KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTING —- Tottenham fans can put the raging frustration of Anfield events behind them this week as they swarm, better late than never, into the new White Hart Lane.

Crystal Palace are the visitors in the Premier League for Wednesday night’s official opening, after two low-capacity test matches to ensure delivery of the essential safety certificates. The first match was an under-18 friendly against Southampton, the second last Saturday’s entertaining legends match between old heroes of both Spurs and Internazionale*.

Looking down . . . old home, new home

The clubs go back a long way: their first meeting was on an early Spurs European tour more than a century ago.

Saturday’s meeting saw various veterans forced to straggle back on to the pitch as substitutes of substitutes as the casualties mounted: Micky Hazard probably needs surgery on a torn achilles and Paul Gascoigne strained a muscle in his warm-up and could barely manage a brief walk-on role.

Size matters

The second-largest English Premier ground is smaller than Old Trafford but larger than Anfield, Manchester City and – most importantly – Arsenal.

Remarkably, the new home ‘feels’ like White Hart Lane even if the set-up is a century different: the longest continuous bar in Europe, ‘sky walk’, an on-site brewery and beer containers which fill from bottom not top (mind the seal!). Everything paid by card. No cash here, not even for a programme.

Some of the in-stadium concourses are a little narrow and interrupted by too many jagged corners and angles. Internal signage needs far more detail to save fans ‘wander time’ but doubtless most of these are teething issues which can be resolved once regular usage generates feedback.

Spurs’ fans have never been slow to express their feelings as their mounting irritation over the club’s poor communications concerning the construction delays demonstrated. That irritation was also illustrated by the drop in attendances at Wembley, though the capacity limits imposed by the need for short-term council permissions also contributed.

Fans' view on the way back in

It will not take fans long to forget the Wembley saga while their concerns switch from short-term seating logistics to long-term playing performance.

Tottenham have spent nothing in the last two transfer windows and such tight financial control is expected to be maintained, in the manner of Arsenal when the Gunners left Highbury for their own new north London home.

The challenge for Spurs is that Arsenal had been steadily winning trophies under Arsene Wenger in the years before the move and had built up savings in terms of patience. Tottenham’s situation is different: fans are still waiting for the Mauricio Pochettino era to bring the glint of a trophy.

Concerns about the loss of the manager – to Manchester United or Real Madrid – have been dispelled for now (though he might still be a good fit for Old Trafford in a year or two’s time). But by the European Championship summer of 2020 comes around the likes of Harry Kane and Dele Alli may reluctantly have to review the wages and trophies balance compared with many of their England team-mates.

So Spurs face a new race against time. At least fans have a fine stage on which to enjoy the show.

** J’Neil Bennett, for Tottenham, scored the first goal in the new stadium after 11 minutes of a 3-1 under-18s win over Southampton.

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