Do you care as much as you did

[Jaffer99]

Must admit I have lost a bit of 'who really cares' for this season, I have just really written this season off...

 

[Danners9]

Because of the timezones, the midweek games start at midnight and finish around 2am. I slept early and woke up for the Man City game, wished I hadn't at the end of it, so s'pose I still care... but at the same time I am looking forward to this season being over with.

Given the 'drama', our league position isn't too bad. Some of the performances have been dreadful and I don't remember so many hammerings in one season, that is shameful.

 

[Kirito]

The problem is that we have all experienced having players like VDV (favourite), Bale and Modric in the team over the last few years.

We had such style and were beating the big teams and now we just hope not to lose by more than 3 goals.

When we were in the champions league other supporters actually wanted us to do well and now we are hated just like the other big sides.

 

[sandros kung fu kick]

This season was always a transistion season for me. With 7 new players it would always be difficult, I think some people need to remember that this isn't fifa14 and it will take time.

The managerial change certainly hasn't helped with the bedding in of new players, but HOPEFULLY Daniel levy will make the right choice for our next manager and we can take it from there.

We just need some consistency Damn it!

 

[michaelden]

what is it you done care about?

Is it just everything about the club, the current squad/management/owners, future of the club ect?

i'm pissed off that we chop & change so much. AvB needed more time. I don't think TS was a decent choice and i'm seriously pissed off with the treatment of some of the players. Its as if the team is selected by the papers some weeks.

Don't get me wrong I love Spurs but damn I'm getting disillusioned with how we are run with such short term targets.

 

[Jimmypearce7]

I try and convince myself i care less when we fall short but i know it is a defence mechanism and I am just trying to protect myself against pain.
I try and rationalise it in another way- if it wasnt so painful when we were losing 5-0 at home to Liverpool etc then it wouldn't be so great when we won and it would mean i didnt care enough to waste so much time and money on football.
I have realised that i am stuck with Tottenham having a big effect on my mood and life, whether i like it or not.

 

[ilikeost]

After the 0-5 against Liverpool, the AVB sacking and being knocked out of the domestic cups I don't care about this season anymore and by default that means that I don't care as much at the moment, I just want this season to be over.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Do I care as much as I did?

Hard to say. Prior to Jol I had very low expectations whenever Spurs played. I expected a poor result, so anything different was a reason to be cheerful. I used to be incredibly passionate about Spurs when I was in my teens, then the Judas incident made me lose a lot of faith in football. I still followed Spurs, but I had very little enthusiasm for the sport in general.

When Jol started turning things around, the games suddenly started to matter more. After years of expecting little more than avoiding relegation, and maybe a good cup run, we were suddenly making our league games relevant.

My passion for the club started to build again. Thoughts of a new, golden era started to seem possible. I Keegan loved it when we won the Carling Cup, and felt like I was thirteen again.

After the car crash start to the next season, Harry seemed to bring a bit of magic back to the club. I was passionately cheering us on as we dragged ourself out of the relegation zone. After that, it looked like we had finally broken into the big time. Obviously the peak of this was Champions League football, and those wins against the two Milan teams. There was something hair-raising about those days (which now feel like a million years ago).

Having tasted it, we all wanted more. Instead some incredibly frustrating decisions by Levy, a number of games where we simply bottled it, and some terrible luck meant that this didn't happen.

I think the straw that broke the camel's back was the Chavs winning the CL. With Oil Money FC winning the league in the same season, it was more evident than ever that soulless, ugly billionaire clubs would be the future of successful football.

Bale's exploits last season were certainly exciting to watch, but the rest of the team, thanks to AVB, were a horrid sight. Now we've lost all of our star players from our CL season, and are left with a shapeless, half-arsed bunch of players made up of potential, inconsistent but good players, great players that are always injured, and a lot of mid-table types.

I guess that's why I probably don't care as much now. For years we were steadily progressing, and finally reached the dizzy heights we'd hoped for. Now reality has set in, and there's little to look forward to except our inevitable disappointing season, more of our best players leaving, downgrade replacements coming in, and probably several more years of transition. Meanwhile a nothing club like City buy their way straight to the top of the league.

A Spurs win or loss used to dictate the mood of my entire week. These days, beyond discussions on this forum, it makes no difference to me one way or the other. As someone on Fighting Cock said, we're nothing more than a player-exchange business now.

