Spurs’ sense of identity has been lost — fans must be given a reason to believe
Walking through the turnstiles of White Hart Lane in the 1980s gave me some of the most poignant memories I have. With my dad by my side and surrounded by a sea of chanting fans in lilywhite and navy, the sense of pride and belonging, and the adrenaline rush that came from watching Villa, Ardiles, Hoddle and all, was like no other.
This was Saturday afternoon working-class culture writ large. We may not have looked like most of the faithful in that old stadium but for 90 minutes, nothing else mattered. We were all one family. We were all Tottenham Hotspur.
Sure, to stave off doubts of alienation, it helped to have players like Chris Hughton and Garth Crooks carving out a future for black players in the game. They were trailblazers who showed boys like me that the colour of your skin didn’t have to hold you back. In the days before the Broadwater Farm riots of 1985, football offered a vital escape from the racial tensions plaguing our community.
In a sense, it was paradoxical: on one level, we were a minority on the edge of Britain — forgotten and marginalised. On another, fuelled by our delirious hopes for Spurs, we lived in ecstasy. Football gave us a belief in something bigger than ourselves. But today, that belief feels lost. As a club in transition, we have become amorphous in our identity.
Daniel Levy became Spurs’ chairman in 2001 — a year after I became Tottenham’s Member of Parliament. Though clearly more passionate about football than his predecessor, Alan Sugar, he has always been a contentious figure. In 2010, when the club was on the verge of relocating to Stratford, I did everything in my power to stop it. For Tottenham to leave N17 would have been a travesty for our community.
Off the pitch, the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation has been instrumental in supporting disadvantaged children. In areas where material deprivation is rife, the work of the Foundation truly matters. The new stadium has been monumental, turning Tottenham into a global destination with a strong financial footing. Consequently, since Mauricio Pochettino left in 2019, only three other clubs have maintained a higher net spend. But while these changes have been transformational, they have not come without consequence.
Just take the naming of the “new” stadium. Despite being built on the exact site of the near 120-year-old White Hart Lane ground, it’s now called “Tottenham Hotspur Stadium” — a name so generic it sounds like something from a video game. Fans still call it “The Lane” because history matters. History is identity. Our golden era was defined by high-octane football. The philosophy of Bill Nicholson — the architect of the 1960-61 league and FA Cup double (the first of its kind) — still courses through the club’s veins. It pains me to say that this culture of bravery has started to crack.
A litany of managers has come and gone. Since I became MP for Tottenham, we have had 14 “gaffers”. In that time, our home advantage has disintegrated; the players have lost their tenacity. We are struggling to project an identity befitting a team that was once home to Glenn Hoddle and Gary Mabbutt — players who knew what it meant to “play for the badge”. They understood the “Tottenham way” — the football I relished as a nine-year-old watching Steve Perryman lift the FA Cup in 1981. They were leaders. They are living legends.
It would be wrong to blame individuals; too many pundits do that already. The current performance reflects a crisis of belief. It is up to the leadership to restore a sense of meaning and purpose to fans who feel less at home in their own stadium and more like “customers”.
The truth is, Spurs have won the sixth-most competitive honours of any club in England and Wales. Our players used to form the spine of the England team. We know how to win; it is in our folklore.
We must rekindle that spirit and fight back against this culture of underachievement, corporatism and cynicism. In the wake of recent departures, a reset is required. We need accountability and, most crucially, a manager who understands what Tottenham means to the people of N17 and beyond.
We need calm, clear thinking to avoid a fate we have not had to reckon with for nearly 50 years: relegation from top-flight football. Spurs are one of just six clubs to have never fallen out of the Premier League since its formation in 1992 — yet we are on the brink of the unthinkable. We have to get behind this team.
It is time to recover the chutzpah with which so many legends have graced our turf. It is time to relearn the spirit of Greavsie, the tenacity of Ledley and the magic of Hoddle and get back to winning ways. We can do this. The performance at Anfield is proof of that. But we must dig deeper than ever. So I will be there on Sunday, keeping the faith. I hope you will be, too.
