NORMAN GILLER'S SPURS ODYSSEY BLOG No 509
Submitted by Norman Giller
Ange ages as Spurs seek Euro survival
So now we know where we stand. Spurs MUST eliminate Dutch side AZ Alkmaar in their home Europa League second leg match on Thursday or that's virtually the end of our season ... and odds-on the departure of Ange Postecoglou and the Angeball that he preaches.
Yesterday's draw against Bournemouth was just a treading water game before the showdown with Alkmaar, an ordinary side who lead 1-0 from the first leg. It is hard to think of a more crucial match for Spurs in recent years.
Postecoglou, aging even quicker than me under the strain of watching Spurs, can book his flight home to Australia if Alkmaar survive on Thursday. Simple as that.
I know that many Spurs fans - their allegiance to Angeball battered and bruised - are looking for some positivity to give them a much-needed lift. Well I am going to predict that Tottenham will march through to the last eight, turning the hopes of their Dutch opponents to dust.
If Tottenham can't wipe out the goal deficit and lift themselves above the Alkmaar challenge, then what has the Postecoglou reign been all about? We must believe that we can defeat a Dutch side that would struggle to make an impact in the Championship.
So please help me spread a mood of optimism to counter the defeatism that is sweeping through the club like a contagious disease. Broken record mantra coming up: Get behind the team not in its way.
The Tottenham Hotspur stadium will be a cauldron on Thursday just like in the Glory Glory European competition days of the past. I am confident we will be celebrating a Tottenham victory. They cannot possibly be as impotent as in the first leg in Holland when Angeball was noticeable only by its absence.
There were just glimpses of sparkling Spurs against Bournemouth, the most improved team in the League. Our Spurs guru Paul H. Smith gives his eyewitness account of the match HERE, revealing the frustration we all felt but acknowledging that it took character to get a point from a game the Seasiders should have sewn up long before the Spurs revival.
We're going to need every ounce of that character against Alkmaar.
I am assured that talks on a Qatari partnership - if not a take-over - are continuing, with the ground likely to be renamed after Qatari Airways. That would complete the Arab hat-trick to go with the Emirates and the Etihad.
I wonder if Ange Postecoglou will be there for the naming-rights game?
COYS!
Spurs Odyssey Quiz League 2024-25
Week 29 of our eleventh season of the Spurs Odyssey Quiz League, and the question is:
Who won one Scottish amateur and one professional international cap, played for Spurs and Arsenal and against which team did he score a crucial FA Cup final goal at Wembley?
Please email your answer to me at soqleague@gmail.com and make the subject heading Quiz Week 29. Deadline: midnight this Friday. I will do my best to respond to all who take part. There are around 60 out there within shooting distance of the SOQL title. You will soon hate me. What fun!
The rules are the same as in the previous ten 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 year's main prize will be a framed certificate announcing the winner as SOQL champion 2025, plus three signed books to be revealed at a later date.
Last week's question: Who has won four international caps, wears the number 15 Spurs shirt and against which team did he score his first goal for Tottenham in January?
Answer: Lucas Bergvall/Liverpool
See you back here on Monday. COYS!
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