NORMAN GILLER'S SPURS ODYSSEY BLOG No 446
Submitted by Norman Giller

I wonder how long I can go without mentioning the wonderful Lionesses (oh, failed already)... while still walking on air over the performance of Spurs in their 2-0 dismantling of Manchester United. It was like taking a journey back in time as we watched front-foot football that has always been part of our DNA. Back to the Future with Postecoglou?

'Angeball' is alive and kicking at Tottenham as the affable Aussie slips comfortably into his challenging role, and the smiles lighting up the Tottenham Hotspur stadium spoke volumes of his instant impact. Personality wise, it's like having the jolly Martin Jol back.

It was not so much the victory that pleased us all as the manner in which it was achieved. Some of the passing movements were right out of the old Spurs manual, and it was almost as if we were enjoying the Total football with which Ajax revolutionised the game in the 1970s.

A quick history lesson: Tottenham centre-half turned coach Arthur Rowe took Peter McWilliam's Scottish 'fitba on the floor' game to Hungary, where it was later developed by the likes of Puskas and Koscis with the Magical Magyars. Arthur then returned to Spurs via Chelmsford and introduced his stunningly simple push and run theory, capturing the League crown in 1950-51 (facts all beautifully captured in Norman Turpin's biography of Rowe, available on Amazon).

Vic Buckingham, one of Arthur's early Tottenham disciples, then took the pollen and spread it at Ajax where it was given the kick of a life by a young genius called Johan Cryuff. Meantime, Ferenc Puskas had retired from playing wondrous football alongside the maestro Alfredo Di Sefano for Real Madrid and during his travels as a coach dropped off in Australia. There his 'fitba on the floor' philosophy was eaten up by one of his adoring pupils, one Angelos Postecoglou. He was the Hungarian's captain at South Melbourne and they used to converse in Greek. Puskas encouraged him to play the give-it-and-go way.

So now we have completed the circle, with football - in the shape of 'Angeball' - coming home to Tottenham.

Hope I've not bored you, but that is a potted history of Tottenham's Beautiful Game, interrupted by the negativity and fear football of Mourinho and Conte. They often win trophies but not with the style and panache of a Rowe or a Nicholson, who learned his early football under McWilliam and flourished it with his Double team.

I can be accused of getting carried away on the evidence of one performance, but the fact is I have been optimistic ever since Ange was appointed by Daniel Levy - 'taking the cheap option of somebody who has won things in the farmer's league,' Levy's detractors claimed.

Well, I have good old friends in Glasgow who told me his football with Celtic -where he won the Treble -was a delight to the eye, and always played on the front foot and with 'floor fitba' as in the glory days of Jock Stein's magnificent flowing machine of the 1960s.

My Spurs Odyssey team-mate Declan Mulcahy gives his eyewitness view of the win against Man United HERE, and he shares my view that Ange is already producing football that Spurs supporters want to see. It's football based on the three Ps: positivity, positivity, positivity.

And we've still got the gifted Bentancur to return after his injury. There's also room for a striker in the mould of, uh, Harry Kane. Let's see what Tottenham do with that 100 million pound Bayern Munich windfall.

I just hope we are all as buoyant and bullish after Saturday's visit to Bournemouth.

So I've got this far without a nod to the Lionesses, who went so close to lifting the World Cup. In our disappointment, let's not forget what they have done for women's football (the manufacturers are ecstatic). Many girls will now be asking for a football and boots in their Christmas stocking instead of a Barbie Doll.

Wonder if I can interest them in the story of The G-Men, Jimmy Greaves and Alan Gilzean? You can order it now at www.normangillerbooks.com Go on, you know you want it :-)

COYS!

Week three of season nine of the Spurs Odyssey Quiz League challenge, and the question is:

Who won 35 international caps, collected an FA Cup winners' medal with Spurs, captained a runners-up team at Wembley, and against which team did he play his last World Cup finals match in Leon?

Please email your answer to me at soqleague@gmail.com and make the subject heading Quiz Week 3. 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. We have retired the omniscient David Guthrie after his three victories.

Last week's question:

Which Swedish-born defender started his football career in South Africa, won 61 international caps, and who was White Hart Lane manager when he captained Spurs in an FA Cup final?

Answer: Richard Gough and David Pleat.

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

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