Crumbling At The Crust - Is It Time for the Tottenham Eruption?

The problem with Tottenham was summed up by Teddy Sheringham this week when he said that Spurs fans want to win games and get entertained. This comes to fruition when the suits price Spurs games at the second costliest seat in the country, one behind Chelsea, who quite frankly, aren't in it for a profit or the entertainment anyway.

Since the glory days of Hoddle, up until the crowning of David Ginola as Premiership Footballer of the Year, Spurs have always treated their loyal and unbending fans to a exciting and excruciating game of football. Yet Spurs fans at half time during the Villa game saved the same verbosity as England fans threw at their superstars in Barcelona last European Qualifying Term. It's a mixture of fortunes for the same team that had cemented the fifth position two seasons in a row, only to slip to mid table anonymity, their place of berth before ENIC's revolution.

ENIC's revolution was slow to pick up off the ground, following Spurs fans animosity towards, the now infamous Alan Sugar, after Alan was in the game purely for the financial terms. However Spurs have always been a profit seeking club, they were the first to be floated on the stock exchange, and since Irving Scholar's vision for profit in professional football Spurs chairman's have gone out of their way to make a buck. Sugar was hated, he was the reason Sky had the monopoly they did on football; it was his casting vote that sent Premiership viewing rights BSkyB's ways and this only because one of his companies, Amstrad, made their satellite dishes.

ENIC have five investments in football clubs around Europe before arriving on Spurs doorstep with an offer which more than doubled Alan Sugar's initial investment 9 years prior. Levy less than half the junior of Sugar brought a take in Rangers and sooner rather than later Ranger's chairman David Murray used their money to purchase stars yet refused to offer the club because "this club is about making the fans happy, not making millions for outsiders."

Spurs have made millions for ENIC, every Spurs fan knows that! We gross the third highest profit in the league, and this summer we made more than we spent. As much as Levy can be passionate about being a boyhood Spurs fan and bringing in unrivaled quality that Sugar couldn't, we are what you can call a "selling club". A club who's policy is nurturing talent brought on the cheap and sold on a profit can be seen from the sales of Robbie Keane & Dimitar Berbatov, and Michael Carrick. Levy vehemently attacked Manchester United and Liverpool, but a term ago, Michael Carrick left as a bit of "good business" - this season these players were "tapped up".

The change of heart in Levy's approach is the fact Damien Comolli, Spurs sporting director, the man who controls the transfers, couldn't bring in rivaled quality to those lost. Spurs fans were blinded and influence to hate United and Liverpool because they "turned" players heads and forced Levy to sell two top quality and proven 20-goal a season players - players who had driven Spurs to consecutive fifth place finishes and last term's Carling Cup success. In place, a loan player, a player who plied his trade in the Championship last term and an unproven entity in Roman Pavluchenko, brought for 14 million, but is ineligible to feature in the UEFA Cup till February.

The UEFA Cup campaign starts in earnest on Thursday and with only one striker with limited European experience eligible to play - I fear for our ability this term in a competition where we have come unstuck due to pace. Our inability to deal with pace is the reason we are so low. Aston Villa were free-flowing; they played exceptionally and the new blood of Modric and Pavluchenko were dumb-founded against Villa's quick feet and crisp passing moves. The old boys defensive midfield club of Zakora and Huddlestone were slow to react and even having two defensive minded players holding the midfield, could not stop the slaughter that Villa were threatening to throw on Spurs.

You can say we haven't clicked yet; you can say we haven't got the height in the midfield. The sad fact is we don't have the quality and pace we had to challenge for fifth anymore; Modric is exceptional when he has time, and the Premiership doesn't offer that anymore. Pavluchenko is strong, but slow and Darren Bent has yet to fit in a system where he can show his Charlton form. When Santini strode into Tottenham and won games 1-0 and started a beautiful season of victories that culminated into a fifth place finish, his ultimate ability to ride out games 1-0 meant Spurs weren't as entertaining as before. Santini, is a fantastic, tactically able manager, but Levy's need for an exciting style of player left Santini in the dole line before long.

Football is all about money; but it's no longer about making a profit. And the sooner Spurs fans realise winning is more important than entertainment, the glory days will be back - we just need to trust, but how can you trust in a system built to benefit the external environment and not the club?