NORMAN GILLER'S SPURS ODYSSEY BLOG No 545
Submitted by Norman Giller

Okay, now it's serious. Time for all hands to the pump, and this includes we supporters getting behind the team and not in their way. A crescendo of criticism followed yesterday's 4-1 humbling by our beloved neighbours, and you must be blindly biased if you did not think the Gunners deserved their crushing victory.

Has there ever been anything so mortifying as Arsenal fans 'ole-ing' us as their team played keep ball, passing us to a slow death. It was almost as humiliating as being the former Prince Andrew.

There are 11 Premier League matches to the end of the season, and every game will be a mountain climb. Our new manager Igor Tudor - sounding as if he comes from Transylvania - must have felt as if he'd had his blood sucked from him after this debut match.

Relegation was a distant threat that few of us took seriously, but suddenly it's a dark, real shadow over a club that has lost its confidence, lost its resistance and lost its way.

The performance against the Arsenal was as weak and woeful as anything in recent memory. I've left it to our despondent guru Paul H. Smith to give the glum match facts HERE, but it's up to every one of us to face the future with positivity rather than get eaten up by the poison of pessimism.

Of course, we can make out a convincing case that Spurs should have had a penalty when Muani was mugged by Gabriel as he scored what should have been an equaliser at 2-2. But to cling to that argument would be sweeping our problems under the (ouch) red carpet. The fact is Tottenham got trounced, and we still await celebrating a first victory this year as spring approaches. Trouble is, we have no spring in our step. Yes, friends, now it's serious.

These are the remaining League matches, with the Champions League reduced to a sideshow that is more a distraction than a delight:

Fulham, on Sunday at Craven Cottage, then Crystal Palace (h), Liverpool (a), Nottingham Forest (h), Sunderland (a), Brighton (h), Wolves (a), Aston Villa (a), Leeds United (h), Chelsea (a), Everton (h).

The way the team is playing - without guile or style - suggests there is not an easy game left, and Mr Tudor has his hands full trying to motivate players who are looking distraught and, in some cases, disinterested. Too many are taking the money and not running.

Sorry this Blog is all doom and gloom. At least I have the escape valve of disappearing into the past and polishing my memories of the 1966 World Cup final, when - happy days - I was the only reporter to get into the England dressing-room after our triumph over West Germany.

Hat-trick hero Sir Geoff Hurst is kindly providing an introduction to my book, and it is taking my mind off the mess that Spurs are in.

I am sure you'll be desperate to buy the book when its published leading up to the diamond jubilee of England's triumph - without, of course, Tottenham's master goal poacher Jimmy Greaves. I have my old mate Greavsie talking in depth about the tournament that brought another ex-Spurs giant a knighthood, Sir Alf Ramsey.

It's a great escape to be writing about Spurs players who achieved things. Just imagine if we had Greavsie and Alf making the Tottenham team tick today!

But that's wishing for the impossible. We've got to concentrate on reality and helping Igor keep Tottenham afloat in the Premier League. What was that Jimmy used to say? It's a funny old game.

Here we go with the 26th week of our quiz that tests your knowledge of Tottenham players and the club's history ...

Who played in the World Cup quarter-finals, won a League championship and Cup Winners' Cup medal with Spurs plus three FA Cup winners' medals, and from which club did he join Tottenham? Ps Please let me know if you'll be interested in purchasing my 1966 World Cup book at a cut price!

Please email your answer to me at soqleague@gmail.com and make the subject heading Quiz Week 26. Deadline: midnight this Saturday. I will do my best to respond to all who take part.

The rules are the same as in the previous 11 seasons. I ask a two-pronged question with three points at stake - two for identifying the player and one for the supplementary question. In the closing weeks of the competition I break the logjam of all-knowing Spurs-history experts with a real stinker of a tie-breaking poser that is based on opinion rather than fact. This is when I lose what few friends I have.

This season's main prize will be a framed certificate announcing the winner as SOQL champion 2026, plus three signed books to be revealed at a later date.

Last week I asked: Which World Cup winner has collected 47 international caps, played for Juventus and Genoa and from which Serie A club did he join Spurs in 2021?

Answer: Cristian Romero/Atalanta

See you back here on Monday.

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