A good piece from The Guardian

Spurs spring cultural revolution on the gang of four

Simon Hattenstone
Wednesday February 27, 2008
The Guardian

Joseph was in ecstasies, running round the room like a whooping crazy. My next-door neighbour is only eight years old, and not even a Tottenham fan, but he was well aware of the significance of what he'd just seen. In winning the Carling Cup Spurs had rewritten the rulebook. Until then, I don't think he realised that clubs outside the top four were allowed to win trophies.
Joseph has been a football fan for three years. In that period, Manchester United have won the Carling Cup once, and Chelsea twice; United had won the Premier League once and Chelsea twice; Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal had won the FA Cup. Sunday was the first time a non-big-fourer had won a domestic trophy in his footballing life - Middlesbrough were the last team to do so, in 2004, guided by Steve McClaren (remember him?) In the FA Cup, it's 13 years since Everton broke the big four stranglehold. 1995 was also the last time a non-big-fourer, Blackburn, won the Premier League - indeed the only time.

Joseph is just one of millions of young football fans growing up wondering what the other clubs are there for, and why they can never be as successful as the top four. On Sunday he got his answer. This was the day football fought back.
Of course it's important to put things in context. This is hardly Sunderland or Southampton winning the FA Cup from the second tier, nor is it Villa or Forest winning the Premier League and Champions League. And remember at the beginning of the season many experts were predicting that Spurs would usurp Arsenal in the top four. But it is a start.

I've always had a thing for both Spurs and the League Cup, the competition that has changed its name more times than Prince. (A free biscuit to anybody who can name all its manifestations before getting to the bottom*.) Tottenham have spent decades living in the shadows. While they may not have been totally eclipsed by Arsenal, they've certainly been well and truly in their penumbra over the past half-century. Apart from my friend Bob, there's a humility to most Spurs fans

I know. They had the arrogance knocked out of them years ago. They don't take winning as a right. Stoicism is their way.

Of all trophies, the League Cup is the one that most accurately reflects the change in modern football. It was traditionally the losers' cup; the prize that the minnows had a chance of winning. Not that it bothered the players of Leicester and Luton or Oxford and Norwich as they jigged round Wembley tossing the trophy from one to the other.

There was a period when the League Cup became an embarrassment for the big clubs - to win it was a sign of diminished ambition. Amazingly, in 2000 Leicester beat Tranmere in the final. Then clubs like Arsenal tried to prove their mettle by winning it with their second teams. Three years ago when Chelsea and Boss Abramovich made it their mission to dominate world football, and the divide between the big four and the rest became a gulf, the Carling Cup took on a new importance. From then on the big four had to win at least one trophy a year, even if it was only the Carling Cup. In a strange way it became the most important of all - a symbol of the greed and heightened ambition of the big four. Because it was decided mid-season, winning the Carling Cup became a statement of intent - that you could go on to win a double or treble or, as Avram Grant and his Chelsea boys were suggesting only last week, the quadruple.

Maybe Sunday will be a turning point. It wasn't only Joseph who was shocked by the outcome. You could sense it on the pitch - not least when Robbie Keane deliriously poured champagne over manager Juande Ramos's head as the Irishman celebrate his first trophy in 11 years of professional football.

Most disturbingly, the shock was expressed through John Terry and Frank Lampard who grabbed their losing medals from Lord Mawhinney and shook hands with the bigwigs without so much as looking them in the face. They couldn't believe they had been defeated fairly - how dare football defy God and mammon?

Who knows what will happen now that the big four's bubble has been burst? Perhaps Chelsea have won their last trophy. Perhaps Bristol Rovers will beat Barnsley on penalties in the FA Cup final. Perhaps Everton will win all their remaining matches and snatch the Premier League title. Yes I know, but where would we be without our dreams?

* Carling Cup, Worthington Cup,

Coca-Cola Cup, Rumbelows Cup,

Littlewoods Cup, Milk Cup, League Cup

good article - it can never be described as only the Carling Cup. It is a major trophy. And we are the Champions my friends.