eye, but when it starts to be built it always changes from what you thought it was going to be. Until one day its finished and your walking through the doors and sampling the atmosphere for the very first time.

I remember my first ever visit to White Hart Lane. I was 10 years old and it was a 0-0 draw against Norwich City on the 26th Feb 1983. I remember walking up the stairs into the stadium in total awe of the sound, the smells, the bright sunshine that hit my eyes as I stepped out into the light after the cold concrete of the building around me. I've never forgot that feeling of belonging, of falling head over heels in love with something and not being able to describe why or how it happened.

Many of you reading this will have had similar experiences down the years. I've had some unbelievable times down the years in that stadium, I've also had some awful experiences as well. The laughter will stay with me forever, the bloke walking into the pub all proud of his new Purple Pony away shirt until we realised he had Dozzell on the back and got ripped a new one. Watching the scousers outside the ground being stuck as their coach had broken down and asking for change to ring home! These are just a few of my memories, but I worry there wont be anymore like these for me anymore.

The season ticket prices were released this week and there has been a lot of anger and disappointment at the increase in the prices. Personally I stopped buying a season ticket years ago due to cost and starting a family, it wasn't viable, I'm still a member and go as often as I can. I know some of you will buy it regardless but there are others that are now priced out of going, after many, many years of being season ticket holders they themselves can no longer go. This worries me.

Football used to be a working mans game, work hard all week, go and watch Spurs on a Saturday. With the ever increasing money flowing into the game this is no longer the case. Unless you are owned by someone that is going to write a blank cheque to fund your club the money has to come from elsewhere. Whether we like it or not that's corporate money. Without it the club cant compete.

I've seen lots of people saying pay Toby what he wants. Okay with what? Where does that money come from? Joe Lewis isn't going to write blank cheques for us and I don't want him to, because when he passes, a long time in the future I hope, I don't want us to end up like Blackburn Rovers. I don't want us to fail because the money run out. I like Daniel Levy, don't get me wrong Ill pull him up on here if he makes a mistake but he genuinely hasn't made many. He has shrewdly taken us from a mess to a club with real promise, a new stadium and a team to be proud off. Whilst also getting top dollar for any player that wants to leave us. What's not to like?

I get people are upset that they feel they are being priced out of doing something they feel so passionate about and that's my worry too. If the club isn't careful where does it customer base come from in years to come? Do we all stream games and pay for Tottenham TV because the ground is full of money men who wont sing and chant? Man Utd this week mentioned they were thinking of handing out song sheets? Really? What the hells all that about? Have they priced out true fans and this is their reward? We all laugh at the library and the crap atmosphere there as well.

The club has to make sure that they don't price the working man out of going to football. Personally I feel they've got the balance right and just about done that, many wont agree with me, that's fine I get it. Me not being able to afford a season ticket doesn't diminish my love for the club. After all I help with this page and that's a labour of love at times I can assure you!. Things move on, things change, we have to move with the times.

I used to like walking around the house with my pants on my head as kid, I don't know why but I did, I don't do it now though as I've changed. So has football. As much as we want things to stay the same we cant buy the players we all want, we cant pay the wages we all want without the cost of it going up. I love Spurs, always have and always will, but I got priced out of going a few years ago, it doesn't make me any less of a supporter it just means the way I do it changes. I want us to have the best players, the best team, the best chance of winning things, so I spend my money on merchandise, still supporting the club but perhaps not in a conventional way. That is the future. We need to be able to tap into that level of merchandise spend that other clubs do. We have to find ways of raising money, and that comes from the restaurant's and experience days that are way beyond the average fans ability to buy. To do that we needed a new stadium. It has to be paid for somehow.

We cant not change with the times if we want to compete at the highest level. We all may laugh at the cheese restaurant of whatever the hell it is, but that will generate income for the club that wasn't there before. It all adds up in the long run. There will always be something I want that I cant afford. That's life. It hurts of course it does, I want to spend every Saturday with my boys, supporting my team, but I cant so I compromise to a few games a season and we go and watch Dagenham and Redbridge. They get to experience live football and the atmosphere of a game, and we make life long memories whenever we go to see Spurs as its more special to us.

