I was there as Spurs won their fourth game in a row, writes a hopeful Hunter Davies
For a couple of years now, I've gone off going to evening games. Saturday afternoons, what else would I do, it's what God created Saturdays for. But evening games muck up supper, as the staff, ie, Mrs Davies, have to have it on the table at six instead of seven and I can't drink, not if I'm driving. It's usually on the telly, so by staying at home it takes up only 90 mins of my life as opposed to up to five hours, dragging myself there and back through the traffic. I can have my cocoa and be in bed by 9.59, in time for the Radio 4 News, as nature intended.
But something unusual happened. My son Jake rang me and said he'd bought two tickets for Spurs-Dynamo Zagreb. I'll drive you there and back, he added, if you fancy it. Jake is aged, hold on, I can never remember his age, just his year of birth, England's World Cup Win year. In my mind, he'll always be a boy, with me taking him to Spurs, being in charge. So I was charmed by the role reversal.
I was keen to see if the Happy Harry Effect could carry on and Spurs would manage a fourth game without defeat. I often wonder what managers do? But Mr Redknapp Snr's arrival would seem to suggest they make a difference.
We parked easily and I had time to go into the Spurs shop and buy some rubbish, I mean treasures, in this case a copy of The Official Tottenham Hotspur Annual 2009 - a large-format hardback for £6.99, which looked quite impressive but turned out to be the most vacuous football book I've ever bought. And God knows, among my 2,000 footer books, there are some bummers. There was a two-page feature on Juande Ramos and Gus Poyet. Remember them? Probably not. OK, so printing deadlines mean you can get overtaken by events, but come on, there was no need to call it the 2009 Annual when there's nothing of 2009 in it.
The Zagreb fans were making a fantastic noise, letting off flares, something you don't see at English games, and singing their version of "Yellow Submarine", which again doesn't happen here. Yet it's an English song. According to Jake, who used to live in Italy, it was Italian fans who first appropriated the tune about 15 years ago, then other European clubs copied it, but not any British ones.
On my left were four men and one woman speaking Croatian, or so I thought, but they turned out to be Hungarian. Then I noticed the one next to me was wearing a Spurs scarf. "Why do you support Spurs?" I asked. "I live here," he replied, rather annoyed. He never spoke to me again. On reflection, it was my fault. I had phrased the question rather accusingly. I should have asked him why he had chosen Spurs rather than Arsenal. Perhaps it was part of the Harry Effect. They'd just arrived, seen reports of Spurs' unbeaten run, unlike Arsenal, har har, and thought Spurs were the north London team to watch. Poor things.
Harry has changed some things. I swear Tom Huddleston and Aaron Lennon have put on weight. Harry's so nice to them: arms round the shoulder, go on my son, you can have seconds if you want to.
We were high up in the East Stand, so I was looking down and perhaps that made them seem tubbier. Modric played well, his best so far, but he still seems too fragile for the Premiership. Hutton had a poor game and I sense the fans might turn on him. Bentley is still a luxury, despite Harry's massaging of his ego.
But Spurs won 4-0, so thank you Jake. Where will it end? As the top four have already dropped vital points, Spurs could win the League. Fat chance.
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