While I don't agree with every word, I certainly agree with most of this and empathise with the whole lot.

As a teenager I was the kid in the common room who would argue in favour of all things Spurs against the army of Gooners and Utd fans who populated my school. I cared so much. Then, seeing Ginola forced out and Campbell betray us in consecutive seasons hit me very hard, but still I kept faith (especially once Hoddle returned), and despite the setbacks, I was just as in love with the club as ever as we made slow and steady progress over the next decade. Of course, like with us all, the more we improved, the greater my expectations. Then came the Redknapp years. Whatever you think of him as a man, he's without doubt our most successful premier league manager and produced a side who, even if not always consistent (especially at the very end), did at least give us more wonderful moments than any other Premier League Spurs side, and of course took us into the Champions League and did themselves proud up until Crouch went mental in the first few minutes at the Bernebeau.

Then, 2/3 the way through the 2011/2012 season, the decline began. We threw away a huge advantage against Arsenal to end up fourth instead of third. That should have still seen us return to the Champions League, except that Chelseas tactic of nine men behind the ball and punt it long to Drogba somehow saw them win the Champions League and claim our spot. Who would have thought that Messi and Robben would both miss penalties which would all but have ensured vitories for their respective sides? In fact, Chelsea didn't win the Champions League, Barcelona and then Bayern lost it.

That summer things changed. Redknapp left (deservedly), AVB came in and nothing was built on, but instead we saw everything torn down and we started from scratch. While Bale was here, he papered over teething problems of immense dimensions with his unbelievable season. He, like Ginola before him, carried a side of lesser beings to elevated status. Modric and VDV were gone, but he was singlehandedly giving us reason to go to the lane. Then, he went where he belonged, to football's top table, and good for him, it's what his ability deserves.

The club gave us reason to still have hope, bringing in both proven and potential talent which would keep us moving forwards. Sold Elvis and bought the Beatles, right? But the man in charge was unable to make it work, and his successor, despite 17 points from the 24 available since taking charge, seems unlikely to be the answer to our prayers. Our decline seems preordained as things stand.

Now, like the poster I'm quoting I suspect, as well as many others here, I was born in the mid eighties, so don't have too much recollection of Spurs pre nineties. I became a Spurs supporter because of my father, because Spurs weren't exactly a big pull at the time, and the drive for my passion and enthusiasm was always the hope that one day, before my eyes, the glory which I'd been told about growing up would return. That hope seemed like it was being fullfilled in the formative years of the current decade, but that now feels like a distant memory and what lies ahead just doesn't inspire faith (though I truly hope I am proven wrong by subsequent events). Do I love Spurs any less? of course not. But do I care less? I don't know if that's the correct pharse to use, but I am certainly not as passionate as I once was, and that's a day I never thought would come. They say it's the hope that kills you, and that rings true. Like the atmosphere at White Hart Lane, I just feel flat where Spurs are concerned, I will them to do well, but when they do I no longer feel quite the same joy, and when they don't I get upset in the moment, then shrug my shoulders and move on. Perhaps a healthier, happier way to approach football support, but I am sad that it has become the case.

 

[bubble07]

Sadly I don't think I do or at the very least I like to think I don't care as much. I'm 28 and have supported Spurs from a young age but apart from when we finished 4th 2009/10, when have we ended the season truly happy? Even that year we went into the final game with a chance of finishing above Arsenal and didn't so it still wasn't a truly happy conclusion.

This season especially, when we score a goal I don't get overly excited and when we concede I don't get overly pissed off. The games I can't stream and don't go to the lane (less frequent now then in previous seasons) I watch soccer saturday if I'm in. When they say theres a goal in the Spurs game I still get that little rush of excitement/nerves but whether we score or concede I don't really show much emotion except relief if it's us who have scored.

Since the premier league started we were never really threatening the big boys until the last few seasons. Now that we are are threatening we seem to fall short almost all the time. We are a good team but not good enough to keep our best players that we really love watching (Berbatov, VDV, Modric, Bale) so it makes things more difficult to care

But I still check twitter, Spurs Community 1 hour 20 minutes before kick off to know the line ups when I could just wait half an hour to see the line ups on bbc or anywhere else. I still go on here quite a bit, I still watch SSN at work on deadline day but I do care a lot less then before.

