The revolution will be televised...online
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Are you in or are you out?
Will it make a difference? Of course not, unless say 20k turned up with banners and their voices to protest, but considering the few numbers that turned up for the Stratford protests over the Olympic Stadium bid I doubt we'll see anything more than pockets of disgruntlement - but that's not to downplay the significance of making your voice heard. It can inspire others to follow. It can work and it can make a difference, as proven by the sterling work of the late Darren Alexander (of the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust) who worked for the fans with the fans (with Martin Cloake heavily involved) against the likes of StubHub* and season ticket price hikes.
*latest update: With immediate effect the relisting of tickets on the StubHub platform will be prevented and prohibited to ensure that season ticket holders wishing to list at a reasonable price can be reassured that those same tickets cannot be purchased and resold at a higher price
We're hardly a club in crisis. We're simply a club living a self-fulfilling prophecy, caught in a loop, repeating the same errors time and time again and because of high expectations we're fed up. Considering we struggle to have an identity within the club aside from client reference numbers and banning orders, speaking out against something you disagree with is important. I'm talking about genuine issues, fighting the power and making a difference. This would be the first time in ENIC's tenure that the fanbase has reached breaking point. Just below breaking point to be exact. Nothing has been broken yet. Apart from our patience.
With season ticket renewals not that far off, this has emerged today:
The Dnipro president has spoken today that Konoplyanka is possibly Spurs bound.
"We're negotiating and may even be close to signing a contract"
Looks like we'll never change (unless we have a new coach in place for next season and he's sanctioned the deal). The club loves to sign players before we've officially appointed a new coach (or God forbid confirmed we're going to keep the current one for the full length of his contract). Whether the coach (current or new) would want said player or if there is a mutual understanding that the system at Spurs is to always play the market, signing players with sell-on value and players that the coach will simply have to find a way to fit them in - it's anyone's guess.
Pretty much like the pressure Andre Villas-Boas was placed under when none of his key signings were made and plenty came in thanks to the chairman and Franco Baldini wheeling and dealing. They bring in the players that are meant to suit the coach's philosophy but has it actually worked at any point in time? If said players fail to adapt or the coach struggles for momentum - who is at fault? The coach or the sporting director?
The Spurs director of football system still doesn't resemble the suggested structure (the one in my head) where Baldini is here to do the work Levy has been doing for years (allowing the chairman to work on more of the business side of the club and the new stadium). But the buying and selling is the business side of the club. Assets, commodity management, investments. What we have is what we had prior (with Damien Comolli). They sign who they want to fit the clubs ethos, the coach is responsible for managing the signings and is supposedly the choice of the DoF - enabling ease of player acquisitions to avoid disagreements.
It's all geared towards failure because the continuity the club are interested in is having the next appointment settle into the role without too much disturbance and squad disharmony in order to protect the culture of turnover. Coach fails? Not a problem, next man appointed will be suited to handle the players the club has bought/will continue to buy.
As if that works.
Give the coach complete control with transfers and have Baldini as the glorified deal-maker (with the coaches approval) is how we'd love to see it work. A support mechanism. Ironically, take away the DoF (as per the Redknapp tenure) and it still doesn't work thanks to Daniel Levy basically acting like the DoF (or a General Manager) signing players he wants and disagreeing with the targets the coach desires. It's a mess from the outside looking in. Judging by some of the wasteful January transfer windows in the past, it's a mess from the inside out.
Maybe I've got all this wrong, which is why Levy is heading up ENIC and I'm a father of one with an obsession with psychedelics writing about Tottenham on a blog. Transparency is my new buzz word. It will go away once we have some. Konoplyanka is quality, so what manager in their right mind would not want to work with the player? In fact, on the flip side, some of our best signings were because of the DoF system scouting and signing (Carrick, Modric, Berbatov, Bale etc). Oh look, all of them mentioned were sold on for profit. What a coincidence.
/bangs head against wall
We're stuck with ENIC unless no one buys a season ticket and that 20k strong demonstration takes place. Won't happen though. Things will perk up soon enough and we'll forget (not forgive) once the entertaining football makes a return. That and the fact that ENIC have an end game in mind, to make a final epic moneyshot of a deal by selling the club if and when stadium rights are secured.
You can blame social media, the internet, this blog, all blogs, modern consumption of information and our comfortable middle class life styles for defusing the potential for true fire in the belly of the fanbase. We all discuss and rant and share opinions to such an extent on-line that it feels that simply by sharing ideas and thoughts, we've done enough to align ourselves with whatever side of the line we wish to stand on. 20 years ago, the only way to know if others felt the same way would be to turn up outside the ground and see what banner was being waved around. That might still work for teams outside the Premier League where fans are truly the lifeblood of the club. In the higher echelons we're faceless and replaceable. The majority wait for the minority to do something but the minority are not loud enough. Although that has recently changed (be it for StubHub and one or two other issues of concern including the Hull City Tigers controversy which the FA plan to reject).
Do we have a right for that transparency I keep harping on about? No. If we did you wouldn't be reading this.
What do I know? Nothing. For all we know Tim Sherwood might be here for the full 18 months and any transfer dealings have been sanctioned by him.
What does your banner say?
