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Can I trust Tottenham not to let me down again?

Dougal

Staff
Jun 4, 2004
60,345
129,920
I'll be honest with you. In all my years as a Spurs fan, coming up on 25, I have probably never been so disinterested in the goings-on at my so-called 'beloved' club. We are told about the exciting times ahead, wonderkid signings are drawn to Spurs Lodge like Sénor Ramos was the Paella Pied Piper himself, another 3 new shirts would soon be stretched around my ever-growing gut, there's a Carling Cup Winners title to defend and that ever-present talk of how to break into the top 4 and finally gorge ourselves on the feast at the top table.

And yet here I am, completely underwhelmed at it all for the first time. This, from a Yid who was genuinely excited when told signings like Sullivan, Tramezzani, Kerslake, Calderwood, Perry, Sherwood, Acimovic, Blondel, Fox... (I've got to stop, I don't know if these are tears of laughter or despair) ...were worthy to wear the cockeral on their breast. I did the whole 'being a Yid in the 90's' thing and I survived, though emotionally battered, the barren spell between our two cups of that decade. But only for another carpet of dust to land where the trophies should be until the moment Jonathan Woodgate rose highest and once more, the rollercoaster ride continued.

As with a rollercoaster the last paragraph leaves me a little sick. The lows dragged for years, the highs were the occasional days. Did we peak again last February? Certainly our players believed they could take it easy for the remainder of the season, the only duty they seemed capable of fulfilling was to give interviews reassuring us that they would fulfill all of their duties. Yeah, thanks for that, great read. I'm ready to consign that faltering end of season to the less glamourous pages of our history books now and apologise to those who had already done so. Attentions were quickly turned to all of the expectations I listed at the top, another wind of change was blowing through the corridors of Spurs Lodge. One that leaves me cold despite the obvious ground Mr Levy and Co. have made up in the last few years.

And why? Like a mistreated pet rescued by the RSPCA and passed onto to a new, seemingly caring, family, I should really cower in the corner until I'm sure it's safe to some out. I shouldn't invest my all into the benefits of this new lease of life because, as mentioned, I have all too often been left battered, cold and sick by the hope a new dawn brings. Unfortunately, there is no getting away from being a football fan, not in the long run. My season ticket has been renewed once more, I've taken the bait. So before I trust Spurs to finally get it right I'm taking a backseat. A break from the transfer rumours. My new home shirt that I got as a birthday present sits in a drawer at home, worn on the day I got it but unused since. I dip in and out of Euro 2008 games so my footballing clean slate does not become tarnished with thoughts of putting a bid in for David Villa. I allowed myself to have a look at the YouTube footage of Giovani Dos Santos but only when the transfer was officially announced.

Like the Irish and British players in our squad, I'm going to be returning to pre-season refreshed after a long summer break and it will be at that moment when I fully expect the new season to shower me with the kind of hope, enthusiasm and promise that it did 20 years ago. The wrongs done to me and fellow Spurs fans will once more be forgotten, wrongly or rightly, and my trust will be offered up to those who wear the shirt. I sure as hell hope they deliver.

Damn them anyway, despite my reservations, the excitement is already beginning to take a grip. I'm off to try on my shirt again.
 

Kendall

Well-Known Member
Feb 8, 2007
38,502
11,933
Good post. Much of the feeling perhaps comes from the fact that in the 90s and first half of this decade we were just never good enough, but our boys for all their lack of genuine quality, always tried so damn hard.

Now we see £40-60m spent each year only for half the players to give up the ghost half way through, some itching for a move just a year into their contracts.

We're in a weird hole where we're not good enough to bring to good times back regularaly, but the team itself is not quite shit enough for us to give them genuine sympathy.
 

Pinto

Active Member
Nov 1, 2004
2,994
39
You are so disinterested you wrote all of that?? :violin:

While I agree with some of what you said, it is Spurs, it is what you have signed on for being a fan. This year of all the years being a Spurs fan you choose to be disinterested?? We have a good squad and a good manager, we are making solid signings and future is bright, by all means jump off the bandwagon for all I care.
 

danielneeds

Kick-Ass
May 5, 2004
24,179
48,764
Its Spurs, there will be highs and lows again this season, there always has been and always will be. As the original post said, in the late 90's all we had were lows, so lets be thankful.
 

beals

SC Supporter
Dec 22, 2003
1,540
193
Unfortunatly such is the life of a Tottenhan fan, good read and lets hope this is the year...COYS
 

