JUBILANT Spurs fans are set to MISS OUT on Friday’s Europa League trophy parade – because they will still be getting home from Bilbao.
An estimated 30,000 Tottenham supporters travelled by land, sea and air to Spain for Wednesday’s historic win over Manchester United.
Many took a long drive through the Continent, while others juggled numerous flights – and some even braved a 32-hour ferry ride from Portsmouth.
And while the journey out was a true test of loyalty, the way home is not much better.
Flights to Bilbao were generally extortionate, with desperate fans forking out over £1,000 in some cases.
Those keen to get back on Thursday – the day after the game – had to pay close to that again.
A flight to Stansted on Thursday afternoon set two pals back £740 each, while direct flights in the morning to Gatwick were close to £900.
The high costs, coupled with the fact that Bilbao has relatively few international flights, meant many fans had to divert to various locations to get home.
One Tottenham season ticket holder is jetting out of Bilbao to Tenerife, where he will spend 20 hours before arriving late home to Birmingham on Friday night.
Father and son Neil and Leo, from Hampshire, booked a return ferry trip from Portsmouth in August and won’t even leave the Basque city until Saturday.
They will be happy to be home for Sunday’s home game against Brighton, when supporters can revel once more in Spurs’ first trophy in 17 years.
Others, including Ben from Essex, didn’t even give their journey home a second thought before setting off.
He joked: “I’ve decided to relocate to Spain. I’m not sure if immigration will be happy but I have no return journey booked.”
His friend Paul was taking no such chances and was determined to get back for Friday morning.
He said: “I’ve decided to get the bus from Bilbao to Madrid, which is about five hours.
“Then catch the flight home to London, via Rome. I’m going to Italy for an hour.
“Then I’ll be at Heathrow at about 11 o’clock Thursday night, and hopefully be back in time for the victory parade.”
Two friends who will definitely miss the parade are Zak and Tyler, who jetted in from Florida just for the match.
They had a few troubles getting to Bilbao – and did not even think about the celebrations in London afterwards.
Zak, who has a British Spurs-supporting dad and an American mum, said: “We couldn’t find any accommodation in Bilbao, or any transportation into there – no flights, no trains, no buses.
“So our only option was to fly to Madrid, rent a car and then drive to Bilbao, but then we couldn’t find any hotels, so we decided to rent a van.
“We slept in the van in Bilbao last night, just drove it back now down to Madrid.”
The pair are now heading to Budapest for some “calmer time”.
Zak added: “I would have liked to go to the parade, yeah. I just didn’t think that far ahead.”
Tottenham ratings: Bissouma dominates Europa League final as occasion gets to Udogie
BRENNAN JOHNSON was Tottenham’s hero as they finally ended their 17-year trophy drought in the Europa League final.
Despite being without James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski for the clash in Bilbao, Spurs came up with a massive win against Manchester United.
Johnson scored the goal as he helped bundle in from a corner in a tussle with Luke Shaw to send fans into dreamland.
But Spurs also owe a huge thanks to Yves Bissouma who was totally dominant in midfield.
At the other end, Destiny Udogie struggled to get up to the pace of the match as he was up against Manchester United’s Amad Diallo.
Spurs had just three shots, only 27 per cent of the ball, and completed a mere 115 passes over 90 minutes.
But it didn’t matter, as United never really looked like finding a leveller to take it to extra time.
SunSport’s Henry Tomlinson gave his ratings for the Tottenham players…
Read the full article here