The club will never please everyone, it cant, I mean come on who gets Jason Dozzell on the back of their shirt!, but it must also make sure that it doesn't price out the younger generation of fans that will make up its future when the money bubble bursts. It will eventually end these things always do. A ground isn't supposed to be full of corporate guests getting handed song sheets to clap and sing along like they are at an Opera. A football ground is supposed to be about a tens of thousand of men, women, children forgetting about their troubles for 90 minutes and having hope in the fact that the 11 players out there care as much as they do about winning.

Its about that smell of the stadium, that noise that hits you like a hammer, that sense of belonging, that feeling of falling in love with something and not being able to do a thing about it. I hope the club are mindful of this as we progress through the coming years, that whatever it may be called to us it will always be White Hart Lane, it will always be where we make some of the best memories of our lives, that we share them with our friends and family. Where one day a young fan will take his or her first steps into the ground and be awe struck buy it. We owe it to them to make sure they aren't priced out of football like so many before them have been. Without that next generation there is no support. I hope the club don't forget that.

Opinion Piece: The Media

When I started supporting Spurs the only way you could get any information about your club was the papers or from Match of the Day. There wasn't the wall to wall coverage that there is today. Rumours would start on the terraces about who was being signed, no deadline transfer day back then you could sign anyone you wanted whenever you wanted, and were usually met with a resounding 'Bollocks' or 'That blokes in the know he must be right'.

Your terrace reputation could be enhanced or destroyed within minutes, depending on how good your information was. To us, the fans the reporters of the day were like gods to us. They knew what was going on at our club long before any of us did. We hung on there every word. That all started to change though towards the end of the 80's and the beginning of the 90's due to two major events.

Hillsborough killed the circulation of the Sun newspaper stone dead. This was a huge paper back then selling 2/3 million copies a day and with some very respected journalists. I remember Hillsborough, I remember the pictures and the news footage, but the lies they told on the front of their paper on the Monday after the event, for which they didn't apologise for, for years later, damaged journalism and people started to question what they were reading. No longer trusted, people became sceptical of what was printed. No longer was every word believed and this changed the way people got their news. The second was the creation of the Premier League.

No matter what we think of it now and the distribution of its money, there wasn't a fan in the country that didn't grasp it with open hands when it started. Live football every Sunday and Monday? It was unheard of. You used to get the Big Match on ITV but that wasn't every week. This was. Sky changed the way that people watched football. You had hours of analysis, not stuck with the time constraints of Match of the Day. It made us was want more information than we had ever had, a way to interact with our teams beyond what we were used to. Ex-players talking about the game at length and feeding us inside knowledge, we felt like we were there.

This type of media though needs feeding, constantly. The birth of the Internet and social media now means the bloke that was on the terrace years ago who only had a few followers, now has Twitter and thousands. He can say whatever he likes and people will re tweet it and off it goes. It becomes 'knowledge' within seconds. Because of this fans want instant knowledge and so the press feed of this. They have to constantly have stories to feed the need. 24hr rolling news stories need something to talk about and what's the best of way of doing it? Well they make news where there isn't any.

The press love Jose, Pep, Klopp, Conte and Wenger. The reason for this? Because they give them things to talk about. Jose will constantly moan at the press about the way his teams are being treated, the press will then dissect it for days. Ex-players will talk about it on shows, Wenger will have a melt down and its all over the papers for days. As fans we lap this up because its what we are used to. We point and laugh and re tweet and use it for banter with our mates. After all its been on the TV and its come from the managers mouths. Then there is the exception to the rule and that's us.

Poch doesn't lose his rag with his players in public. He doesn't throw players under the bus. We don't sign players for £90/100 million pound because at the moment we aren't in a position to do so, but also because we don't need to. We don't pay wages of £350,000 a week for the same reasons. So because of this we go against the majority of the Premier League teams and are therefore seen as a target for speculation.

Where we should be getting credit for the way we do our business, we are seen as a feeder club for the 'big boys; because unfortunately in the past this what we have been, From Carrick, to Modric to Bale. Whenever the cash was splashed we sold. It hurt of course it did, but we couldn't compete. Until now. Until we had a manager who goes against the grain and has given us our most sustained period of success in decades. Granted we have yet to win a trophy, but in these modern times to be competing and beating, with the Arab and Russian oil money is an achievement in itself.

The problem is its not 'sexy' it doesn't make headlines, it doesn't feed the media in the way that Sky need it to. Jamie Redknapp slates us constantly, perhaps bitter at the way Harry was treated, who to be honest was courting the England job through the press when he should have been securing us Champions League football, but for me I don't care what he has to say. He comes across as jealous in my opinion and whenever pressed on his opinion changes it!

