Totnum hosper

Totnum hosper - sounds a little like a Latin motto meaning "Whether too much, I am held to hope" ... anyway.

I've supported Spurs for 40 years, and I've mainly felt it was a good club to support, that it played good football, that it knew its place, didn't get ahead of itself, wasn't evil, was basically one of the "good" clubs and I could broadly accept that there were other more successful clubs.

The last few years have tested my fandom. It was very embarrassing when the club joined the disastrous European Super League. It was very embarrassing when a significant portion of the fanbase wanted their team to lose to Man City so that Arsenal didn't win the league. The TV documentary series was embarrassing. Having Jose Mourinho as manager was embarrassing. And, the last couple of seasons, being pretty terrible at football has been pretty embarrassing.

I think everyone connected to Spurs is to blame at different times for what's gone wrong, but, ultimately, it hasn't gone that wrong. The club is still in the Premier League. Spurs are not, nor have ever been, Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, modern Man City, modern Chelsea. Spurs are on a par with Villa, Newcastle, Everton, Forest, West Ham, Leeds United - big clubs with big fanbases that have won some things, but not monster clubs which dominate. Apart from Everton, those other clubs have been relegated from the Premier League this century. Spurs have done better than all of them for the last 20 years, but between 1990 and 2005, finishing bottom half was pretty commonplace. 

Daniel Levy was a good chairman who, thanks to some luck with players and managers, shrewdness with a decent budget, made Spurs a consistent Top 6 club for a while, got them near the league title and to the Champions League final. Spurs fans act like it's his fault we didn't win those moments, and that it's his fault we're not winning them all the time. Completely ahistorical. Levy's biggest mistakes were not caution but overreaching (hiring Mourinho, European Super League). His successors and his critical fans are finding out how easy it is to make a success of Spurs.

Anyway, what I want for Spurs next year is top half of the league, a good cup run, and to play decent football again, and not be a team of dirty, not-particularly likeable foulers, which we've been lately.

I want the promising, talented players to not be injured all the time. I want Romero and Vicario to leave, thanks. Micky van der Ven will obviously leave, but with more sincere thanks

Amongst other things, a particular problem for Spurs in the last couple of seasons is simply that other teams have got better. Spurs could get 60 points in a mediocre season by picking up good amounts of points vs Brighton, Bournemouth, Forest, Fulham etc even if we fell short against the big clubs. Those clubs are very good and well-managed now and there are fewer cheap points than ever, and Spurs haven't adjusted to that.

Anyway, since it's been 40 years, here are my 40 favourite Spurs players.

40. Lucas Moura - i didn't love Moura with his right-wing politics but his hat-trick in the Champions League semi-final was my favourite moment as a Spurs fan.

39. Kevin Danso - best player in the run-in. Think we've found one there.

38. Rafael van de Vaart - down the years, world-class players have occasionally turned up at Spurs and that's been great. Touch of class, van de Vaart.

37. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg - very solid. Suffered a little for being not quite as good as what came before, but much better than what came after.

36. Darren Bent - I like Bent in general as a player, think he was a bit hard done by, both for Spurs and England.

35. Ruel Fox

34. Paul Robinson

33. Ossie Ardiles

32. Gary Lineker

31. Paul Stewart - adaptable, solid, scored in the 91 Cup Final.

30. Mousa Dembele - few players have had their memory embellished by posterity so much as Dembele. Now gets talked about like an all-time great. He was good though.

29. Aaron Lennon - had a brief period of everyone thinking he should be picked ahead of Beckham for England. A good classic winger, who was a big part of the era when Spurs got good.

28. Edgar Davids - I know he didn't do much for Spurs. But it was Edgar Davids! For Spurs!

27. Dejan Kulusevski - aah, i wish him some luck. Class

26. Tom Hiddlestone

25. Danny Rose I liked Danny Rose. Deserved a better career.

24. Jan Vertonghen

23. Christian Eriksen

22. Richarlison - hasn't really delivered for Spurs, but is, unlike Moura, a Brazilian footballer with good politics.

21. Eric Dier

20. Stephen Carr Was not much good, and then, admirably, became good.

19. Glenn Hoddle

18. Vinny Samways Definitive 90s Spurs player.

17. Paul Allen

16. Clive Allen. The rest will mainly be pretty self-explanatory.

15. Hugh Lloris 

14. Paul Gascoigne

13. Micky Van de Ven

12. Ledley King

11. Gareth Bale

10. Luka Modric

9. Chris Waddle

8. Ben Davies

7. Gary Mabbutt

6. Son Heung-min

5. Dimitar Berbatov

4. Chris Hughton Not like I watched him play for Spurs all that much, but just a football person I like.

3. Harry Kane

2. Robbie Keane

1. Erik Lamela A rogue choice at one, but I just loved Lamela. Very talented, but always got injuries. Worked hard, got in opponents' faces. The fact he was peripheral for a lot of the best era shosws how good that squad was.

So, I've left out, amongst others ...

Sheringham, Ferdinand, Klinsmann, Walker, I Walker, Trippier, Anderton, Defoe, Perryman, Aldeweireld, Dele Alli, Crouch, Ginola, Adebayor, Paul Walsh, Justin Edinburgh, Eric Thorsvedt, Rebrov, Iversen, Pavlyuchenko, Jenas, Carrick, Dawson, Woodgate, Barmby, Sanchez, Sissoko, Wanyama, Brennan Johnson ...

Some absolute Spurs legends. I don't exactly know why. They just don't bring a warm glow to my heart when I think of them in a Spurs shirt.