Dougal

Staff
Jun 4, 2004
60,345
129,920
  • Thread starter
  • Staff
  • #7
We have a good squad and a good manager, we are making solid signings and future is bright

The problem is that we have been taken in by this kind of talk before. Every fresh start is meant to be the time we get it right at last. It's easy to be carried away with sentences like the one above but I've seen countless managers line up with countless players for pre-season photocalls and every time you'd have someone saying 'We have a good squad and a good manager, we are making solid signings and future is bright'. Don't get me wrong, they will have my full support as usual when they take the pitch, as I have already stated, but I won't get carried away so easily, now more than ever. I want to enjoy it more, not face being let down by false expectations. It's those same expectations that leads to unrest when it doesn't all quite go as it should. I'm stopping to take a deep breath, looking forward to sustained progress and just hoping the next downturn in fortune isn't going to happen anytime soon. It sounds very pessimistic for me of all people but it is too easily labelled as that by those who buy into an overly optimistic view. It's amazing what stepping back and looking at things from another angle can do. I'm just sharing that view.
 

Lucky22

Active Member
Dec 11, 2006
710
160
I know where you're coming from Dougal. Over the last four or five summers we've been linked with a long list of brilliant players, but at the moment I refuse to get my hopes up until I see them standing at Spurs Lodge with the new shirt on.
But, I have to admit, that the concerns you express is exactly what being a Spurs fan is all about (for me it is anyway). Two of my best mates are Liverpool mad and they talk about their lack of success and how it can be so difficult following the Scousers. One day I told them where to go and told them what life was like as a Spurs fan. This was before this season's Carling Cup success, so, as I explained, since I really got into the club we've only won two trophies the 91 FA and two League Cups - now that's a long time between silverware and it takes a lot to keep going when faced with the fact that we are always more likely not to win something.
The Arsenals, ManUs, Chelseas and even the Liverpool fans have been lucky enough to get a trophy once in a while - at the very least one or two every other season, at most doubles and even trebles. That would help keep my spirits up. But when it averages out one every 10 years, it can be a tough slog.
But that, I believe, gives genuine Spurs fans a lot more integrity than most. We can't be blamed for glory hunting or of following a trend team. We are in it for the long haul and when those sweet, sweet moments of victory arrive it makes it so much better. And I'm not just talking about trophies - I'm talking about the wins over the Big Four (although they are few and far between) and, better still, qualification for Europe. I don't care when others scoff that we have landed a UEFA Cup berth - I do a merry jig and look forward to European Nights of Glory at the Lane.
Yes, we've been burnt many many times in the past (I really thought Christian Gross was to be our saviour), but you can't enjoy the highs if you've never experienced the lows...
 

karennina

ciffirt
Nov 24, 2004
2,820
1,032
Ah yes, the heady days of childhood brainstorming - "Paolo Tramezzani! He's Italian! Must be superb, and why do they say we can't win the league when I know that with a little luck we could do it." Having said that, Modric and Dos Santos give me hope for a more truely Spurs like team than we've seen since those few games when the creaking legs of Hoddle's veterans creaked into gear and we played some really attractive stuff. It's just a feeling that the exuberance of Dos Santos' play won't be curtailed by a desire to be an extra in a kidulthood world, and that Modric has the grit and intelligence along with the skill to really run a premiership midfield in a way that Jenas probably won't ever quite manage.
 

minesadouble

Drove my Chevy to the Levy
Jul 27, 2006
749
2,933
I can't decide who to feel most sorry for. The younger fan who has never known the "good times" when we sat at the top table and won trophies regularly, or the older fan (like me) who remembers the 60s, 70s and early 80s, and has then had to live through all the "bad times" since, knowing that there really was a time before Sky Sports and the 'Premier League' when the greatest players dreamed of wearing our shirt.

Be optimistic, my friends, not because there is any certainty about the future, but because we're fans, and above all, Spurs fans, so optimistic is the only way to be !
 

onthetwo

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2006
4,583
3,407
I feel the same way actually...dont REALLY care who we sign as long as we start well. I may well commit harry-karry if we lose to Boro..
 

hellava_tough

Well-Known Member
Apr 21, 2005
9,429
12,382
I can't decide who to feel most sorry for. The younger fan who has never known the "good times" when we sat at the top table and won trophies regularly, or the older fan (like me) who remembers the 60s, 70s and early 80s, and has then had to live through all the "bad times" since, knowing that there really was a time before Sky Sports and the 'Premier League' when the greatest players dreamed of wearing our shirt.