There are far more ex-players that talk highly of us rather than slate us. We are in a time of unprecedented financial power in football. Its changed from when I was kid, some of it for the better, some of it for the worst. What doesn't change though is that we are seeing the building of a dynasty. Like Shanks with Liverpool, Busby with Man Utd and then Ferguson in the mid 80's Poch is using youth to progress our team to where he wants it to be.

One day we may £300,000 a week wages but its not sustainable because the way that people consume media is changing. The youth of today stream more than ever, but they wont be held to ransom over subscriptions. The TV companies are aware of this and are trying to sell more rights abroad as the UK market is stagnating and will eventually reverse. No one of my dads generation saw the death of newspapers but it happened. TV subscriptions will be the same, not today, perhaps not tomorrow, but one day they will. Then what? Who pays the wages then?

The money guys will leave and go and do something else. The people who have bankrolled clubs will walk away. They always do. So what happens to clubs like ours? We thrive that's what! We become stronger, because we competed at this level by doing it the right way now, we will become stronger and stronger. We will have foundations built that will last a generation. I genuinely believe we are one trophy away from greatness. We need to win that one trophy for it all to kick on to another level.

The Premier League is 26 years old, Sky changed the game forever by throwing money at it and made players richer than they could ever have dreamed of being. They sold a dream to billions around the world. Yet when its gone, and it will one be gone, the money, the way its being sold, then the clubs that built a foundation will be the ones that will strive forward and say this is our time, and we will be at the front of that que. You just have to have faith in a Chairman who has spent 17 years developing us, and a manger no one had heard of or thought was any good because he wasn't a big name.

Spurs isn't built to be a rich mans plaything. Spurs is built on the trust and loyalty of the players that play for the badge but more importantly its built by us fans. Of a dream that we believe in, that one day we will sit atop the pile and look down on the others. Then the media will come crawling out of the woodwork saying we are the example to follow, when they've spent years undermining our players and trying to belittle us. They wont bat an eyelid because it will be the story that sells even thought hey have spent years undermining it.

My favourite ever quote about being a fan is as follows:

"What is a club in any case? Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it. Its not the television contracts, get out clauses, marketing contracts or executive boxes. Its the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city. Its a small boy clambering up the stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his fathers hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able tom do a thing about it, falling in love" Sir Bobby Robson

I wish I had written that because no matter what the media say about us, no matter what ex-players say about us, no matter who plays for us. Its not about them, its about us. Don't ever forget that the next time you read a headline or see a Sky News Breaking Story. We are bigger and better than all of them. Why? Because without us they don't have football. Never forget that.  Anthony

Fan Interview 2nd March 2018 Chirs Benfields

This week its Chris Benfields turn. So Chris over to you:

AH: Tell us about yourself?

CB:Chris Benfield. 72 . Living in S.W. France.  Scotland 35 yeas . Brought up in N.W. London.  Ex professional photographer. Sport. Many times on touch line White Hart Lane.

AH: When did you start supporting Spurs?

CB: 1958 my father and uncles before that.

AH: Who is your favourite player from every decade you've supported Spurs?

CB: Too many to answer need every 5 years.

AH: If you could ask any player a question what would it be?

CB: Would you support Spurs even if you didn't support them?

AH: What is your favourite ever Spurs goal? 

CB: Glenn Hoddel chip over keeper against Watford, so cool.

AH: What is your most cherished piece of Spurs merchandise?

CB: A World war 2 air raid  rattle painted blue and white  with Spurs written on.

AH: What is the worst piece of Spurs merchandise you've ever been bought or given?

CB: 1958 programme Single page. Still have though plus more.

AH: What has been your best moment supporting Spurs?

CB: Return cup clash Crew Alexandria, we won 13- 2 I was with my Dad . Standing jumping.  I still the have the programme. 64.000 attendance, more than the new stadium .

AH: What has been your worst moment as a Spurs fan?

CB: Going all the way to Southampton and not getting in in the 60s.

AH: If you could go back and change one result from our past what would it be?

CB: The away goal that Benfica scored in the semi final champions league at W.H.L. for us to go to final. 

Thanks for taking part Cliff and sorry it took so long to post. Anthony