I’m not into sequels. If something’s great; leave it alone to stand as that, don’t try and repeat it. Otherwise you end up with Fast & Furious 7 and Death Wish 4 and Friday the 13th part 14. And they’re all shit. The obvious exceptions (and I can make these without any risk of being hypocritical, stupid or abusing generalisations because I can write what I fucking want!) are Kill Bill 1 and 2, because it was one movie in two parts, and Terminator 1 and 2 because I love them. There’s the rules then.
So Spurs returning to the Etihad stadium yesterday for a repeat of Wednesday night’s match there had ‘disappointing anti-climax’ written all over it. Mainly because Wednesday night’s game was the most exciting game of football ever seen by anybody (though I feel that once VAR becomes a more integrated part of the game, rather than the novelty status it currently enjoys, such turnarounds will become more commonplace) but also because you can’t just carry on in the same vein. It was a sequel of a match and, quite frankly, it felt like one. Even though it had many moments of excitement. But Spurs lost. I think every Spurs fan had accepted that we would lose this game, accepted that quite early on Thursday morning. And were quite relieved that it didn’t end 5-nil or worse. We can’t afford to lose any more games. We have to win them all. But that one we were under no illusions about.
But in an uncharacteristic moment of schadenfreude… well, fairly uncharacteristic, I opened the newspaper on Friday morning, expecting to find a big spread about Arsenal’s victory the previous night, taking them to the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup (or whatever they call that thing). Yet instead, I found the most wonderful, magnificent, superlative-laden, two-page feature which could have been headlined: “HOW FUCKING BRILLIANT ARE SPURS??” It was a glowing account of our achievements (not our trophies, obvs, that would have been a much shorter article) and how well we’ve done in comparison to how much we’ve spent of late. Manchester United have spent 500 million over the last year and we’ve spent nothing. Liverpool have spent big. Manchester City spend bigger but keep it well hidden (court case pending). In fact the only team to have spent less (by selling players to create a ‘negative spend’) is Ajax of Amsterdam. Who we now play in the semi-finals of the CHAMPIONS LEAGUE.
And I thought that was so unfair on Arsenal… that it made me even more deliriously happy than I already was.
Ajax, oddly or coincidentally, or bizarrely or whatever, are another team who embrace their inner Jew. The predominantly non-Jewish fan base fly Israel flags, sing ‘hava nagilla’ and eat matzos during Passover. I may have added that last bit for effect. For the same reason that Spurs became ‘the Yids’. Because of abusive and anti-Semitic chants from other teams, back in the 70s, who called teams with Jewish fans (like Spurs) or Jewish owners (like Ajax had), Jewish names as being ‘a great insult’. But was then adopted. So when we meet, instead of the fans fighting in brawls and drinking excessively, they’ll be instead arguing philosophical points in the Torah.
Happy Sunday
A xxxx
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