Tottenham fan’s view: Our 19-month White Hart Lane exile has felt like a lifetime

I have been one of the last to turn. Even my hedonistic love for Tottenham Hotspur (almost 50 Europa League matches is testament to that) has been tested by the continuing schlep up to the soulless, concrete cavern that Wembley has come to represent.

As more and more of my Lilywhite-following colleagues have chosen to stay away until the move back, I have been one of the last to even contemplate stopping. Dean and his kid stopped coming earlier this season. Ting and Ryan have better things to do. Pete prefers to stay in Northampton and watch on TV. Tom has a little baby to take up his time now. But Spurs are my club – my one and only club – why would I not go? I’m addicted. And I admit it.

However for every victory over Real Madrid, Manchester United and Chelsea, there are also the dreary, one-goal wins over Cardiff and Barnsley. Sitting in the lower tier against Southampton on Wednesday night, surveying a damp, desolate scene as a crowd of under 35,000 struggled to raise a cheer, I was surrounded by the usual mix of day-trippers and sightseers, who come more for a day out and the popcorn than any love for Spurs. It was just no fun.

Yes, that 35,000 would have been close to capacity at the old ground but at the Brent bowl it felt like a gathering of just a few dozen. Even a comfortable win was nothing to be marked, coming as it did just a few days after Sunday’s defeat to them.

And we still have Burnley, Bournemouth and Wolves to come at Wembley before the year is out.

It was not supposed to feel like this. Wembley is not supposed to feel like this. The place where young supporters aspire to visit, where players want to run out at. That novelty wore off long ago for us. Take me home!

The ludicrous, continual postponing of the moving-in date. August! September against Liverpool! No, wait, it may be Manchester City in October. Did somebody say NFL? Burnley in December? Wait and see. Encouraging noises are being made that next month’s visit of Manchester United will, finally, be the match that opens the ground – a game that would provide a nice symmetry in that we closed the old White Hart Lane against United 19 months ago. Nineteen months that seem like a Lilywhite lifetime.