The 18^th of May 1991, what a day.

On the way home from school on the 17^th some of the older kids had started singing a football song in which Tottingham Hotsbums had been much derided to the cheers of the mighty Manchester United. Being a football novice I took all of this on face value and decided I was a Red, whatever that was. Eager to tell my parents of my newfound love of Manchester United I proceed to start singing the song to my mum and she soon corrected me to the actual name of the “Spurs” finishing with “your dad supports them”. We then carried on our journey to pick up my dad and he spent the whole ride home explaining to me who Gazza and Lineker were and how we were playing in some game for a cup the next day and that I should reserve judgement until tomorrow.

The next morning we got up early and I could sense the anticipation in the air as my dad fidgeted and stirred until we left for the pub. The next few hours I went on a roller coaster ride that changed my life. The small patter of applause as Pearce smashed the free kick home, the groans as Gazza was taken of the pitch and the euphoria as Des Walker put into his own net. At the final whistle I was swept away in the boozy emotion and before I knew it I was singing at the top of my voice “Glory Glory Tottenham Hotspur”. That was it, I was hooked, and my life has not been the same since.

What does this have to do with the season coming up you ask? Let me explain. Being a spurs fan in the nineties was tough for all of us, but the decline was steeper for me. All I had known about Spurs was that we were the best, we had won in a game of some importance which I couldn’t fathom and my eyes since have never seen this glory. There were battles with relegation, cup exits and the jeers of my friends. A club that seemed in perpetual decline, but I faced all this with the knowledge that we were the best and would soon be again. As I have got older I started doubting. Would we ever scale these heights again? Could we ever overcome the gulf that now existed to the top and the team known as the Reds?

That is until now. Having seen this club, that I love with all my heart, plummet to also-rans, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The strides we have made over the past few seasons, finishing 5^th, not once but twice in a row, is something I doubted I would ever see. The major signings of Bale and Bent and our own idol of Berbatov have given us a chance to once again taste the glory of that fateful day in 1991. Not far last season from making it to another major final, the final hurdle was just a step too far, but it’s close. Next season we WILL be stronger, we WILL push them further and we WILL get back to some semblance of the spurs I thought I had fallen in love with.

Of course I would not have had it any other way, in 1991 I was Spurs and that feeling has built up inside me ever since, but I Long for the Day I can sing “Glory Glory Tottenham Hotspur” as we lift a cup or take on the elite in Europe. That day my friends is just around the corner. 

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