Spurs played 3 matches in a week. All played ‘away’ from home, if such a thing has any significance with the partisan effect being obviously absent. And all won. One of the 3 teams we played I’d even heard of previously. Southampton. The other two, played in all the glory and splendour of the Europa Thursday Night League of Shame, I initially thought were clues in an anagram puzzle. But then learned that Lokomotiv Plovdiv and Shkendija are in fact real. And correctly spelt. And represent Bulgaria and Macedonia, respectively. Or, for the purposes of this essay, disrespectfully.

But that’s the rule in the Europa Cup. As it is written: (eh-hem) “and thou shalst travel, on the night of the Thursday, to a far away land in the East. Never to the south, where its warm. Only to the East, where it is bleak and cold; where racists and anti-semites are free to walk the streets and make obscene gestures to away teams. Sometimes to the North, where games are played in the Scandinavian arctic in permanent darkness where the population of the town must never be more than 37.”

But heh; you can only play who they bring. And always better to win rather than lose. So we were triumphant.

In the following 8 days we play 4 more games. Tomorrow its Newcastle. Who have been shit, but only for about 8 years, yet seem to be ‘resurging’. If one win in the league and thrashing Morecambe in the league cup could be grounds for such a claim. It’s a ‘must win’ for Spurs. We seldom have ‘must lose’ games these days.

On Tuesday its Chelsea in the Carabao Cup. Which would be an ‘ooooohhhh’ but its the Carabao Cup so only really warrants a meagre ‘oh’.

Thursday we host Maccabi Haifa in the Europa. Just 3 days after Yom Kippur, Spurs (the Yids) have invited Haifa (bunch’a Jewish people) to their home in North London to celebrate the festive season. Happens all over that part of the world. With the hosts showing off their latest gadgetry and fancy shmancy appliances and telling of all the work they’ve just had completed by a wonderful bunch of Polish builders, and it ‘only cost a billion quid!!!’

Finally, if any of our players are still able to walk or stand, we’re off to Old Trafford Sunday week. To play the Manchester United team that was so full of promise, until they actually played a match. Then the promise seemed to turn into the same old lies. But ya never know.

So that’s it. That’s ‘ALL’ we have to look forward to in terms of football. As long as the Covid rules don’t change again. Or as long as they change but then change back again really quickly. Either scenario is distinctly possible.

Happy Saturday

A xxxx