NORMAN GILLER'S SPURS ODYSSEY BLOG No 561
Submitted by Norman Giller

It's sarcastic song time again, friends and fellow mourners. This week, following on from Passing Strangers and Things Can Only Get Better we have, fittingly, A Long And Winding Road, the Beatles classic that leads us to Anfield tomorrow for League Cup action and probable elimination.

Who honestly thought we would be going into our fifth game of the season without having smelt a Premier League victory and; even more worryingly, seeing a single league goal?

Spurs Odyssey readers will remember what a goal looks like, the sort of thing Harry Kane and Jimmy Greaves used to serve up by the bucketload.

But that was, as another song goes, long ago and far away. Hands up who is confident that Spurs will end their goal and victory drought tomorrow at Anfield, which has been as welcoming across the decades as a cemetery. As I thought, not a single hand raised among long-suffering Spurs Odyssey readers.

Spurs, of course, managed five goals against the kids of Charlton in the previous League Cup round, but as was underlined on Saturday remain constipated in the Premier League. It's our guru Paul H. Smith who got the short straw and reports HERE on the goalless bore draw with Everton.

Those of us with well preserved memories (a long and often glorious winding road ago) will recall Bill Nicholson's debut match as manager when Spurs walloped Everton - yes, Everton - 10-4. Those were the days, my friends (with a nod in the direction of Mary Hopkin and Sir Paul McCartney).

Now the scorching spotlight will be turned on Tottenham's excitable manager Roberto De Zerbi, who has spent record amounts of club money on players who so far just cannot get it together. Yes, Passing Strangers.

If I were in Roberto's shoes I'd walk with a limp, they're a size too small (copyright Eric Morecambe, 1977) ... if I were Roberto, I'd give the social media comment sections a miss.

He is being torn apart, his army of critics noticing he was even more wide eyed and wild eyed than usual on Saturday. I wonder what was actually churning in his head as the final whistle signalled another blank check out?

I just hope for all our sakes - particularly Roberto's - that things start clicking soon. The only click he would have heard in Daniel Levy's day is that of an unlocking of a stiletto.

We can't expect Liverpool to be as charitable as Charlton tomorrow; and the statisticians will be licking their lips at the prospect of yet another Spurs match without a goal. I have trailed through all my records and struggle to find a sterile start to a season to match it.

Gissa goal (with a bow to Scouse "Boys from the Black Stuff" creator Alan Bleasdale). Things have rarely been blacker for Spurs. Let's join hands and sing an appropriate Beatles hit ... HELP!

COYS!

I was astounded recently to find a group of 20-something Spurs fans who had never heard of mighty Bobby Smith. He was the striker who cracked in 208 goals for Tottenham, a club record until overtaken by Jimmy Greaves and then Harry Kane.

It has moved me to give away a digitised version of my Bobby Smith, Forgotten Hero book. It is an unbelievable story that you couldn't make up. We can't have him being lost to the modern generation who seem to think football started with the Premier League.

So watch your email boxes as I spread the word. And if you or a friend has memories of the historic Double season of 1960-61 please share them with me by sending an email to normangiller@gmail.com.

Let's do it at the Double.

Here we go with the fifth week of our quiz that tests your knowledge of Tottenham players and the club's history.

Who won five caps for England, collected an FA Cup winners' medal with Spurs as a sub and which Tottenham manager signed him from Liverpool?

Email your answer to me at soqleague@gmail.com and make the subject heading Quiz Week 5. Deadline: mid-night this Saturday. I will do my best to respond to all who take part. Answer in next week's Blog here at Spurs Odyssey.

The rules are the same as in the previous 12 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 ex-perts with a real stinker of a tie-breaking poser that is based on opinion rather than fact. This is when I lose what few friends I have.

This season's main prize will be a framed certificate announcing the winner as SOQL champion 2027, plus three signed books to be revealed at a later date.

Last week: Which White Hart Lane legend wore the No 3 Spurs shirt, was a Double winner in 1961 and against which nation did he win his one and only England cap?

Answer: Ron Henry/France.

See you back here next week, same time, same place after the Villa game.