Everyone remembers their first game, of whatever team they support. For me, my journey of being a Spurs fan started in my Nan's living room at the age of seven.
Me, along with my four year old brother and Mum and Dad, both lifelong Tottenham fans, headed over to my Nan's house as we didn't have Sky Sports, to watch it there. I have one main overriding memory of that March night, seeing Johnathan Woodgate's header eventually bobble over the line and that was it, I was hooked.
From then on, you could say a bumpy ride has been had of being a Spurs fan, but that was the clubs first trophy in nine years, fast forward nearly eighteen years, the club have still yet to taste success.
You can argue all you like about why the clubs success has faltered during the nigh on two decade drought, but for me there is one common denominator, the owners of the club since 2001, the ENIC Group.
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Early signs missed
When ENIC took over just after the turn of the millennium, some of the early signs, perhaps blindly ignored by the Tottenham faithful, have been brought up again in recent years.
In his first programme notes as Spurs Chairman, Daniel Levy noted "This decision to buy the football club was based on business grounds" - and he also admitted he hoped he would have appointed another chairman before the end of the season, twenty three years later, he is still the main man in the Tottenham hierarchy hot seat.
Even at ENIC's former club, AEK Athens, their then chairman, Cornelius Sierhuis warned Tottenham supporters of ENIC's lack of investment.
"Their investments in football clubs have failed, with the exception of Vicenza thanks to an exceptionally clever manager, and all largely because of an inability or unwillingness to fund in accordance with their stakes,"
Interesting, 'exceptionally clever manager' and 'inability or unwillingness to fund' - Spurs fans will find these phrases all too familiar.
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Several transfer market failings
The transfer market is often the area - that fans feel at least - they are left behind their competitors.
Take their most recent Premier League game, the 4-3 loss to Chelsea. The Blues have spent close to a billion pounds over the last couple of years and whilst ridiculed by many (including myself), the strategy works, with quality players ready to step in whenever and wherever needed.
For years, Tottenham have been the opposite, you can count on both hands the amount of times Harry Kane was the club's only senior striker. This season, the club have three senior centre halves and have had to resort to having a partnership of teenager, Archie Gray, a midfielder by trade, and Ben Davies, a fullback naturally.
This isn't new, in fact, you can look all the way through Levy's reign to point out glaring errors in the transfer market.
Players such as Helder Postiga and Gregorsz Rasiak were brought in with big expectation to fill the boots of club legend, Teddy Sheringham and it never worked out, when Spurs were hovering constantly around the mid-table mark in the early and mid noughties.
Perhaps one of the most notable blunders during the current chairman's reign, occurred during the 2008/2009 transfer window.
Spurs on their books had Robbie Keane, Dimatar Berbatov and Jermain Defoe, three modern day greats and born and bred goalscorers who lit up N17 on a regular basis. After letting Defoe go in 2007/08 to Portsmouth, Spurs fans held their breath heading into the Summer of 2008, with Liverpool and Manchester United fishing around their other star forwards.
A combined total of nigh on £50 million was recouped for the sales of Keane to Liverpool and Berbatov to Manchester United that left a glaring hole in Spurs' squad. With Russian striker, Roman Pavyluchenko, who would turn into a cult hero down the Lane, venturing for the first time out of his native Russia at a cost of £14 million.
Defoe ended up returning after one season on the South Coast and Robbie Keane's ill fated spell at Liverpool saw him rejoin the club in the January of 2009, but it was the handling and negligence of the Berbatov deal that wangled Spurs' faithful.
On deadline day of the 2008 Summer transfer window, Berbatov departed to Manchester, with the panic button firmly being pressed in London. The Bulgarian had scored 46 goals in 102 games for Spurs, with Fraizer Campbell, heading in the other direction.
It was an ill-fated spell in London for the Yorkshire born striker, who scored just three times in 22 appearances on loan to Spurs, showcasing a damning drop in quality from the numbers of the departed Berbatov.
The one other glaring transfer window shocker, was the clubs self inflicted transfer ban under Mauricio Pochettino for 15 months.
The Lilywhites are still the only team in Premier League history not to sign a single player in either a Summer or Winter transfer window.
This isn't new, in the 2011/2012, heading into the January transfer window, Spurs were in the middle of one of their best seasons in recent memory. Rafa Van der Vaart, Luka Modric and Scott Parker in the middle, a certain Gareth Bale on the left, Aaron Lennon on the other flank and Emmanuel Adebayor up front.
