Fulham in the Ukraine
One of the Shakhtar Donetsk players is called Rat. He is numbered 26.
Cycling to Football
In my teens I nearly always cycled to football at White Hart Lane. When I returned last night, I don’t think that would have been possible. Or at least I couldn’t find anything on the Spurs web site.
Wouldn’t cycling to football be a good idea? Clubs could also make a charge for a bit of security.
If you take Ipswich Town, they have a bit more space than most and I’m sure that they could provide parking for a couple of hundred or so bikes with ease.
I’ve just looked up Ajax in Amsterdam. They have sheds for 3,000 bikes. It would also appear that the Olympics in London will also encourage people to cycle to the games.
Return to White Hart Lane
The last time I went to White Hart Lane to see Spurs play was when my two eldest children were perhaps eight and seven. I spoke to the younger today and he didn’t remember, and as I can’t recall who Spurs played that day, it must have been a truly memorable match.
Last night, as I was in London, I decided to get a ticket for the FA Cup replay against Bolton. I deliberately chose to sit in Block D of the upper deck of the East Stand, as that was where my father used to take me as a child.
The View from Block D in the Upper East Stand
I can remember a few matches from those years in the mid-50s, but one in particular stands out. It was against Newcastle, for whom the formidable Jackie Milburn was playing up front. The first half was very one-sided with Spurs being completely outplayed and if it hadn’t been for the heroic goalkeeping of Ted Ditchburn, the match would have been all over. He was so dominant, that Milburn actually missed a penalty. Since then, I’ve seen a lot of good goalkeepers, but never a display to match. In the end Spurs got their act together and won 3-1.
Little has changed in that East Stand over those fifty and more years. The views are still good, as they would be because the stand was designed by Archibald Leitch. In fact, they have probably improved, as the roof has been remodelled. But the stairs are still the same as as this picture of the back of the stand shows, it’s still as it was built well before the Second World War.
White Hart Lane, East Stand
I can remember queueing behind that stand to get tickets for European matches in the early 1960s.
Those were the days for Spurs.
I probably went and stood in the bottom of the East Stand about fifty times.
I’d usually cycle from where I lived at Cockfosters and park my bike at a garage near by, for a charge of a shilling or so. I remember, I could usually get home quicker than someone who braved the horrendous jams in a car. Sometimes though I’d take a bus to Enfield Town and then take the train to White Hart Lane. That was great fun, in that to avoid the bus queues coming home you’d alight from the train at your fastest running speed, so that you overtook everyone as the train slowed. The joys of slam doors.
I saw the famous double side of 1960-61; Brown, Baker, Henry, Blanchflower, Norman, Mackay, Jones, White, Smith, Allen and Dyson, Jimmy Greaves in his pomp, the antics of Tommy Harmer, the emergence of Pat Jennings, as after that one performance of Ditchburn, the best and most consistent goalkeeper I’ve ever seen, Terry Venables, who we always slagged off for some reason, Ron Henry’s only goal against Manchester United and many other great players and incidents of the 1960s.
Those truly were the days for Spurs.
And to complete a good evening Spurs won by four goals to nil.
Anyone but England
So the Scots are supporting England by selling “Anyone but England” T-shirts for the World Cup.
I don’t care, as if the Scots could manage to inject some proper spirit into their team, rather than the local brew, they might do better. Just read about Allan McGregor in the Scotsman.
But I have a better idea.
As the Scots economy is not in the best of health and has just been propped up by the UK government bailing out two major banks with big Scottish connections, would it not be a good idea if England fans, who can’t afford the trip to South Africa, went and watched their team in Glasgow.
I’m sure that the local economy would benefit and that the English would be welcomed with open arms.
Who’d Buy Portsmouth Football Club?
Portsmouth are over £50million in debt and they are seven points adrift of the bottom of the Premiership. They also have no training ground, a small dilapidated stadium surrounded by land owned by one of the major creditors.
And yet, according to reports on the BBC, there are four or five interested parties, who want to take over the club. One South African group will provide proof of funds by Monday.
Now let’s suppose you are rich as Croesus. You also like football and feel that buying a football club would be good for your image, business interests and ultimately your bank balances.
There are quite a few clubs with rickety finances and some of these have brand new stadia and very good training facilities. As an example, Southampton has just been bought by a sensible Swiss millionaire, who appears to be enjoying his new role.
So would you buy Portsmouth if you were sane and had no other business with the owners?
