Having only been alive for 23 of the club's 125 years, I've experienced very little of my beloved team's glorious achievements. For the vast majority of my youth the club struggled in the bottom half of the Premier League and were the butt of many jokes as fans harked on about the glory days, of European adventures and league and cup doubles. False dawn preceeded false dawn as those in charge of the club attempted to thrust Spurs back into the big time but very little progress was made. Sure there were periodic cup runs and we even won the League Cup (my only taste of palpable success as a fan) but every step forward was quickly followed several steps back as the club sold good players and replaced them with average ones and cycled through managers with wild abandon. Over the past two years, however, the winds have changed and two full seasons under the previously unknown Martin Jol have catapulted the club back to where the fans think the club belongs - competing in European football and challenging the biggest clubs in the country.
It is somewhat fitting our tumultuous recent history, then, that the celebration of our 125th anniversary should come at a time when the future of the current manager, the man who gave us cause to hope, should be so lodged in the minds of everyone involved with the club. Martin Jol prepares for a match once more tonight knowing the firing squad at White Hart Lane is just a few steps round the corner and with some, such as those at The Guardian have moving to label Jol a 'caretaker manager', a husk of a coach who simply resides in the Tottenham hot-seat because the board cannot attract their desired replacement, as all the while Jol keeps the seat warm for his successor. There seems, as was admitted by Daniel Levy himself recently, an element of truth in this description but Jol also knows that a turnaround in fortunes akin to the kind he manufactured last season would almost certainly save his job and prove his doubters wrong. I for one hope tonight's celebrations give cause for Levy and the board to put the current situation into perspective and to fully back a manager who has unarguably made significant progress in the past three seasons.
Despite residing in 18th position in the league I doubt even Jol's most vitriolic detractors would claim we have been playing spectacularly badly. in fact, as the Carling Cup victory against Middlesborough demonstrated last week, we seem to be just a little bit more composure in front of goal away from picking up vital victories, particularly at home. Tonight Jol faces a promising Aston Villa side with European ambitions of their own but Jol will be buoyed by no new injury worries to contend with.
As it so happens tonights anniversary celebrations are particularly important to me as they come on a fixture that I hotly anticipate ever since I managed to find myself living with two die hard Aston Villa fans during my time university. It's been a rivalry that gave birth to admiration, and I've always kept an eye out for Villa's results come the weekend and have admired the way in which Martin O'Neil has quietly gone about constructing a solid team with an edge of flair with an exciting English quality. The presence of a large amount of talented English players is where I see Villa as very similar to Tottenham and for me the success of both teams is important, almost critically so, to the future development of the England team . The presence of players like Aaron Lennon, Michael Dawson, Ashley Young and Gabriel Abonglahor, as well as slightly older hands such as Paul Robinson and Gareth Barry should really ensure that tonights fixture is one keenly watched not only by Steve McClaren but anyone who is a fan of English football in general.
The match itself should be a very interesting contest. Though player by player I believe we have the stronger team and squad, Villa's wide players will pose our full backs some testing questions. Gareth Barry is a player I have long admired and if truth be told a midfielder who I would love to see playing in Tottenham's colours but at the moment he's experiencing something of a renaissance for club and country and it's likely Martin O'Neil would be loathe to depart with a player who is just a few more impressive performances away from being a serious contender for a regular place in the England side. Once again much will depend on how we defend, for at times we were slack against Middlesbrough despite being comfortably in control. It's a game I believe we should be adventurous in and one we should really be winning, particularly given the circumstances.
Prediction - Tottenham 2 Aston Villa 1 - I really do feel we're in for an exciting game this evening. The players should be encouraged to put on a performance by the occasion and with both sides including some exciting young players, it should be a very interesting game. Gareth Bale should start and his guile and crossing ability could be key but the likes of Robbie Keane and especially Dimitar Berbatov will be expected to perform considerably better than of late. I'd also like to see less of the fickleness that left a sour taste after the Middlesborough game as fans proceeded to boo Martin Jol for taking off Jermain Defoe and bringing on Robbie Keane only for the same fans to cheer Jol's name as Keane went on to set up the first goal just moments later. I don't agree with how Jol is treating Defoe but the change was a legitimate one at that stage of the game. At least leave criticising the decision so publicly till after the game once we know the move has or hasn't paid off. Hopefully certain sections of the fans will be on their best behaviour, helping to ensure the occasion is marked with the sort of atmosphere, and then performance, it deserves.