By Martin Buhagiar, editor

The theme at White Hart Lane on Wednesday night was horror with face painting, spooky fancy dress and Darth Vadar posing for photographs in a bulldozed then tarmacked area now called Tottenham Square.

The children lapped this up while those old enough to remember inglorious cup exits past took our seats hoping for a morale boosting victory. It was obviously vital for the team to get back to winning ways but more important for us fans who didn’t want to face the indignation of becoming a Hallowe’en-themed pun fest for the tabloids and a certain rolling sports channel.

While progress in the League Cup was gratefully received the win masked more pressing horrors currently bubbling in the club’s cauldron of ideas.

When we look back at ENIC’s reign at White Hart Lane in years to come I often wonder what we will think. The club is obsessed with legends and legacy but what will be left by Joe Lewis, Daniel Levy and co?

A very long season ticket waiting list? The club often cites this list as evidence of the need for a new stadium but it remains to be seen how many of these fans, who are really just members, would buy one if offered.

Balancing the books and ending transfer windows in the black? Flitting from one coaching and boardroom set up to another? The fight against ticket touts on the street? The club’s decision to allow tickets to be touted online? Who knows?

One thing, however, cannot be denied. Now, more than any other time during ENIC’s tenure at the club, fans are asking questions of the owner and his chairman. Albeit asking without expecting any answers from the perpetual poker face that hovers above White Hart Lane.

The club continues to refuse to respond to speculation – apart from those sporadic moments when it chooses to deny certain rumours. This illogical stance simply causes more confusion. If you denied the last rumour but refuse to comment on the next - what will the club’s customers, sorry supporters, make of that?

There is anger about our recent transfer activity. Most fans are not all that surprised that last season’s struggling strikers are still struggling to score goals in the league this season. It is not as if this is a particularly new problem. Nor are we surprised to see us leak goals against Premier League opposition with more or less the same back four that routinely leaked goals against Premier League opposition last season.

Club captain Younes Kaboul - sounding remarkably similar to Michael Dawson when quoted on the club’s website these days - has spoken of ‘bouncing back’, ‘going forward’ and ‘facing criticism’. He wants the team to show character, yet the players who appeared to have character (Sandro, Dawson, Lewis Holtby and Jermain Defoe) have gone.

And ticket prices? Champions League prices for mid table performances. A whiff of glory - well fourth place in the league - and up goes the cost. But will ticket prices be slashed should we end the season in 8th or 9th spot? They certainly should be, though I suspect if that happens we will be treated to another price freeze and the board will expect us to be grateful for that.

So why are our ticket prices so high? Are we playing top end, entertaining football? No. Are we challenging the elite? No. Do we always qualify for the Champions League like that other lot? No. It’s because we are based in London - that does make a difference, doesn’t it? No. Why should fans pay more simply because they support a London-based club? What advantage does that give us exactly? I’d love the club to explain the thinking.

A look around the stadium during the recent Europa League match against Asteras Tripolis told me all I needed to know about the club’s decision to increase adult cup tickets by 25 per cent to £25.   

The difference between £20 or £25 is peanuts to the club – but a big deal to fans. So why change it without consultation or warning? Maybe the club assumes we will all be happy to pay more to watch our second string play a second rate team from Greece. An attendance of 21,428 tells a different story. How would that have looked in a stadium which holds 56,000?

Don’t get me wrong – we need a bigger stadium. But without a penny of the club’s money spent on transfers in the last five years I do not like the idea of fans contributing to what currently feels like a pipe dream via excessively priced match tickets.

Paying higher ticket prices than Man City, Liverpool and Manchester United fans is a bitter pill to swallow when the performances on the pitch are so dire.

If work on the new stadium was progressing or even underway maybe it wouldn’t feel like we were being kicked by the club when we purchased tickets and then sucker punched by the players when they put in a shift like last Sunday afternoon.

That being said I still fail to understand why White Hart Lane cannot be redeveloped.

When I look at the land surrounding the stadium, I simply cannot see why this is not a feasible option. The site marked for redevelopment already houses a supermarket and a technical college but I wonder if we would have been better off offering that land and potential new buildings to the schools behind the East Stand?

With the space behind Paxton Road (once a solution with Archway has been agreed) and the West Stand, surely redevelopment could and should have been seriously considered.  The Liverpool board has worked on a similar redevelopment with less space behind Anfield.

As Martin Cloake, a Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust board member, said via our website earlier this week: rather than simply saying redevelopment is not possible - it would be nice for the club to explain why.

If the club could increase White Hart Lane’s capacity for much less than a new stadium would cost why is this not at least an option? Why has the club given half of the site to a supermarket when the schools behind the East Stand and even Archway could have been housed there?

The Northumberland Development Project would be the shot in the arm the club and its supporters badly needs when it happens. But it has been plagued with problems of such magnitude that you wonder how serious the issues were that stopped the club redeveloping White Hart Lane. If this is the easier option than goodness knows what lies beneath the foundations of the East Stand?  

The supporters trust continues to meet club officials to discuss points like this and it is now more important than ever that Spurs fans show the trust their support.

We fans all have differing views and ideas about the way forward but we all share a love and affection for the club. When things are going wrong on the pitch, off field issues are often magnified but there is no denying the gap between the club and its fans has widened significantly since 2010.

The trust continues to fight our corner and I am often surprised at some of the abuse levelled at those who do so much to improve our club and match day experience.

As Spurs fans we all hope the club and the current owners get it right in all quarters. When they don’t it is important they are held to account. That is why the trust is so important to our future.

With the spectre of Milton Keynes hovering like a dark cloud above our heads it is imperative that questions are asked of the current incumbents at White Hart Lane. For when they go, the legacy they leave will be our reality.