 

[Spurger King]

While I don't agree with every word, I certainly agree with most of this and empathise with the whole lot.

As a teenager I was the kid in the common room who would argue in favour of all things Spurs against the army of Gooners and Utd fans who populated my school. I cared so much. Then, seeing Ginola forced out and Campbell betray us in consecutive seasons hit me very hard, but still I kept faith (especially once Hoddle returned), and despite the setbacks, I was just as in love with the club as ever as we made slow and steady progress over the next decade. Of course, like with us all, the more we improved, the greater my expectations. Then came the Redknapp years. Whatever you think of him as a man, he's without doubt our most successful premier league manager and produced a side who, even if not always consistent (especially at the very end), did at least give us more wonderful moments than any other Premier League Spurs side, and of course took us into the Champions League and did themselves proud up until Crouch went mental in the first few minutes at the Bernebeau.

Then, 2/3 the way through the 2011/2012 season, the decline began. We threw away a huge advantage against Arsenal to end up fourth instead of third. That should have still seen us return to the Champions League, except that Chelseas tactic of nine men behind the ball and punt it long to Drogba somehow saw them win the Champions League and claim our spot. Who would have thought that Messi and Robben would both miss penalties which would all but have ensured vitories for their respective sides? In fact, Chelsea didn't win the Champions League, Barcelona and then Bayern lost it.

That summer things changed. Redknapp left (deservedly), AVB came in and nothing was built on, but instead we saw everything torn down and we started from scratch. While Bale was here, he papered over teething problems of immense dimensions with his unbelievable season. He, like Ginola before him, carried a side of lesser beings to elevated status. Modric and VDV were gone, but he was singlehandedly giving us reason to go to the lane. Then, he went where he belonged, to football's top table, and good for him, it's what his ability deserves.

The club gave us reason to still have hope, bringing in both proven and potential talent which would keep us moving forwards. Sold Elvis and bought the Beatles, right? But the man in charge was unable to make it work, and his successor, despite 17 points from the 24 available since taking charge, seems unlikely to be the answer to our prayers. Our decline seems preordained as things stand.

Now, like the poster I'm quoting I suspect, as well as many others here, I was born in the mid eighties, so don't have too much recollection of Spurs pre nineties. I became a Spurs supporter because of my father, because Spurs weren't exactly a big pull at the time, and the drive for my passion and enthusiasm was always the hope that one day, before my eyes, the glory which I'd been told about growing up would return. That hope seemed like it was being fullfilled in the formative years of the current decade, but that now feels like a distant memory and what lies ahead just doesn't inspire faith (though I truly hope I am proven wrong by subsequent events). Do I love Spurs any less? of course not. But do I care less? I don't know if that's the correct pharse to use, but I am certainly not as passionate as I once was, and that's a day I never thought would come. They say it's the hope that kills you, and that rings true. Like the atmosphere at White Hart Lane, I just feel flat where Spurs are concerned, I will them to do well, but when they do I no longer feel quite the same joy, and when they don't I get upset in the moment, then shrug my shoulders and move on. Perhaps a healthier, happier way to approach football support, but I am sad that it has become the case.

I was born in 1979, and started supporting Spurs in 1990, so just in time to see us win the FA cup.

Apart from that, I agree with your post. Feeling "flat" when it comes to Spurs sums it up well. As you say, maybe caring isn't the right word. I'm certainly less excited about our games right now, and as a consequence the reactions to wins or victories is a lot more muted. We've had so many sucker punches in the last few seasons that it's hard not to be a bit dubious when it comes to any expectations of success.

Rightly or wrongly, I care more about our games when they are more significant. When I see lacklustre displays from a bunch of players that look like they would rather be elsewhere, it's hard to become too emotionally involved. It's not a huge leap of logic to assume that the numerous poor displays we've witnessed won't change over night, so when I see that our next game is against an Everton team looking full of confidence, I don't feel excited, I don't feel optimistic...I just feel a bit deflated about our prospects.

We desperately need a performance that will lift the fans, and convince all of us that we have a team worth investing a lot of emotion into. Right now I think a lot of us are feeling incredibly let down by our actions both on and off the fields. The highs of the Champions League season have raised the bar for a lot of expectations, and it's difficult to maintain the same level of passion when it looks like we're potentially going to return to the hum-drum seasons so many of us have suffered for way too long.

