SUIYHA
Scott Parker
Enjoyed the season a lot. I remember going to the game with Porto in pre-season where Davids made his debut on a hot sunny afternoon and Defoe scored two stunning goals. We'd had some big changes the year before, with Santini coming in and a load of new signings, but I remember the buzz and sense of excitement around the place, it was unreal. We'd won the Peace Cup by beating Lyon 3-0 earlier in pre-season, then two weeks after Porto, we played our first home game of the season and beat Middlesbrough 2-0 with Defoe again scoring a stunning goal, to send us top of the league for the first time in years. The comeback from 2-0 down against Charlton, the Jenas free-kick against Man Utd to win us a deserved point at Old Trafford, Keane's goal against Blackburn and Lennon's late winner against Bolton in the penultimate week of the season were the other major highlights for me. What I also really liked about the season was Jol - an extremely well liked and respected man not only within the club but throughout the league, getting his team performing well and having a strong affinity with the fans.
The two NLDs against Arsenal were both excellent performances too, we were desperately unlucky not to win at home but Robinson made a big mistake to punch the ball to Pires, then in the away game which was TheBiggestNLDinYears™ we broke a habit of rolling over and dying at Highbury and actually took the game to Arsenal on their own patch. It's one of my biggest regrets at a Spurs fan that we weren't able to hang on for 10 more minutes to win that game as we'd surely have got Champions League football and probably been able to field Carrick and Berbatov in the same side, whereas Arsenal would have moved into their new stadium with all that debt and without the previously guaranteed Champions League revenue - Henry would have left a year earlier before RVP and Adebayor were ready to step up and replace him...could have all been different over the last few years.
However, I would not put the 05-06 season as one of my favourites (09/10, 10/11, 06/07 and 11/12 all definitely rank above it for me, I have more great memories from 07/08 too even though we were brick for long periods of it). Here's the reasons why:
Poor style of football - The success of the 05-06 season was our defence. King, Dawson and Robinson were all outstanding, and with Carrick's good positional sense and the industry of Davids, Tainio and Jenas, we were very tough to break down and conceded only 38 league goals, which is still our lowest figure since 1971. However, solid as we were, there was a major lack of creativity and flair in the side. Too often Carrick and Jenas would pass the ball sideways. Too often we'd resort to Robinson and Dawson trying to hoof the ball the length of the pitch for Mido to try and head it down. 53 league goals was a better return than any of the previous for years, but we'd scored more than that under Graham once and we have beaten that tally in every season since, with the exception of the 08/09 season where we in the relegation zone half-way through the season.
We were flat track bullies - We became very consistent at beating teams weaker than us, particularly at White Hart Lane. That was great to see, but think of your favourite memories as a Spurs fan and I bet most of them involve beating big teams in big games. There was none of that in the 05-06 season. Comebacks against the likes of Charlton are all well and good, but there were no wins against the then "big four", and the highest placed team we beat away from home was Wigan, who came 10th.
No maulings - Every now and again, it's great fun to watch Spurs absolutely batter somebody, even if it's against relatively weak opposition. There was none of that in the 05-06 season. Our biggest win of the season was 3-1 against Pompey and Charlton, and we never scored more than 3 goals in a game, probably the only season I can remember where we haven't. If we're not beating the big boys, at least let's thrash the smaller teams from time to time.
An unhappy ending - Like I said before, if we'd beaten Arsenal in the last game at Highbury we'd have almost certainly got top 4. I really regret not winning that game, as it was not only the last derby at Highbury but also it meant that the likes of Henry, Pires, Ljungberg, Cole and Campbell (until he went back there) left Arsenal not only never having finished behind us, but never having even lost to us. Then of course, there was lasagnegate and the heartbreak that went with it. Arsenal and West Ham got their come uppance over the next couple of weeks by throwing away victories in the dying minutes in their cup finals, but it was still a sad end to what had been an enjoyable season.
The two NLDs against Arsenal were both excellent performances too, we were desperately unlucky not to win at home but Robinson made a big mistake to punch the ball to Pires, then in the away game which was TheBiggestNLDinYears™ we broke a habit of rolling over and dying at Highbury and actually took the game to Arsenal on their own patch. It's one of my biggest regrets at a Spurs fan that we weren't able to hang on for 10 more minutes to win that game as we'd surely have got Champions League football and probably been able to field Carrick and Berbatov in the same side, whereas Arsenal would have moved into their new stadium with all that debt and without the previously guaranteed Champions League revenue - Henry would have left a year earlier before RVP and Adebayor were ready to step up and replace him...could have all been different over the last few years.
However, I would not put the 05-06 season as one of my favourites (09/10, 10/11, 06/07 and 11/12 all definitely rank above it for me, I have more great memories from 07/08 too even though we were brick for long periods of it). Here's the reasons why:
Poor style of football - The success of the 05-06 season was our defence. King, Dawson and Robinson were all outstanding, and with Carrick's good positional sense and the industry of Davids, Tainio and Jenas, we were very tough to break down and conceded only 38 league goals, which is still our lowest figure since 1971. However, solid as we were, there was a major lack of creativity and flair in the side. Too often Carrick and Jenas would pass the ball sideways. Too often we'd resort to Robinson and Dawson trying to hoof the ball the length of the pitch for Mido to try and head it down. 53 league goals was a better return than any of the previous for years, but we'd scored more than that under Graham once and we have beaten that tally in every season since, with the exception of the 08/09 season where we in the relegation zone half-way through the season.
We were flat track bullies - We became very consistent at beating teams weaker than us, particularly at White Hart Lane. That was great to see, but think of your favourite memories as a Spurs fan and I bet most of them involve beating big teams in big games. There was none of that in the 05-06 season. Comebacks against the likes of Charlton are all well and good, but there were no wins against the then "big four", and the highest placed team we beat away from home was Wigan, who came 10th.
No maulings - Every now and again, it's great fun to watch Spurs absolutely batter somebody, even if it's against relatively weak opposition. There was none of that in the 05-06 season. Our biggest win of the season was 3-1 against Pompey and Charlton, and we never scored more than 3 goals in a game, probably the only season I can remember where we haven't. If we're not beating the big boys, at least let's thrash the smaller teams from time to time.
An unhappy ending - Like I said before, if we'd beaten Arsenal in the last game at Highbury we'd have almost certainly got top 4. I really regret not winning that game, as it was not only the last derby at Highbury but also it meant that the likes of Henry, Pires, Ljungberg, Cole and Campbell (until he went back there) left Arsenal not only never having finished behind us, but never having even lost to us. Then of course, there was lasagnegate and the heartbreak that went with it. Arsenal and West Ham got their come uppance over the next couple of weeks by throwing away victories in the dying minutes in their cup finals, but it was still a sad end to what had been an enjoyable season.
