The Real achievement at the Lane « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
The Real achievement at the Lane
By Ian Trevett
It hasn’t been much fun reading some of the posts on less supportive Arsenal sites this week, with lots of vitriol aimed at the boss and various players. However, there was a short post on Arsenal Insider that really took my eye. It went along the lines of ‘my friend who supports Barcelona and my friend who support Tottenahm feel so sorry for me that they have stopped taking the piss out of Arsenal.’
This is wrong on so many levels. Forget about the glory-hunting Barca fan, how on earth can a gooner allow a Spurs fan to feel pity for him.
I can’t believe I need to point this out, but when you become an Arsenal fan, you have to take on certain responsibilities, one of which is: never allow a Spurs fan to get the better of you.
It was sometimes difficult in the 1980s when they did have a pretty good team, but you should always have an answer for any insult they try and throw your way – even after a bad result, even if you are feeling a bit down. It’s not as though you haven’t got enough ammunition. Unless they own a free bus pass, they will never have seen their team win the league – ever. Pity is a one way street and it always goes north up the Tottenham High Road.
Having said that, there are plenty of gooners who are starting to look nervously over their shoulder, and it is true that they have come a fair way in the last few seasons. But the tide hasn’t turned yet.
Of course, the media are telling another story. Redknapp is a wonder manager, Wenger has lost the plot, Bale is one the best players in the world, we are too injury-prone (unlike Bale?). White Hart Lane is the place to be. Our season is a disaster, theirs is a storming success.
All of which proves: never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
How do our seasons really compare:
League Cup: We knocked them out and reached the final
FA Cup: They lost 4-0 to Fulham, we lost to United in a later round.
League: We are three places and nine points ahead
Champions League: They are still in it, we are out.
Even if we disregard the cups as no-one has won a trophy, the seasons are fairly equal as it stands. Our disaster is their success.
Our biggest nightmare is that Spurs will win the Champions League, though there is the small matter of beating Real, then Barca and then Man U or Chelsea. If they do that then fair enough, it is a major achievement, but I can’t see it.
The most likely outcome is that will fall short in the Champions League. And they will probably finish in 5th place, and their big Champions League adventure will be over – maybe for a long time.
Even if this happens, they would still get the plaudits. If we finished fifth, every so-called expert would call for Wenger to fall on his sword. Their success is our failure.
Which brings me to the REAL achievement of Spurs over the last 30 years.
They have succeeded in lowering everyone’s expectations to the same level as West Ham or Blackburn. They have messed it up so badly, so consistently, since the days when they were paid-up members of the Big Five, that no-one really takes them seriously. They have outspent us in the transfer market virtually every year since Villa and Ardiles arrived at Heathrow (Ardiles fell over a suitcase in baggage reclaim and shouted ‘Penalty’). Until Wenger came along, they played in stadium the same size as Arsenal’s (give or take 2,000). They have had injections of cash from a secretive owner – and done nothing.
Their big and only success is to change the definition of what a successful season is.
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