No league title in 57 seasons
No FA Cup success in 27 seasons
Over a decade without any sort of trophy
Tottenham’s continual portal of themselves as one of English footballs elite clubs is no more than a fraudulent claim.
They are an average sized club who have not seen any real success for decades. 2 League Cups 27 years is not the sign of a successful, elite club.
The media continually use the phrase Big 6 to describe Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham. It is supposed to be an all encompassing phrase, grouping the teams as one, raising them above anything else in English football.
But the phrase is odd, because why are Tottenham actually in the Big 6?
They have no recent success whatsoever to boast about. They are the only side in Big 6 to have not won a trophy in the last decade. The fact that the media highlight the likes of Arsenal for not winning trophies, but defend Spurs lack of silverware shows that they do not see Arsenal and Tottenham as equals.
When it comes to league titles, Tottenham are 15th in the list of most wins. They are behind the likes of Everton, Aston Villa, Sunderland, Newcastle, Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds, Wolves, Huddersfield and Blackburn.
The year before their second and last league title, Burnley won their second title. The year before that, Wolves won their 3rd.
Currently they sit on the same amount of league titles as Preston North End, Derby, Burnley and Portsmouth.
And yet they position themselves as equals to Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool – who have 51 league titles between them; and Manchester City and Chelsea who have won 8 of the last 14.
They have neither of the historic success, or recent success, to call themselves an elite club.
But they have finished top 6 consistently over the last 10 years. Well done. But just because you finish in the top 6, does not put you on par with the other 5 sides.
We have already seen how far they lag behind in terms of silverware, but lets also look at the other barometer of success the media often use. Finishing top 4 and making the Champions League.
Tottenham have qualified for the Champions League just 4 times in their history. This weeks victory over Inter Milan means they have now won as many Champions League games as Nicklas Bendtner.
What they are doing now – being also ran’s in the league, not winning any trophies; is not more than what Newcastle achieved in the 90s or Leeds in the 00s.
They talk a good game do Tottenham. They have the 62,000 stadium, deliberately built a couple of hundred seats bigger than Arsenal’s. As if that then made them a bigger club than Arsenal. They talk about setting attendance records at Wembley and putting the pressure on Chelsea. They will probably try and claim Harry Redknapp’s success in the jungle as their own. But the reality is, they are not one of England’s elite sides.
Since their last trophy – the 2008 League Cup – the likes of Swansea City, Wigan Athletic, Birmingham City, Portsmouth and Leicester City have won trophies.
Since 1961, Ipswich Town, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Leeds United, Arsenal, Derby County, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea and Leicester have all been crowned England’s best team.
For Tottenham to put themselves (or be put their by the media) on par with teams who have consistently won trophies – either historically or recently – is just fraudulent.
A final thought.
A Spurs on Twitter said to me that the sign of success is consistently winning trophies, and that Arsenal winning 3 FA Cups in the last 5 years was not consistent success.
You have to go back to the 1960s to find a 5 year period of success when Tottenham won more than 3 trophies (4 trophies won in the early 60s). So by their own fans admission, Tottenham have only ever had one period of success in their history.
They are not one of England’s elite clubs. A complete lack of success this century. They are not a Big 6, they are simply currently best of the rest. The team performing the best out of all the mid size clubs in English football (likes of Aston Villa, Everton, Newcastle, Leeds).
It should be of no surprise that they think highly of themselves and are deluded.
They mocked Arsene Wenger, despite him winning more during his “downfall” that Spurs have won in 27 years. They acted like finishing above their rivals twice in a quarter of a century meant anything more than a temporary blip.
With an over budget, delayed stadium, it would not surprise me to see Tottenham return to the mid-table mediocrity that has defined their last 50 years.
Tottenham – try and win a trophy before you consider yourself on par with England’s most successful clubs.
Keenos
Follow @KeenosAFC
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 