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The mighty mid-tablers
• How I enjoyed reading the transcript of Simon Charterton’s stand-up routine (The People’s Perch, April 11). It was the sort of material one might have enjoyed watching on Sunday night at the London Palladium on an old black-and-white television back in 1961, just after seeing Tottenham win the league.
It had all the golden oldies: the Woolwich Chestnut (chuckle), the nugget about the Carling Cup being more than a way for mid-table teams to get into Europe (guffaw) and the old “Stylish Spurs” punchline (titter).
He forgot to include any new material, such as the certainty that Spurs always finish below Arsenal in the league, and that they don't qualify for the Champions League.
Mr Charterton seems fond of historical anecdotes so he might like to bring in a real historian as a ghost writer so he could be reminded of the team that ground out victories, of Brady and Rix who put five past Spurs’ first team at White Hart Lane, or the “efficient” Arsenal team of George Graham that, thrillingly, won the title at Anfield.
Mr Charterton wonders if Arsenal fans have enjoyed watching Arsenal win 11 league titles more than Spurs, two Doubles more than Spurs, 2 FA Cups more and finishing higher than Spurs year in year out? Have a guess what the punch line to that is.
The real humour was in the fact that Spurs fans need to nail their colours to the mast of any team that plays Arsenal. I suppose it gives them some enjoyment in a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses kind of way.
What would one expect from a club whose own rebranding exercise has resulted in a small, mid-table, bitter club that won’t acknowledge its rivals are Middlesbrough and Fulham, not Arsenal.
James Jalloh
N1
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