 

[michaelden]

iv'e decided that come april/ may i'm cancelling sky sports. I get BT sports free anyway but i just don't watch footy as much anymore. I used to watch every game, even if it was on x2 speed, i'd watch every single one i could record. But with the farce of how easily it has been for clubs to buy a league title and the seriously questionable officiating of games, not just Spurs ones, I just don't care about football in general as much.

As others have mentioned, a lot might be due to age etc... but a lot is also down to the absolute shit we are fed as truths regarding cameras and officiating, the FFP rules of the game, the injustice committee of the FA, the corruption of the clubs and the rotten cores of the FA, UEFA & especially FIFA


And fucking Olympic stadium fiasco!

/rant

 

[Spurger King]

iv'e decided that come april/ may i'm cancelling sky sports. I get BT sports free anyway but i just don't watch footy as much anymore. I used to watch every game, even if it was on x2 speed, i'd watch every single one i could record. But with the farce of how easily it has been for clubs to buy a league title and the seriously questionable officiating of games, not just Spurs ones, I just don't care about football in general as much.

As others have mentioned, a lot might be due to age etc... but a lot is also down to the absolute shit we are fed as truths regarding cameras and officiating, the FFP rules of the game, the injustice committee of the FA, the corruption of the clubs and the rotten cores of the FA, UEFA & especially FIFA


And fucking Olympic stadium fiasco!

/rant

Yep. When City got bought out and became Oil Money FC, I remember saying to myself that I'd quit football altogether the day they won the league.

As it turned out, the season they won the league was also the season that Abramovich's corrupt cheating racists won the CL. Even worse, it denied us a place in that tournament, when we had been one of the best sides in the country.

If I really didn't care about Spurs, that would have been the day I left football behind for good. As it turned out, I just couldn't do it. Doesn't change the fact that a massive part of my enthusiasm for the sport has been killed off.

The refereeing decisions during the City game didn't even bother me. I just assumed it would happen from the start.

I've mentioned this next bit elsewhere, but I think it's worth saying again. A friend of mine has been a passionate Liverpool supporter since the mid 80s. This season he's stopped watching their games altogether, and doesn't have any interest in Premier League football. Instead he's happy to go to watch Bristol City (we both live near their stadium), even though they're shit and lose pretty much every game. He enjoys it more.

He hates Suarez. He hates Chelsea. He hates Oil Money FC. The fact that he was able to walk away in Liverpool's best season in years, especially with United being so poor, is a real testament to his character as far as I'm concerned.

Some will say his actions mean he's not a real Liverpool fan. I'd say he's a real football fan.

 

[Mr Pink]

I know where Spurger and BBLG are coming from.

Even for our game this Sunday against Everton which is massive, there will be plenty of talk all week but come Sunday WHL will be a quiet cagey atmosphere and we'll struggle to turn Everton over, like we've struggled at home all season with no Bale to blitz the opposition.

I think the confidence of the fans is really waning.

 

[Kendall]

It's always funny when people claim to not care because things are stuttering a bit. I care as much as I always did, I just really want us to maximise our potential.

There's a lad I know who seems to be bang into NFL these days (shittest sport in the world by the way) and doesn't resist a dig at football. It's almost become cool to be perceived as turning your back on the sport.

Money ruining the game? people have been saying that to me since I was knee high to a grasshopper. City have raised the bar of course, but, for my sins, at least Arsenal are showing that it is possible to be competitive, despite the wonky playing field.

We have finished above Chelsea and Liverpool in recent years despite the money situation and have a very real chance of finishing above United. Wah wah wah.

 

[WalkerboyUK]

Yes and no......
I can now quite happily switch off a game that we are playing in. We've been so damn poor over the last few months that, instead of being fixated on the game on a laptop (unless it's on tv) I just have it on in the background. Hell, sometimes I've actually VOLUNTEERED to go shopping with the wife and kids during a game!
My reactions to goals is very much like Bubble07. When we concede my thought process is "and now open the floodgates" and when we score it's "well we still won't win". 2 years ago I would have jumped around to celebrate a goal, or get really angry if we conceded. I've lost that passion.....

I've been a fan since 1987 so I've seen the best and worst, from CL football to fines and point deductions/FA cup bans for financial issues (both later rescinded). Seem to think there was also a case of stadium upgrade not being completed in time for first game of season. Regardless though, the passion was there. I'd go to a couple of games a season because prices were reasonably cheap and membership was free. Now I can afford to go once every 3 or 4 seasons.

