A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine posted a harsh but fair comment on my facebook wall:

A young boy goes to social services and tells them he has nowhere to live. “What about your parents?” asks the social worker. “No, they beat me,” says the boy. “What about your grandparents?” says the social worker. “No, they beat me even harder!” says the boy. “Well … where do you want to stay then?” replies the social worker. “… Tottenham,” says the boy. “They don’t beat anyone.”

It’s true. Spurs haven’t had the best start to the season. In fact in their proud 125 year history this is officially the worst start that we’ve ever had. From eight games we’ve only drawn two, and sitting on the bottom of the ladder and looking up our prospects are grim considering that we’ve  played most of the poorer sides in the competition already.

Naturally, being Spurs and all, there’s been drama. Predictably, the pre-season was amazing, we performed extraordinarily against underperforming teams in other leagues, we cleaned out much of the dead-wood players and placed them with high profile (and high transfer fee) players from other countries aspiring to the mid-table heights that Tottenham have soared to.

Similarly predictable was the crash of expectation at the beginning of the season. But who’d have thought that the crash would have been so spectacular. Spurs were rated by many as having their best chance this season of breaking into the top-four, or at least coming fifth. But the result? Dead bottom.

Certainly, Spurs have had a reputation for entertaining football and so on Saturday what was lacking on the field was taken up by director Daniel Levy. He cleaned out the management, sacking the coach, assistant coach, fitness coach and sporting director. So Spurs are back in the news again! And I’d like to say that I rally around Daniel Levy’s courage in doing this, making sacrifices where they need to be made but this is the third time the manager has been sacked in 5 seasons.

As it turns out however, Totteham Hotspur actually notched up their first win of the season on the weekend against Bolton. Only a week ago we lost any credibility by losing to Stoke at home with a player concussed and two players sent off. But a new manager, Harry Redknapp (famous in England for his ability to walk on water, turn water into wine and save desperate teams from relegation) wandered over to the hotel on the same day that the old coach was sacked and handed the team an ultimatum. Redknapp has done it again, he fed 30, 000 in White Heart Lane with a meal that hadn’t had for a long time. 

What can we expect from the future?

(Dan 12:2ff) Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, and some to shame and eternal contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the bright expanse |of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

(apologies, getting a little excited in my conflated readings of moltmann and spurscommunity)