View from the Lane

p36

 By Nick Griffths

When View from the Lane last appeared, Spurs were still in the Carling Cup. Then we took on Liverpool's third team, performed with all the commitment of Prince Charles during the Di days, and went out on penalties. After the game, myself and what few friends I have hit the Two Brewers and attempted to drink each other's lifeblood. 'Demoralised' does not do the mood justice.

Now look at us. A side that included outcasts such as Pamarot and Mendes - compare that to last season when our incasts included Gary Doherty - tonked Forest 3-0 on their (iffy) turf, playing some of our season's most confident football. We were in the quarter finals of the FA Cup, facing a Newcastle side that matches us for inconsistency.

And Martin Jol was being lined up as manager of Ajax. Spurs? Bathroom disinfectant cleaner? Spurs? Bathroom disinfectant cleaner? Jol faced a tough decision. If he deserts us, he's not the man we believe him to be, although the Ajax job went to Danny Blind. But what has he achieved? Plenty and nothing.

Twenty buys and one loan deal since last July, including seven new signings this January - the side is largely rebuilt. Mido's eager, strong and lovely. Carrick will soon battle Davis for his place, which beats Redknapp battling Anderton for his place. Brown has improved vastly under Jol and Davies is returning to form. Ziegler, who needs experience, provides left-side hope, as does Andy Reid (although, watching Reid's debut, I worried that he might knock himself out on one of his own bouncing man-breasts).

The strikers all take turns playing supersub, given our sudden surfeit, and often it results in late goals. In defence, King and Robinson, rare blunders aside, have been superb, aided by the ever-solid but twilight-yeared Naybet and young Kelly who's finding his feet. 

My single team-choice beef with Jol is over Atouba. The Cameroonian may have the toes of Tinkerbell but his distribution can be wayward and defending is heart-in-mouth. Play Edman!

Prospects, healthy. What of the results? Since last quarter: WWWWD WDLLL WW. Ride them in a car and you'd start feeling sick. So often we control a game, yet manage all the penetration of John Wayne Bobbit pre-op.

Equally can our commitment be called into question - there are times when we just don't seem to want it badly enough. That's not an accusation you could throw at one of Alex Ferguson's sides, despite its millionaires, so perhaps Jol's just too easy-going. Everyone seems to like him, even people in Holland.

The manager's job has only just started. Jol didn't go to Ajax, because he knows there is still everything to prove. Spurs is his baby and we trust him implic. Hang on, we've just bloody lost at Southampton. 

And we've just gone out of the FA Cup - but with a performance so spirited, so controlled, so dominant, so passionate, that we wept for all the right reasons at the end. Put that lifeblood on hold, barkeep.

Babies take small steps, and they sometimes soil the carpet, but if proof were ever needed that Martin Jol can do something with this side, there it was. (PS: was I right about Atouba, or what?).