Be optimistic, my friends, not because there is any certainty about the future, but because we're fans, and above all, Spurs fans, so optimistic is the only way to be !

I hear what you're saying.

I started supporting Spurs in 1990, just before we won the FA cup, when I was 8 years old.

I was a fresh-faced football-obsessed Spurs fan, who optimistically thought that Spurs were "going to challenge this season". And how wrong I always was.

And every season was the same, and all my Gooner friends took the piss so badly; how could one club inflict so much emotional torture on a fan-base?

And just when we thought things were getting better our beloved captain turned traitor and joined the darkside...FOR NOTHING!!

Fortunately, I was 18 at this point and getting laid, so that eased the pain a bit....BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT, GODDAMMIT!!

So, anyway, I'm always a little apprehensive before the start of a season, especially so after the crap we had to endure at the start of the last season, when we were supposedly going to make the top 4.

Anyway, I've said it once, and I'll say it again:

When we finally win the Premiership, it'll be OH SO sweet!

:beer::hump::beer::hump::beer::hump:
 

Caboose

Active Member
Oct 20, 2003
824
90
I agree with you Dougal, I've been totally underwhelmed this summer. I'm the same age and have gone through the same experiences as you. These past four years have been really exciting with each summer the level of expectancy rising.

Last summer we were being all hyped up to break the top four but I didn't quite believe it. For once I should have listened to my heart instead of my head. My heart was telling me not to get too hopeful as this is Spurs and they never achieve as they should. My head was telling me that we had had two 5th place finishes in a row and had improved our squad so we would do it. Yes we had the cup win, and you can't beat the one off excitement of a cup win, but the week in week out pain of watching us limp through matches frustrated me and dampened my respect for the squad of players.

Am I excited this summer - no.
Will I give them all my support - Yes.
What does my head say? - We'll do well
What does my heart say? - We'll be let down - again

Hopefully my heart is wrong this time.
 
Jul 3, 2005
567
0
...20 years ago you were comming up to being 5?..were you exited about pre-season aged 5? personally I (a spurs fan of the same age) was playing with transformers, pulling up girls skirts, eating small insects - and the like...

But anyway, your post will resonate with all spurs fans and indeed all fans of clubs outside the top 4. We all must ask ourselves - what is the point of getting exited? If we know the absolute best we're aiming for is 4th - and even that seems bloody unlikely. Yet as a Spurs fan we have one or two that the big clubs themselves would be envious of, and a few wonder kids. Yet we know if they're really a hit, they'll be wrestled away from us before they even reach their prime. If not we're left with more embrassing recollections a la blondel...

Imagine being a boro fan, a villa fan, an everton fan. The two latter finished above us, yet, I say it's easier to delude yourself that spurs can take on the top 4 than those teams. Spurs match the spending of Arsenal, or spend more, thats one of the reasons it really would appear we're cursed - not just unlucky or crap. Yet we must remember the tranfer pool the scum choose from has been supirior to ours over the years.

Perhaps we all continue to watch just because we want to see how far the farce can go before people realise it is indeed a farce, and that there's some kind of life lesson in there. Who the hell knows? not me. Yet, I've long ago given up buying replica shirts...:shrug::shrug:
 

JimmyG2

SC Supporter
Dec 7, 2006
15,014
20,779
Of course you can rely on them- to let you down.But it could be worse you could be a Manchester City fan or even a Chelsea fan.Do we want that kind of success or to be owned by a guy that sacks the manager even when they achieve their targets.
I've followed Spurs man and boy for just on 60 yrs.Ive seen many highs and just as many lows.Ive fallen outyof love on many occasions with the club,sometimes for years but here I am again hoping and working out where Modric will play, whether the mighty Berbatov will still be with us and so on.
My attitude now is that I want to entertained,I want to watch good players playing good football and hope that this brings success.Watch and enjoy is my new mantra.It works for me and I haven't found anywhere else to go which offers me the chance of such joy,exhileration and disappointment.
 

ultimateloner

Well-Known Member
Jan 25, 2004
4,539
2,149
the answer is NO

Spurs will always let us down and excite us in equal measure.

We are a club/team of drama, not success...just remember that.
 
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