Between game week 3 and game week 14, Spurs didn't lose a single league game, a run of ten wins and one draw in the eleven games, with the Lilywhites sitting third.
However, their only transfer activity in January was Ryan Nelson on a free transfer and Louis Saha on loan, both very much under the panic category. Spurs season tailed off, much also due to Harry Redknapp's Court Case and England manager speculation, with the club eventually fading and finishing fourth, when at one stage, a full title tilt looked on.
In more recent times, Spurs have continued in their failings to 'back' managers, Jose Mourinho wanted Spurs to go all out for Milan Skriniar, former Inter Milan and current PSG defender, who at Inter won one Serie A title and two Copa Italia's, along with Bruno Fernandes before the Portuguese star joined Manchester United, where he was won one League Cup, one FA Cup, and amassed over 200 appearances for the Red Devils.
Spurs ended up signing Joe Rodon from Swansea City, who, to his credit, was arguably Spurs best defender for a period in 2020/2021, but never nailed down a starting place and eventually departed permanently for Leeds United last summer after just 24 appearances in four years in N17.
Alongside Rodon, Gedson Fernandes arrived on loan from Benfica, with his time at Spurs even more forgettable, aside from a key missed penalty which saw Spurs crash out of the FA Cup to Norwich City just before coronavirus hit the world. He was recalled after less than a year, and 14 appearances for Spurs.
Furthermore, Antonio Conte's ill-fated reign in charge of Spurs was once again marred by the lack of squad depth, with Conte demanding a quality wingback to play his demanding style of football, only to end up with in his words, 'club signing', Djed Spence, who he hardly ever used.
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The European Super League Saga... and the sacking of Jose Mourinho
18th April 2021 - a day etched into the memory of fans of Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and both Manchester clubs for all the wrong reasons.
Mid-afternoon on that fateful Sunday, news started to filter through that a new breakaway European Super League had been formed, with the six aforementioned English clubs, alongside Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletico Madrid, Inter Milan, AC Milan and Juventus. It would be a closed off competition, with no promotions or relegations for any side, and was met with heavy and widespread backlash from media outlets, fans, supporters groups, fellow professional clubs and players among many opposition.
For Tottenham Hotspur, aside from the obvious, and perhaps expected jokes about Spurs being in a Super League, this represented a huge slap in the face to the clubs founding fathers, the Bill Nicholson's of the world who fought tooth and nail to build the club around glory. The first and only ever non-league team to win the FA Cup, the first ever British team to win a European Trophy and the double. For the fans, who had sat in the Shelf Side or Park Lane for 40 years, who had spent life savings on travelling home and away, who caught three trains and a plane to Madrid for the Champions League final, to throw all that away in the name of money, did not sit right and really, should've made Daniel Levy's position, untenable.
One day after the proposed European Super League announcement, Spurs announced that Jose Mourinho had been sacked from his duties, less than a week before the clubs first cup final in two years.
Straight away, myself included, many thought that it was due to an opposition of the Super League, which later transpired not to be true and makes the decision even more baffling.
Yes, his results weren't great and the football wasn't the easiest to watch, but we were six days away from a cup final, against a team Spurs had already got the better of twice under Mourinho, with two 2-0 wins, each a classic Jose Mourinho performance.
What made it even worse was his staggeringly good record, with eight wins from 14 domestic finals, and five from five in European final wins.
This kneejerk decision to replace him with Ryan Mason, who at the time hadn't managed a single game, proved what most Spurs fans knew about their ownership - that the desire and care to win things simply wasn't in their vocabulary.
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'That' Antonio Conte rant
Rather foolishly, after Nuno Espirito Santo's failed 17 game stint in the Tottenham dug out, Spurs went back to the 'win now' approach, hiring another serial winner in Antonio Conte.
The charismatic Italian revolutionised the Premier League with Chelsea back in 2016/17, beating Spurs to the title, as well as winning an FA Cup with the Blues and four Serie A titles in spells at Juventus and Inter Milan.
Things started brightly, with Conte eventually leading Spurs to a fourth placed finish and back to the Champions League in 2021/2022, before recording Tottenham's then best ever start to a Premier League season, form dipped however and things unravelled, with it all coming spectacularly to a head on the South Coast in 2023.
