My love of Spurs is very well documented in the pages of my photo diary. As I’ve said before, ‘I’m Tottenham till I die’.

It won’t have gone unnoticed to the many UK based PBASE viewers that we’ve (Spurs) been through a spot of bother again recently and I must confess to feeling a bit gloomy about it. DM thinks I’m being uncharitable but that’s how I feel nonetheless. Today the club has announced our new Manager, which in itself is a good thing. Last season when we fired our manager we couldn’t get our act together to find a new one for nine miserable months and the club was happy to see David Pleat in charge for that time. (Which in itself baffled me.)

I feel fully entitled to refer to the club as ‘we’ because I own a small part of the club (I’m a shareholder) and I have also invested huge sums of money over the years in season tickets and match tickets, not to mention the merchandise, drinks, food and other stuff I’ve spent money on at the stadium on match days.

Our new ‘King’ is Martin Jol, a Dutch man who came to the club with Frank Arnesen in the summer. Last time we recruited an unknown manager from another country it was an unmitigated disaster (Christian Gross) so I sincerely hope this is a better appointment than that. Heavens, if we can’t even get it right when we appoint the French National Coach, I have little faith that this appointment will be any better.

I’m not sure why I get a bad feeling about this – maybe it’s the confident claims of knowing the club’s heritage and knowing the players. I find all of that a bit difficult to believe when he’s been around all of five minutes in the grand scheme of things. He certainly didn’t demonstrate any ability to motivate the team on Saturday. That was done by Carrick and the fans…….and it all came too late in the day to save us from humiliation.

There is no doubting the ability of many of our players – I do believe they are world class. What I’m not sure about is why they don’t seem to be able to play as a team. Every bit of my management skill and know-how (albeit in a completely different environment) says that if you can breathe team spirit into gifted people, then you can make 2+2=5 or even 6. Somehow it never quite comes across that the team are fighting not just for their own personal glory but for the good of the club too. Let’s find a way to drive that loyalty and harness its energy.

Last night, I was thrilled to see Film 4 showing the Glory Glory Days. A film made in the mid-70s about four young girls who loved Spurs in their school days in the 1960/61 season. I so related to that. I was born on the first day of that season and wish with all my heart I’d been able to witness the thrill of being the first club to win ‘the double’. I wish I’d seen Danny Blanchflower play and the rest of the team. Danny played a cameo appearance in the film and the whole experience was magical. I loved that film. It represented everything I hold dear about loyalty and football. Jack Rosenthal, the writer went on to write many of our best-loved TV series and interestingly co-writer of Yentl. He was clearly Spurs through and through.

My two pins are ‘ancient and modern’ Spurs pins. The one on the left is part of this season’s Member’s pack, which also contained a pen, a key fob and the flag that adorns my office and flies over me as I type. The one on the right is my little bit of treasure, my precious thing that I will always cherish. It’s the pin given to my friend Audrey by Billy Nick himself.

I so hope I’m wrong. Maybe it’s wrong of me to assume a newcomer can’t feel with the same degree of passion as the supporters who have given so much to the club. Maybe he’ll be brilliant and we’ll all be singing ‘Martin Jol’s blue and white army’ before you know it.

I hope so, I really do.