We're a team, no, we are a CLUB, that seems to have no direction at all.
Levy supposedly wants us to be playing in the CL, but won't back the manager in the transfer market in order to achieve this. Let's be honest here - last summer's splurge was purely an attempt at placating the fans following the sale of Bale. You look at the team and it hasn't been strengthened at all. We're still as weak as ever in the same positions.

Fair enough, Levy is running a business and he wants to balance the books, but the club motto is "To Dare is To Do". Problem is that Levy does dare to sell our best players every summer.....

Kendall - yes we have finished above Chelsea & Liverpool recently, and could finish above United, but we have only done it when they have been at their weakest or "in transition". We are not capable of doing it when they are playing well consistently.

Next season should be fun when we are replacing Lloris, Vertonghen, Eriksen & Co with players bought from West Brom & Norwich......

 

[The Scarecrow]

The less there is to play for, the less I care, simply because winning games isn't that crucial. It's kind of nice, because it gives me the opportunity to enjoy the game, rather than being reduced to a nervous wreck for 90 minutes.

 

[dudu]

Yes and no......
I can now quite happily switch off a game that we are playing in. We've been so damn poor over the last few months that, instead of being fixated on the game on a laptop (unless it's on tv) I just have it on in the background. Hell, sometimes I've actually VOLUNTEERED to go shopping with the wife and kids during a game!
My reactions to goals is very much like Bubble07. When we concede my thought process is "and now open the floodgates" and when we score it's "well we still won't win". 2 years ago I would have jumped around to celebrate a goal, or get really angry if we conceded. I've lost that passion.....

I've been a fan since 1987 so I've seen the best and worst, from CL football to fines and point deductions/FA cup bans for financial issues (both later rescinded). Seem to think there was also a case of stadium upgrade not being completed in time for first game of season. Regardless though, the passion was there. I'd go to a couple of games a season because prices were reasonably cheap and membership was free. Now I can afford to go once every 3 or 4 seasons.

We're a team, no, we are a CLUB, that seems to have no direction at all.
Levy supposedly wants us to be playing in the CL, but won't back the manager in the transfer market in order to achieve this. Let's be honest here - last summer's splurge was purely an attempt at placating the fans following the sale of Bale. You look at the team and it hasn't been strengthened at all. We're still as weak as ever in the same positions.

Fair enough, Levy is running a business and he wants to balance the books, but the club motto is "To Dare is To Do". Problem is that Levy does dare to sell our best players every summer.....

Kendall - yes we have finished above Chelsea & Liverpool recently, and could finish above United, but we have only done it when they have been at their weakest or "in transition". We are not capable of doing it when they are playing well consistently.

Next season should be fun when we are replacing Lloris, Vertonghen, Eriksen & Co with players bought from West Brom & Norwich......

Perhaps we will be when we are out of our transition?

are we not in a transition period right now? 7 new players, a new inexperienced coach who has even less experience than our previous inexperienced coach.

Maybe apply the same logic that Liverpool are only 3 points ahead of us despite us being in transition....

 

[CosmicHotspur]

It still hurts just as much when we fail as it ever did.

 

[WestBelfast Spurs]

falling out of love for football, couldn't be arsed by it anymore, the ones with the money dominate it, we live of the scraps from the big table and if them scraps don't pay of we end up with crap players and a crap set up, sometimes I wish we where owned by an oil rich man who wanted us as a play thing, just to get us up there

 

[Kendall]

We're a team, no, we are a CLUB, that seems to have no direction at all.
Levy supposedly wants us to be playing in the CL, but won't back the manager in the transfer market in order to achieve this. Let's be honest here - last summer's splurge was purely an attempt at placating the fans following the sale of Bale. You look at the team and it hasn't been strengthened at all. We're still as weak as ever in the same positions.

Absolutely disagree with that. Without Bale last year we would've been hopeless.

We had two options. Keep him, leaving the rest of the squad in decline, with the likes of Parker and Dempsey remaining at the club. Or sell hm and strengthen in serveral positions.

Just because we got a world record fee for Bale doesn't mean the manager wasn't backed. Not many managers get 100m worth of internationals to strengthen their squad. That should've been ample to be as competitive if not more so than Liverpool or Arsenal.