Is Arry Having A Laugh.

Article from vital Spurs Forums.


Is Harry 'aving a laugh with us?


In the afterglow of last season`s run-in almost as one Spurs supporters expectations rose, some might say unrealistically so.

Fuel was thrown on this fire when Harry said that we only needed a bit of tweaking and a 'Marquee' signing..

According
to some when we finished 4th we`d found the Holy Grail, Eldorado and
the lost Ark all at the same time. This was it; now we`d be able to buy
almost anyone we set our sights on; we were now a Champions league club.

To
others, who seemingly took a more pragmatic view it meant nothing more
than a welcome return to Europe with the prospect of playing with the
big boys, (assuming of course that we`d got past the little matter of a
qualifier). To some it was another step in the right direction after
years of seeing our hopes raised and then dashed and shouldn't be seen
as nothing more or nothing less.

Not long after the celebrations
ended, like many of us apparently Harry`s thoughts turned to what we
needed to do to ensure we would remain in contention for another 4th
place finish and acquit ourselves well in Europe.

Harry seemed
so buoyed by what he`d achieved that he uttered what now seems the
infamous phrase that we needed 'a Marquee signing`...this almost to a
man was understood to mean a big name signing with a huge ticket price,
almost certainly a new club record.

Since then, we`ve waited
patiently for any sign of one; Joe Cole was perhaps who he had in mind,
but a large body of posters seemed to think that he wasn`t the one. To
some fans delight we were being associated with some very unlikely big
name targets, but predictably they all seem to have come to nothing.

However, since Cole decided to move to Liverpool the lists of names we`ve been associated with are tough to see as 'Marquee`.

Worse
still, Harry`s recent comments to the media (it seems almost a daily
occurrence lately, so much so I wonder sometimes how he gets the time to
manage the players!) in respect of just about any player from any club
from anywhere in continental Europe seems to have been; (I paraphrase) "
I like him alot, he`s a triffic player, but his wages maybe a problem
or he would cost too much money "..everytime I heard it I'd just grin a
little with a knowing smile and think to myself, 'he just can't stop
himself'.

Harry`s now standard phrase was trotted out once again
this weekend when asked about Stephen Ireland. Now in fairness I`m not a
big fan of Ireland, to me he`s had one decent half season and has gone
backwards ever since, but that`s beside the point. What really made me
raise my eyebrows was Harry doing his scrooge impression as he exclaimed
that £10-12 million was too rich for us. When I read his latest missive
I didn't grin this time, he'd finally got to me and I can't pretend I'm
not a little worried by his comments now.

Given his recent
remark of 'we don`t need to spend alot of money` and given our recent
attempt to sign Parker (another player I can`t get excited about) there
are more than a few supporters and posters who are beginning to think
that Harry has either led us up the garden path, lost the plot or there
is something fundamentally wrong that now seems to be stopping us dead
in our tracks when it comes to signing anyone that we would remotely see
as a 'marquee` signing; in other words a player that`s likely to get
the blood racing.

Recently when one enterprising journalist
finally started to see Harry`s contradictions and pressed him, Harry
trotted out that 'we are a wealthy well run club`.

So what are we Harry; Hard up or wealthy?

Or
is it far more simple and all this angst he`s helping fuel is because
Harry can`t resist making a comment to the media that he thinks will be
'helpful` to our chairmen getting the targets that he`s given him?

All
I know is that I`ve never seen so many arguments developing inside our
forums and all across the internet about the quality and age of the
players we`re being linked with. So much so, that a large body of fans
seem to have already written off our chances of emulating last season.
The argument goes that all our rivals have strengthened and by virtue of
us doing nothing or buying the players we`re being associated with in
the press we are rapidly going backwards.

This feeling of anxiety
amongst the faithful also seems to have reached Harry as one of his
recent comments recently seemed intended to justify his choice of
targets when he said (I paraphrase again) "You don`t win anything with
kids"..

With just over four weeks of the transfer window
remaining I can`t help thinking that we are now firmly in 'put up or
shut up` territory and that either Harry will either get who he wants or
if he doesn`t that he`ll soon be implying that we couldn`t afford the
signings he really wanted?

I believe Harry has earned the right
to build the squad the way he thinks it needs to be progressed, but am I
alone in wishing he`d just keep his thoughts to himself for a couple of
weeks? He`s doing my 'ead in!