Spurs were 3-1 up away at Southampton with 15 minutes to go on March 23rd 2023, but goals from Theo Walcott and an added time James Ward-Prowse penalty saw the Saints claw back a 3-3 draw and earn a point. After the game, Antonio Conte exploded in one of the most mental and iconic post-match press conferences in the Premier League era.
A scathing deliberation of 'selfish' players, and a parting shot at the ownership of the club, mixed in with a dig at why the club haven't won anything for twenty plus years, this had it all.
"We are 11 players that go into the pitch. I see selfish players, I see players that don't want to help each other and don't put their heart.
"Before today I prefer to hide this situation and to try to speak, to try to improve the spirit, the situation, with the words, with a lot of situations. Because about tactical or technical aspect, this is one situation. The most important thing if you want to become a strong team, if you want to become competitive, if you want to fight to win, is the desire, the fire that you need to have in your eyes, in your heart, and you have to show this in every moment. In every moment.
"If I have to compare last season and this season, we have to improve, but now we are worse in this aspect. When you are not a team, anything can happen, in any moment. Today is the last situation. Don't forget that in FA Cup we lost to Sheffield United, who played with young players. We were able with a strong team to be dropped from the FA Cup. And then a lot of situations, I repeat, that we are not going to improve. And I am not speaking about tactical aspects or technical aspects.
"About being a team, being a team, being a team, it is the most important thing. To understand that we play for the badge. We have to play to make our fans proud of us. We have to play to show desire. The fire in your eyes to win. If you have this, for sure, you don't go out in FA Cup and today you win.
"Maybe previously in the other games something can change. But here we're used to it for a long time. The club has the responsibility for the transfer market, every coach that stayed here has the responsibility. And the players? The players? Where are the players? In my experience, I can tell you that if you want to be competitive, if you want to fight, you have to improve this aspect. And this aspect, I can tell you, in this moment is really, really low. And I see only 11 players that play for themselves."
"You are finding an alibi, another alibi. You try to find an excuse for the players. OK, continue to do this, to find an excuse for the players. You do only this! You do only this. Excuses for the players. 'But the players, maybe, my future, then we lost confidence, they lost spirit, they lost being a team...' Excuses. Excuses. Excuse. Try to protect them every time.
"Come on, come on, come on. We are professional. The club pay us a lot of money. The players receive money, me receive money, you understand? Not to find excuse or not show spirit or show a sense of belonging or don't show a sense of responsibility because we are showing this. For me this is unacceptable because for me this is the first time in my career to see a situation like this. Until now I wasn't able to change, not to change but compare to last season the situation went to become worse."
"Why? Because they are used to it here, they are used to it. They don't play for something important, yeah. They don't want to play under pressure, they don't want to play under stress. It is easy in this way. Tottenham's story is this. 20 years there is the owner and they never won something, but why? The fault is only for the club, or for every manager that stays here? I have seen the managers that Tottenham had on the bench. You risk to disrupt the figure of the manager and to protect the other situation in every moment.
"Until now I try to hide the situation but now no because I repeat I don't want to see what I have seen today because this is unacceptable and also unacceptable for the fans. They follow us, pay the ticket and to see the team another time to have this type of performance is unacceptable. We have to think a lot about this."
Saturday's collapse at Southampton came seven days after Spurs had beaten Nottingham Forest 3-1 at home. Conte was asked: "You saw the fire last week. What has changed?"
Conte responded: "I said that I wanted to see the fire, not that I have seen. It is different. I said that I want to see the fire in their eyes, in their hearts. I want to see the right spirit. Ok. Not only in the training session, on the pitch. Because here you have to make the difference. And I am not saying this. And until now I try to hide the situation but now, there are 10 games to go and some people think we can fight. Fight for what with this spirit, this attitude, this commitment? What? For seventh, eighth, 10th place? I am not used to this position. I'm really upset and everyone has to take their responsibility.
"Not only the club, the manager and the staff. The players have to be involved in this situation because it is time to change this situation if Tottenham want to change. If they want to continue in this way, they can change the manager, a lot of managers, but the situation cannot change. Believe me."
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What next?
The general consensus of the Spurs faithful is that Daniel Levy pulling the trigger on yet another manager won't change anything. Sure the club might have a honeymoon period, but it will soon fade, and under this ownership, until the anger and discontent of the fans start arrowing towards the real problem, nothing is going to change.
