Spurs are on their way to Wembley!

We should all be shouting from the rafters, Spurs are on their way to Wembley, however having lost our previous four FA Cup semi finals, I am just filled with dread. Any game with Chelsea is always going to be tough no matter where each finds itself in the league. This is the biggest stage for our guys to be playing on. This is the home of football, 90,000 fans will be screaming both teams on.

Tottenham have had a fairly easy route to the Semi-Final this season, which makes a change, but any exhilaration of reaching this stage is tempered somewhat by the circumstances at White Hart Lane last week. Tottenham as a football club has been a credit to the game in its handling of the situation with Muamba and it is good to see such camaraderie between rivals which can be somewhat unusual in this day and age.

So from several thousand miles away i will be keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best. Any win over Chelsea is always a good win, and to win in the FA Cup would be an added bonus.

Come on you Spurs!

How do you rate this season?

Towards the end of last season, on the way to a game, I was asked if I considered the season a success or not. We finished fifth in the league and made the quarter finals of the Champions League. I said no, we set out at the start of the season to finish in the top 4 and failed to do so.

Ask me that two seasons earlier and I probably would say yes, as supporters expectations shift the more successful their team is. Take Manchester United, they may win the Premier league, but will their fans consider it a successful season, maybe not.

This season there has been a shift in power. Manchester City has risen and Chelsea and Arsenal have fallen. Tottenham only six weeks ago had a great chance to push on to challenge for the title. Unfortunately for Spurs it wasn’t to be.

So I go back to my proposition. How do I rate this season?

It seems events have conspired against Tottenham this season. In the summer we had the Modric saga followed by the riots. The season began with defeat against the two Manchester clubs followed by eleven wins in twelve games.

Things were going well for us until the Fabio Capello resignation and since then the season has fallen apart. The Manchester City defeat I can accept, although Balotelli should not have been on the pitch to win the penalty, but the home defeat to Manchester United and surrendering a two goal lead and conceding five to Arsenal is really unacceptable.

In my opinion we are suffering now because Redknapp has not rotated the squad enough so when players are injured those that come in are not ready.

It is conceivable that we can finish anywhere from third to sixth and need 20 points to guarantee our Champions league position, although if Chelsea were to win the Champions league then that may not happen at all.

Even if Tottenham were to win the FA Cup, then anything less than third to me would be failure from where we were in February.

Any thoughts?

The majestic FA Cup

My first FA Cup Final was back in 1980, West Ham v Arsenal. I lived in Australia anf my dad was a Spurs fan. He said we had to support West Ham, I didn't know why, but I went with it anyway. In those days West Ham were in the second divison and of course they effected a big upset by defeating Arsenal 1-0.

The following season was the turn of Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur, two mid table teams in the first divion. A goal by Tommy Hutchinson at eather end took the game to a replay, and in my opinion the greatest FA Cup Final in history, the resaon I now support Spurs, of course 1 3-2 victory inspired by that Ricky Villa goal.

The 1982 cup final was contested by 1st Divison Tottenham and 2nd Divison Queens Park Rangers. This was another game taken to a replay and a 1-0 victory to Spurs. The 1983 FA Cup Final was contested by Manchester United and the unfancied and already relegated Brighton and Hove Albion. Another game which was taken to a replay, that really should never have gone that far had Brighton not fluffed their chance at the end to find the winner.

The 1984 FA Cup final was contested again by an unfancied side in Watford who were defated by Everton who were to win the First Divison title twice in coming seasons.

Since I have been following football these have been the best sequence of FA Cup finals I can remember. Soon the big teams took over and it was down to Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea to take the trophy home year after year. The fairytale had ended.

For a Spurs fan, the FA Cup is part of our history. We were the first and still only non-league side to win the Cup in 1901, we won the double in 1961 by defeating Leceister City in the final. The Ricky Villa moment. Paul Gascoigne's goal in the semi final in 1991. This is our cup.

This season has had some real highs and lows for us, and without going into an analysis of where we have gone wrong, I think we can all agree that if that famous trophy is sitting in our cabinet at the end of the season, then it will be a good season for us.

COYS

What has happened?

For the first time this season Spurs have lost three games in a row in the Premier League. So what is behind this poor form?

Every side experiences a slump in form during the season so this is nothing new or unexpected. But it seems that the Tottenham players have taken their collective eyes off the ball. Not so long we were getting daily comments from players, past and present, about our challenge for the title. But a late goal at Manchester City and the collapse against Arsenal ended all that talk. Now all we can hope for is Spurs can hold off the challenge from Chelsea and Arsenal for third spot.

