A View From Dan Fitch A Spurs Fan
By TheLongside.co.uk
September 25 2009
This week ahead of the Tottenham Hotspur game we had the opportunity to put some questions to Dan Fitch a Spurs supporter and member of the tottenhamblog website. in return Dan put some questions to The Longside. You can read the answers Dan gave below, then read The Longside's response to Dan's questions by clicking the link at the end of the article.
How long have you been a Spurs supporter, what was the first game you attended? My brother made me become a Spurs fan before I had properly mastered the art of speech, so even though I didn't get into football until I was about 8 or 9, Tottenham were always my team. My first game was against Norwich City in 1986. We lost 2-1 and the former Spurs player Ian Crook scored the winning goal for them. What are your thoughts on Harry Redknapp, and who do you believe has been your greatest manager? I was extremely pleased to see us get rid of the Director of Football/Head Coach system and just appoint a proper manager. Harry might not have been everyone's choice at the time, but he's done a brilliant job. Not only has he bought well, but he's managed to improve players like Assou Ekotto, who looked terrible before. Historically our greatest manager was Bill Nicholosn, but that was before my time. In my lifetime I'd say that Martin Jol and Terry Venables were our best managers. Defoe has certainly been one of, if not the best player for you this season, what were your thoughts when he was brought back to the club? I actually didn't mind when Defoe was sold, as at the time there was no way that he was better than either Berbatov or Keane and he needed first team football. By the time we bought him back, Berbatov and Keane had both gone and we were desperate for another striker. I was a lot of money to pay for a player that we sold for just £7m, but he now looks a much stronger player than in his first period at the club. Martin Jol seemed to me to have been hard done by when he was sacked, do you believe he should have stayed? Absolutely. He finished fifth twice and then had no chance to build on this the following season, as the story leaked out early that we were going after Ramos. He was a victim of our obsession with the Director of Football system and wasn't given the players that he wanted. For example, he wanted to bring Sylvain Distin in on a free transfer, but that was vetoed and Comolli ended up buying Kaboul for £7m. During the pre-season before Jol was sacked, Comoli spent around £35m on Kaboul, Kevin Prince Boateng, Gareth Bale and Darren Bent. Apart from Bale, none of them were considered good enough by Jol to be part of his first team. Tell me that isn't a flawed system. Last season we saw a fantastic League Cup semi-final between our two teams, you had a great result in the first leg, did you think after that, it would be just a walkover in the 2nd, do you believe you were lucky to eventually go through? I think that the players assumed that they had done all the hard work and all they had to do was turn up. You played us off the park and in all honesty deserved to go through. Luckily we had great finishers like Pavlyuchenko and Defoe within our ranks and managed to grab the late goals that we needed. Burnley and Spurs have had some great encounters over the years, we lost our way a bit, but I would like to hear your thoughts on Burnley now they are back in the big time? I think that it's great that a team like Burnley with plenty of tradition, but without much money, have made it back into the top flight. The key to you being able to stay up is to turn Turf Moor into a fortress, which you seem well on the way to doing. That's what Stoke did last season, but refreshingly, Burnley play much better football than them. With Portsmouth and Bolton looking poor, I think that you've got a decent chance of staying in the Premier League. Our manager Owen Coyle, in our eyes is seen as God, how do Spurs supporters view him? He obviously had a lot of confidence in his team's ability, to be able to turn down the Celtic job in the summer. Coyle seems like he's a very clever manager and unlike someone like Phil Brown, who was in a similarly lauded last season, I don't think there's any danger of it all going to his head. With King and Woodgate being injured so often, do you think it is time to cut your losses on them and bring in some new defensive blood, and if so who would you like to see? Where do you find anyone as good as either King or Woodgate though? To be honest, if it were not for their injury problems, King would have probably been bought by someone and Woodgate would never have signed for us. Dawson and Bassong are two good young central defenders, so I'm happy to stick with them and play King and Woodgate when available. King in particular makes a huge difference to our defence. If not for his injuries he would be rated in the same class as Terry and Ferdinand, if not better. He's the best defender that I've ever seen at Tottenham and I'm including Judas in that. Sol Campbell has been in the news again today, when he left Spurs for the Arse he was classed as a traitor, for us anyone leaving Burnley to go to Blackburn Rovers would be seen as the same, is he still hated at the Lane today and what are your thoughts on his demise now? There would be complete uproar if we resigned him. Harry knows this and wouldn't want to risk upsetting his own popularity amongst the supporters by buying him. He is still absolutely hated and if he ever did play for us again, I'd expect him to be booed every bit as loudly as when he turned out at White Hart Lane for Arsenal. The Notts County thing doesn't surprise me. He doesn't seem like a man who thinks things through. He somehow thought that he could swan off to Arsenal without any sort of repercussions and was once quoted as saying that he would have returned to us when his contract with them ended, had we not made such a fuss. What did he honestly expect? If he'd joined Man Utd or Liverpool, people would have understood, but you can't join Arsenal. I know that the Arse are your biggest rivals, what do you honestly think of Arsene Wenger, the club and the current squad? Wenger is a brilliant manager, although these days he seems a little too preoccupied with playing total football, rather than winning football. He forgets that his most successful side was built on George Graham's defence and players like Vieira in midfield. I think they're lacking a striker and a strong player in central midfield. I expect that it will be tight between them, Liverpool and Manchester City for the Champions League places, with Chelsea and United battling it out for the title. Without your white tinted glasses on how do you expect to fare this season, in the League and the F.A.Cup? Sixth place would make me happy, as long as we weren't too far off fourth spot in terms of points. I'd expect us to have another good cup run. I've gotten used to going to Wembley over the last couple of years. Finally our first encounter this season is at The Lane on Saturday, what do you think the result will be? I was a bit worried following the injuries to King and Bassong against Chelsea, but it looks as if Bassong will be fit and Dawson will play. I'm predicting a 3-1 victory. I hope your centre backs are good in the air, because I think that Crouch will play. Read The Longside's answers to Dan's questions at the link below. |
A View From Dan Fitch A Spurs Fan
Posted by: TheLongside.co.uk (IP Logged)
Date: 25/09/2009 17:05
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