NORMAN GILLER'S SPURS ODYSSEY BLOG No 444
Submitted by Norman Giller

As I was saying before we were interrupted by a season masquerading as the summer, will Harry Kane stay or will he go? We're still not sure but let me repeat what I said during an interview on TalkSport a few weeks ago:

"I predict that Harry Kane will stay at Tottenham. Then, when his contract is up next year and he's a free agent, it will be Spurs who will lead the bidding to buy him (and all the money will go into Harry's bin)."

We should at last know what's happening this week, with a "final" 86 million pound offer from Bayern Munich sitting on the table and Harry basking in yesterday's four-goal harvest against Ukrainians Shakhtar Donetsk.

Harry's prolonged lap of the pitch at the end had the pessimists among us worrying that it was a farewell gesture. The eternal optimists - I am on their side - believe he was saying 'thank you' to everybody for their support. Naive, moi?

Since we were last all here in our Spurs Odyssey haven, Spurs have welcomed a new manager in the rather large, happy and confident shape of Ange Postecoglou, Despite some people writing him off before a ball had been kicked, he has come to Tottenham on a whirlwind of hope.

I have a good feeling in my old bones about Angelos (it's such a great name, why shorten it?), and am confident he will get Spurs back playing on the front foot and with the sort of free-flowing football that is Tottenham's proudly held tradition. That was certainly the way they played against Shakhtar, as reported HERE by our guru Paul H. Smith.

One familiar and distinctive face missing among the enormous (for a friendly) crowd of 56,331 was that of chairman Daniel Levy, who by all accounts was not taking calls from Bayern while on holiday in the USA.

Those noisy critics of Levy can say what they like but surely cannot deny the man has - a good old Yiddish word - chutzpah. Can he really say 'nein' to a hundred million Euros? To anybody from my old git generation who remembers the controversy when Bill Nicholson paid a record 125,000 pounds for Martin Chivers it really is just mind-blowing (the Chivers deal included Frank Saul as a makeweight),.

Just to remind you, Tottenham go into the new season under the Postecoglou banner with the exceptionally gifted James Maddison on board, along with Guglielmo Vicario, Ashley Phillips, Manor Solomon and the now permanent Pedro Porro and Dejan Kulusevski. There is also Alejo Veliz and Micky van de Ven on their way.

Of course, we will decide whether it has been a good close season on the buying and selling front depending on if Harry - captain yesterday - remains a Lilywhite. Should he go, he owes Tottenham nothing, and we must all feel privileged that we saw him perform at his peak.

But I am (with fingers crossed) backing him to stay and produce many more pulsating performances like yesterday's blitz against Shakhtar Donetsk.

We all have an interesting journey ahead, starting with the friendly at Barcelona tomorrow - and both Paul Smith and I hope you will stay with us on what is certain to be a compelling Spurs Odyssey.

Please, let's ALL get behind Angelos and his boys and not in their way. This is a mantra I will keep repeating while there is a faction continually moaning and groaning. COYS!

IT WAS my pleasure to present David Guthrie - for the third time - with his framed Spurs Odyssey Quiz League champion's certificate. So as to give everybody else a chance, this staggeringly well informed Spurs historian has agreed to stand down and just watch the rest of you wrestling with my weekly Tottenham teaser.

Well done, King David. And thanks for the dedication, concentration and knowledge you have brought to our Tottenham community.

So here we go with week one of season nine of the Spurs Odyssey Quiz League challenge, and the question is:

Who won 17 international caps, was a League Cup winner with Spurs wearing the No 14 shirt, and which manager bought him from Newcastle United?

Please email your answer to me at soqleague@gmail.com and make the subject heading Quiz Week 1. Deadline: midnight this Friday. I will do my best to respond to all who take part.

The rules are the same as in the previous eight seasons. I ask a two-pronged question with three points at stake - two for identifying the player and one for the supplementary question. In the closing weeks of the competition I break the logjam of all-knowing Spurs-history experts with a tie-breaking poser that is based on opinion rather than fact. That's when I become as popular as Sol Campbell in an Arsenal shirt.

This year's main prize will be a framed certificate announcing the winner as SOQL champion 2024, plus three signed books to be revealed at a later date.

I am putting the finishing touches to a book on The G-men, Jimmy Greaves and Alan Gilzean. You can order the book and have published any memory you have of the deadly duo here: www.normangillerbooks.com.

See you back here same time, same place on Monday. COYS!

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