Injuries have taken their toll this season, but no worse than other teams around us, but I do suspect there is a degree of unsettling effects within the squad. Defoe is not happy to be on the substitute’s bench constantly even though he scores most of the time when he plays. Luka Modric is uncertain to be at Spurs next season as there are a number of clubs eager to sign him and Spurs are believed to be offering him an improvement on his current contract. Gareth Bale is a constant source of transfer speculation with Spanish Giants Barcelona and Real Madrid Keeping tabs on him.

Another factor behind the scenes is the speculation linking Harry Redknapp with the vacant England Manager’s position. This is an obvious distraction and the possible change of manager at Tottenham next season can leave a number of players concerned about their position in the club, particularly as it is rumoured there will be money to spend next summer.

One other factor to be considered could be down to tiredness. There is little rotation as far as the Premier league is concerned with Redknapp preferring to stick with his favoured eleven for as many games as he can get out of them. This I believe is a major blunder by Redknapp and shows a lack of faith in the rest of the squad.

I hope it won’t be long before this slump can be reversed and not let the season get away from us.

Who will should Spurs next season

This summer could be a busy one with managerial changes. The sacking of Andre Villa Boas has thrown a fly into the ointment so to speak. England, Tottenham and Chelsea could all be in the market for the special one, Jose Mourinho.

There are a number of good managers out there both out of work or at lower reputation clubs. Names like Benitez, capello himself, Poyet, Martinez etc are all in positions where they ccan come calling should the challenge arise.

This summer could be an intersting one with transfers of managers looming. Watch this space.

OK so it was never

So yet again Spurs fluff their lines. Only six losses this season and five of those to our top 4 rivals. It's not just fifteen points lost but fifteen points given to our opponents.

I have often said it doesn't matter what you to against the top 4 but the rest that counts, however, one or two draws on the way would have been better than five defeats.

Spurs now have eleven games to make sure this season has not been a wasted opportunity. Ten of those games are against teams outside of the top 7 with our next game at Goodison Park looking the hardest. We really must put things right immediately by beating Everton, not an easy task and one we failed last season.

Arsenal's form is certainly improving but they do have a more tricky run in than ours. Arsenal's home games include Newcastle, Manchester City and Chelsea with their away games featuring Everton and Stoke. Nine wins would not be unlikely for them the way they are playing so we will need around 23 points or so from our last 11 to guarantee third spot.

Redknapp needs to be shrewd about his team selection and make sure we have our best playing fresh and available as much as possible. The FA Cup is a distraction at this stage but this is our competition so we should be looking at trying to win it.

We have failed the test this season as far as I am concerned, now is the time to put a few matters right.

It's now or never Spurs

As Arsenal have now closed the gap to four pints, it really is literally now or never, well as far this season goes, for Spurs to show they have the character to push the top two all the way.

The title is probably beyond Spurs now, but that does't mean Tottenham can't keep Manchester City honest for the rest of the season, particularly given our good run in.

Spurs have not won against United in what now seems like an age, but why not now. The cockerel has been crowing at the Emirates and at Anfield recently, wins at home against Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool have brought Spurs back from the dead and now a regular in challenging for Champions League football, but we want more, we want to add to our two top flight trophies, and a win today against Manchester United may set the ground for a full title tilt next season.

This is likely to be Harry Redknapp's final match in the Premier league against Manchester United, and won't it be fitting for England's next manager to add Manchester United to the scalps of the so called big 4.

Come on Spurs, don't let us down.

Can Spurs keep challenging at the top and build a new stadium?

If we can learn any lessons from other teams when building new stadiums, is that it has lead to a downturn to their onfield fortunes.

This is not just limited to Arsenal who I think were Champions when they moved into the Emirates, but other clubs have struggled. After Middlesbrough moved into the Riverside Stadium they were relegated, the same too for Sunderland at the Stadium of Light and Derby at Pride Park.

The list is actually quite long for the clubs whose league position actually went down after moving into a new stadium.

Spurs are in the process of finding the finance for the new stadium that all Spurs fans say is necessary and in fact Daniel Levy and Harry Redknapp know is necessary if we are to compete at the top of the table for a sustained period of time.

In the period that Arsenal have played at the Emirates they have benefited from a large increase in revenue, which also coincides with a sustained run in the Champions League in that period. But for Arsenal fans, the funds don’t seem to be available for investment in the First Team. Whether there has actually been money to spend there is something only Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal board know.

Our side really is at the crossroads. We are on the brink of challenging for the title and having regular Champions League football, however there is a cloud over the club as to the financial implications of building a new stadium and how that will restrict the club, certainly in the short term, in the transfer market.