WE SHOULD HAVE ACHIEVED MORE . . . BUT THIS SPURS CAN
THERE has been a lot written and said about Tottenham since a fierce debate between Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville on Monday. As someone who played for Tottenham during an era Gary referenced, I feel I am in a good position to offer an opinion. I can understand why Harry Redknapp, our manager at the time, is furious but I can also see the reason why Gary said what he did. We had some great players when I was at White Hart Lane and we had some fantastic times. Harry did a brilliant job taking us from bottom of the Premier League to the quarter-finals of the Champions League in two years. What we could not do, though, was make the last big step. We had a reputation for losing games that mattered and the 2010 FA Cup semi-final against Portsmouth is a prime example. It still grates with me that we lost that game at Wembley. When you think we had players such as Luka Modric, Gareth Bale, Jermain Defoe, Ledley King and Rafael van der Vaart, we should really have achieved something more but the criticism went overboard to say the past 30 years had been ‘pathetic’. I am in agreement with Gary, however, on the fact that this Tottenham squad are well placed to maintain their progress. I said in my first column of the season that even without signing a player I expected them to finish in the top four and I will reiterate that now. The starting line-up is full of quality, the manager is outstanding and times have changed: they are not selling their best players to finance future deals. All they need is a little bit more help in the transfer market and they will get there. People say they need to win a trophy but so did we: it is easier said than done. Getting that first piece of silverware is a huge thing. They are so close. Nobody needs to lose heart.