Prices for next season up 6% and concession pricing hacked to bits. Costs have risen, I get it. But so has the club’s income, yet fans won’t receive any of the benefits. Everyone was expecting an increase, I’m not naïve. The point is, we hear how Spurs are reaping the rewards at last of financial prudence and the income from the new ground, but it seems the fans aren’t part of the equation.    The decision to limit the number of senior concessions and the amount of the discount is disgraceful, a shameful, offhand disregard of decades of loyalty that impacts longstanding supporters, t ..read more

And so the world turns, and the universe restores order. Cosmic forces, eternal and unimpeachable, ensure balance and stability, where yin cuddles yang. Joy and pain. For every action, there’s a reaction. The things that football fans can’t explain to those who do not follow the game, this is the other bit. For every last minute winner, there has to be a breakaway, only they score it, not us. We spend a lifetime fretting over eleven players kicking a ball. A brutal, recurring reminder that we place our faith, hopes and dreams in their hands and have no control whatsoever over the outcome. How ..read more

With the New Year comes the proliferation of self-improvement advice to enhance physical and mental well-being, and goodness knows I should pay more attention to both. The joys of a late winner are strangely not included in any of the options I’ve come across. I really think the advice gurus are missing a trick here. It’s obvious there’s nothing like it for instant gratification and lasting exhilaration, especially if it’s banged right into the roof of the net, no messing. This is the bit football fans can’t explain to those who don’t follow the game. Their reactions towards us range from patr ..read more

Dier out, Dragusin in, a move that embodies the changes at Spurs since Postecoglou’s appointment, not so much his will imposed on the club as his spirit and ethos coursing through its veins and nervous system. These are Ange’s decision, this is Ange time. Dier is stolid, Dragusin looks exciting. Dier is the past, the present and future is about speed, athleticism and vibrancy, and already Ange has a squad that gives him what he wants. There’s a plan here, moving decisively in the market to buy players who are young (ish) and who already have a foundation of experience on which to build, with A ..read more

Dier out, Dragusin in, a move that embodies the changes at Spurs since Postecoglou’s appointment, not so much his will imposed on the club as his spirit and ethos coursing through its veins and nervous system. These are Ange’s decision, this is Ange time. Dier is stolid, Dragusin looks exciting. Dier is the past, the present and future is about speed, athleticism and vibrancy, and already Ange has a squad that gives him what he wants. There’s a plan here, moving decisively in the market to buy players who are young (ish) and who already have a foundation of experience on which to build, with A ..read more

So where are we with – let’s do each other a favour and not call it Angeball, he’s the manager and we kick a ball but like the ball in cricket’s Bazball, it’s become a suffix stripped of meaning. So into the bin with it, decomposing alongside spursy. So as I was saying, where are we with Spurs playing attacking bloody brilliant football? Fourteen games plus a league cup tie in, and it feels longer, not because time has dragged. If there’s one thing you can’t level at Spurs this season, it’s the accusation that they are boring. More about so much has happened, so radical has the change from the ..read more

To dare is to do, that’s all very well but Spurs’ new motto is onwards and upwards with Ange. Hang on, we can’t go upwards because we’re on top of the league! Old habits ingrained over five decades die hard. I’ve not yet come to terms with how being top feels. Rational brain tells me that we dominated Fulham even after throttling back towards the end. Spurs’ brain screams don’t give the ****ing ball away! Don’t leave those gaps at back! Emerson, what are you DOING? Rational brain doesn’t expect us to be lasting contenders for top spot. Spurs’ brain says – could we? The proper answer to all thi ..read more

Football is all about the moments. That feeling. Bedlam as the ball hits the net. There is nothing like it, nothing can compare with a last minute winner. That uncontrolled explosion of joy and unity. It’s natural, unreconstructed, visceral. It’s ours. Can’t explain it to anyone who doesn’t get football. I mean, if I say there is nothing to match it, am I merely revealing my drab, grey existence? I think of my friend Adrianna, who looks at me kindly with a mixture of bafflement and pity when I talk like this. I’m right though. Where else can you experience such utter instinctive joy, made even ..read more

Life comes at you fast at Spurs. Four games in and Postecoglou has already gone full circle, experiencing every result and emotion. A decent away draw to begin with, the good alongside the indifferent. Then came the highs of a fine victory together with a pulsating, joyous atmosphere with him at the centre of it all. After a good win away, the team is gelling then the comedown after last night’s defeat. Some treat him like a saviour but last night he showed frailty that is all too human. He is very much his own man, a real strength that appeals to me enormously. It has taken him a long while t ..read more

Hear that? The sound of straitjacket buckles being undone. Locked doors thrown open, barriers crashing down. The cracking of Conte’s concrete boots. That bloke who used to stand behind JM with his clipboard being ignored by the players, his pencil lead breaking. Not that you could hear anything over the wall of glorious noise crashing out of the Park Lane to fill the stadium for 99 minutes to visibly lift the players. The old guard were surprised, the new guys lapped it up. All the players plus the manager were genuinely moved and inspired. None of these self-indulgent in-joke choreographed go ..read more