Saints look set to make it three years in a row at Wembley with the game away to Spurs looking likely to be played at the "Home of football" rather than Tottenham's new stadium.

Tottenham have only a day left before they have to confirm to the Premier league where they are going to play their upcoming home matches against Chelsea on November 24th and Saints on December 5th.

But it looks increasingly like both of these fixtures will be forced to be played at Wembley with the new White Hart Lane still not ready.

The ground is now running around four months overdue with some blaming the fact that Spurs did not appoint a single project manager to oversee the entire operation, but instead opted to try and cut costs by putting out each part of the work for individual tender.

This has resulted in chaos during the building work and tales of parts of the ground being ripped out because other work such as electrical wires etc having not gone in are rife.

The stadium licence seems to depend on the ground being tested in a non competitive enviroment first, something fairly standard on new arena, Spurs had planned to play an academy match and then against Bayern Munich Legends in the summer when they thought the stadium would be ready for the Liverpool game in September.

The problem though is putting in a game mid season when they could attract a big enough crowd that would test the stadium's facilities to the limits the authorities would be satisfied with, would an academy game in December attract a big crowd, with most of Spurs support coming a distance from White Hart Lane, even the chance to visit the new ground might not see a big enough crowd willing to travel.

Even if they could schedule a low key game in the next month it would be unlikely that the Police would want Chelsea to be the first visitors and we are of course an evening fixture and this in itself would cause issues, as it would should Spurs progress in the Carabou Cup and get a home quarter Final tie, another possible option for the opening game

Burnley on the 15th December would be perhaps the ideal option and as it hasn't been chosen for TV there are those who would say what is there not to like about that, the whisper is that Spurs themselves don't want to play Burnley as the first fixture especially as it isn't on TV and they wanted a big televised event to show the World their new stadium.

Trouble is if they don't play there against Burnley then the next two home fixtures against Bournemouth and Wolves are bank holiday games on Boxing Day and New Years Day respectively, not an ideal situation with reduced transport links.

That means unless Spurs get a home game in the FA Cup, something they must now be praying fervently for, then it could be mid January and the visit of Manchester United that sees them finally in their new home some five months later than planned.

So tomorrow we will find out more and whether we will visit Wembley for the third season running, indeed our fourth visit in a little over 18 months.

Photo: Action Images

underweststand added 19:26 - Oct 24 Tottenham Hotspur my un-favourite team for the last 40 years. Can't recall a single transfer deal where we came out on top, although Martin Chivers' £125 K move there in 1967 might have sounded a good deal at the time, the part-ex involving Frank Saul (who was vastly over-rated) didn't endear me to them- even then. Now they are trying to build a vast stadium on the cheap. and not having a project manager with an overview of a vast enterprise of this magnitude is totally ridiculous. With all the fixture problems and associated building foul-ups they've apparantly had, they might still be playing at Wembley in January. ..and don't anyone think it'll be perfect even then. I suppose they have put the under-soil heating system in BEFORE laying the pitch ....or? No wonder Pochettino didn't have a transfer budget in the summer. I'm not saying that I wish them ill......but I can't get the smile off my face at the moment.

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