No! Especially as you’re be buying a Championship Club.
Policing at QPR
As I walked away from Loftus Road last Tuesday, I was surprised at how many police were on duty.
Obviously, it was because there was a large and angry crowd with a history of violence between the two teams, it was necessary to have this sort of presence of the boys in blue.
But the crowd was 10,000 or so, the Ipswich supporters were their usual well-behaved bunch, everybody seemed to be talking to each other as they walked towards the Tube, I didn’t see anybody who was the least bit drunk and it was all rather cold. Would you really want aggro on a very cold day? Possibly, it would be a way of warming up.
So do the Met just treat all matches the same and send it everything including the kitchen sink and the cavalry, when quite frankly they should be used for something more important than a peaceful football match. Should I for instance report the police to the RSPCA for getting the horses out unnecessarily on a cold night?
The was one unsavoury incident though. The QPR supporters did slag off their club’s owner.
Ipswich at QPR
Last night was the first time this season, that I’d seen Ipswich win. I must admit I was there when they beat Coventry, but I left immediately Coventry equalised, so didn’t actually see the win. I was also at Shrewsbury, when they won in the Carling Cup, but that was on penalties.
I’d never been to Loftus Road before, but I certainly enjoyed the visit. It is a compact ground with good views tucked away behind Shepherd’s Bush. I think though now that the crowd are better behaved than they were years ago, when someone chucked a dummy hand grenade being the opposing goalkeeper. Apparently, he ran very fast.
But as supposedly one of the richest clubs in England, if not the world, the ungrateful crowd really didn’t appreciate the match, giving Flavio Briatore some typical football humour. I’ve just read Briatore’s bio on Wikipedia. I can’t be all true! Can it? Wikipedia doesn’t always get it right.
Note in the pictures, one shows the immaculate minute’s silence for someone who did a lot for QPR.
Going Down?
The latest in the Portsmouth saga seems to make matters worse. According to the BBC, Peter Storrie and Avram Grant are not happy that players have been sold behind their backs.
I just think that Pompey are now at the end of the road. They face a winding up petition in the Courts on February 10th and I suspect that unless serious money turns up, they will end up in administration at best.
The point that no-one seems to say is that Pompey are favourites to go down and so the owners will lose a lot of money anyway. So would you put any more money into this type of sinking ship? Perhaps if you were a fool with money to burn. But no-one is that stupid are they? I suppose they could be if they bought a football club in the first place!
So it looks like there’ll be an extra place in Division 2 next year.
Will that be AFC Wimbledon? Now there’s a resurrection for you.
The Premier League Without Portsmouth
I was musing what would happen if Portsmouth should go bust and be unable to fulfil all of their fixtures in the Premier League. That is not to say they will, but HMRC are after a scalp and Portsmouth are an obvious target.
Arsenal and Aston Villa would be the biggest losers at the top, as they have already got six points out of the doomed team from the South Coast. West Ham however would end up bottom, as they lose four valuable points.
So perhaps, there are three clubs, in whose interest it is that Portsmouth don’t fail.
Crystal Palace Goes into Administration
Crystal Palace have now gone into administration with debts of about thirty million pounds. Several clubs, including Portsmouth, Notts County, Accrington Stanley and others, have been hovering around this for some months in these most tricky of financial times. It is a big step for a football club, as they are immediately docked ten points and in most cases, such as Leeds and Southampton, it has meant relegation.
But just as Southampton have shown, there can be life after administration.
But there are differences between Southampton and Crystal Palace. Southampton have a modern stadium, which I believe they own, and are in an area without too many other football clubs. Crystal Palace are close to Charlton and it is easy to get to the other clubs over London. Crucially, I don’t think they own their ground. It’s a dump anyway and probably needs to be redeveloped.
So whereas someone looking to invest in a football club might well choose Southampton, they would be unlikely to choose Crystal Palace.
The future looks grim for Palace and especially with HMRC getting a lot tougher, I have a feeling that they would love to see to see a football club cease to exist. As Dan Snow pointed out in his excellent television programme, Empire of the Seas, the shooting of Admiral Byng for cowardice, did wonders for the Royal Navy. As it says in Wikipedia.
Byng’s execution was satirised by Voltaire in his novel Candide. In Portsmouth, Candide witnesses the execution of an officer by firing squad; and is told that “in this country, it is wise to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others”
I suspect that if they fail to get the scalp of Crystal Palace, they will get another before the end of the season.
The Anonymous Widower 