Was chatting to an old (very old) school mate the other day. He’d been at the Emirates to watch his beloved West Ham (I said he was old, never said he was clever) lose to the Arse. And he was complaining. Ok, all football fans complain, all the frikkin time, its what we do. That’s the purpose of football; to balance out lives that otherwise would be too perfect, too dreamy, too filled with joy and happiness and North Korean haircuts. Football grounds us. Ok, it depresses us. And West Ham fans have been so depressed of late that they’ve been booing their manager ever when they’ve won matches. Which is somewhat unusual, even for football. Almost nonsensical. And yet…

West Ham have a ‘history’, like Spurs have a ‘history’. Sadly for both, that’s always where the best stuff happened; historically. History is also subject to revision, to editing out the bad bits, to the rose-tinted selective memory syndrome that sends us longing for those sepia-coloured ‘glory days’ of old.

And West Ham have a ‘history’ of being a team that play exciting, attacking, fast-paced, lovely football. Though you need a long memory to recall those days. Certainly a memory that stretches past the Big Sam era. Because West Ham no longer play ‘nice’ football. They’re no longer nice to watch. Certainly not very exciting. Liverpool are exciting, Manchester City can be exciting, West Ham are more… agricultural. Less Ferrari, more Garbage Lorry. More Allardycian.

Spurs similarly have an ‘ideal’ an image of how a Spurs team should be. And, like West Ham’s, its based on history, certainly not on current state of play. And it goes back to the 60s (when everything good for Spurs began and sadly ended), and then the wonderful 70s, when Glen Hoddle and Ossie Ardiles ruled the park and played such football that the angels would come stand on the Shelf with me and me mate Stan. And then our Champions League season, just 3 years ago, with Bale and Modric and Lennon flying and Van der Vaart…

Ahhhh. Its not about winning. Its about playing in a certain way. Its about style, class and excitement. Something absent from both Spurs and West Ham of late.

Last night I watched some of the Copa del Rey final. They play that in Spain. For some reason. Spurs aren’t allowed in it. And there, upon that very stage were Gareth Bale and Luca Modric, still wearing a lillywhite strip, but this time the one belonging to Real Madrid. And they were wonderful. Still wonderful. Bale scored the winning goal. And what a goal. Safe to say, only he could have scored it. Ran half the pitch, outpaced fouling, hacking defenders and kept sufficiently cool to slot the ball home.

Gareth has scored 20 goals in 39 games for Real. I know, Spanish football is like Scottish football, pretty much just shite with a few teams scoring all the goals and always winning the glory. But still. Playing Barcelona is never easy, though with Messi in (relatively) indifferent form of late, Barca are suffering. What’s the point of having 70% of the possession if you don’t score goals?

I miss Gareth. I miss his goals. We miss his goals. But what I really miss is that 20,000 volt charge that you get when he gets the ball. Lots are players are brilliant and skilful. Very few are just wow! Worth 85 million of anyone’s money.

Happy Thursday

A xxxx