Tottenham Hotspur - the neutral's choice?

With the heritage that runs through Tottenham Hotspur, the first club to win the Double in the modern era, their fans are understandably frustrated at their inability to mount a serious title tilt, or regularly qualify for the Champions League.

But are fans of other clubs equally disappointed by the stop-start engine that immobilises the club?

Spurs have always been a big club, with an array of famous players representing them down the years. Neutrals looked on in bewildered awe of the manner in which they exceeded expectations in their recent Champions League campaign, doing so with style and enterprise which was exemplified by the dazzling Gareth Bale.

The top four, for a while, was clogged by Chelsea, United, Liverpool, and Arsenal. Neutrals were baying for this stranglehold to be broken, and Spurs offered the best hope. After missing out on CL qualification on the last day of the season in 2009 to Arsenal, they finally sealed their place in 2010. This of course, before the days when Man City upset the balance by gatecrashing the Top Four Party, which is now a far less exclusive bash.

In true Spurs style, they looked to have blown it in the pre-qualifiers against Young Boys of Bern, before storming back to seal their place in the CL proper, where they dispatched AC Milan, having already rattled their rivals, Inter, who had eventually held on to win 4-3 in the group stages.

The typical rollercoaster ride that accompanies following Spurs continued two seasons later in the Europa League, where Spurs put their fans through the mill after surrendering a 3-0 lead in the first leg, eventually squeezing into the quarter-finals on away goals.

Finally, the constituents of the original top four seem to elicit varying affections. United, both loved for their style of football, and loathed through pure jealousy of their unparalleled success; Arsenal, have a decent fanbase, but nobody outside of that bracket wanted the sore losers to succeed; Liverpool, another love-or-hate club; and Chelsea, despised for their boring negativity, and the unfair ability for them to splash out in the transfer market.

One would argue that any of the supporters of those traditional Big Four clubs would rather see Tottenham Hotspur in the CL than any of the others.

With City now in the mix, peoples affinity towards Spurs can surely olny grow. City are a major threat to anybody competing for European places, and for reasons of rivalry, United fans would surely prefer to see Spurs dominating the game than City.

So apart from the fans of London rivals Arsenal, it is fairly safe to assume that of all the clubs vying for a European slot, look no further than Tottenham Hostpur for the people's choice.