The best of the rest

'The best of the rest' - that was how Martin Jol described Spurs' 5th place finish today, in an interview on the pitch after our game with Man City.

He struck the right balance - we finished 5th, for the second season - a good effort, especially in a season where we made the quarter finals of the UEFA and FA Cups as well as the League Cup semifinals. And against a well established big four, getting a solid and consistent 5th as the 'best of the rest' has to be the first step.

But he showed ambition for the club, saying that it had been a good season but we would be looking to do better next season. And as long as Dimitar Berbatov stays with us, then I think we will.

The first half today was pretty much as good as Spurs have played this season - until Man City scored five minutes before half time. Then the second half... well, it might seem unlikely that Stuart Pearce will still be managing City next season, but whatever he said to the City lads at half time certainly worked. They put in a very decent performance in the second half, hassling us well and stopping us from playing at all.

Defoe missed a penalty towards the end and there weren't a huge number of chances either way, but it was an alright game to finish the season with.


As always at the end of the season, afterwards there were a couple of presentations and a lap of honour from the squad. Tom Huddlestone got the Breakthrough award, Aaron Lennon picked up the Young Player award for the second year and, no big surprises, Dimitar Berbatov got the fans' Player of the Year.

The photos are: a random shot of Spurs and City players; Berbatov walking away from our stand during the match; and the squad on their lap of honour after the game (the empty seats are the away fans section).

Now I'm just left wondering what I'm going to do with my "free" time for the next three months...