- May 19, 2015
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"The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It is nothing of the kind. The game is about glory, it is about doing things in style and with a flourish, about going out and beating the lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom." - Danny Blanchflower.
Probably more than any other team in England, Spurs have an identity of playing entertaining, attacking football. It's not enough for a lot of fans to only see the club win, they have to win well. Indeed, I get the impression that some would rather see us lose playing good football than win by sticking 10 men behind the ball. It could even be argued that this identity of the club and the expectation that come with it is a millstone around its neck at times. I'm on the other side of the world, but I hear it in the groan of the crowd if we're not dominating possession or we fail to pass it forward at every available opportunity.
IMO it's this identity that made the appointment of Jose Mourinho the most surprising. Here we have a manager that has won everything, but is notorious for playing pragmatic, even negative, football in order to fill the trophy cabinet. And while there's been no fans in the ground, the expectation of how Spurs are 'supposed' to play and the associated dissatisfaction in what they see on the pitch at the moment has bled out into social media and even game day threads in here. Yet there are others that will bear with it as long as it looks like we're winning. I think this is a discussion that is even more poignant after half a decade of phenomenal football under Pochettino where we won nothing.
And this brings me to my questions. Is there a place that's too much of a compromise of our identity, regardless of if we win? If so, are we there, is it coming, or have we gone past it? Is winning the only thing that matters, or is it just important that we win with 'glory'? Obviously everyone will celebrate if we do win trophies, but will a small part of the varnish be taken off for you if it comes as a result of pragmatic, negative football or does it just not matter?
I don't know the right answer to these questions. It's something I've been thinking a lot about since we appointed Jose, and I'm interested to know the opinions of people who have been around the club a lot longer than I have.
Probably more than any other team in England, Spurs have an identity of playing entertaining, attacking football. It's not enough for a lot of fans to only see the club win, they have to win well. Indeed, I get the impression that some would rather see us lose playing good football than win by sticking 10 men behind the ball. It could even be argued that this identity of the club and the expectation that come with it is a millstone around its neck at times. I'm on the other side of the world, but I hear it in the groan of the crowd if we're not dominating possession or we fail to pass it forward at every available opportunity.
IMO it's this identity that made the appointment of Jose Mourinho the most surprising. Here we have a manager that has won everything, but is notorious for playing pragmatic, even negative, football in order to fill the trophy cabinet. And while there's been no fans in the ground, the expectation of how Spurs are 'supposed' to play and the associated dissatisfaction in what they see on the pitch at the moment has bled out into social media and even game day threads in here. Yet there are others that will bear with it as long as it looks like we're winning. I think this is a discussion that is even more poignant after half a decade of phenomenal football under Pochettino where we won nothing.
And this brings me to my questions. Is there a place that's too much of a compromise of our identity, regardless of if we win? If so, are we there, is it coming, or have we gone past it? Is winning the only thing that matters, or is it just important that we win with 'glory'? Obviously everyone will celebrate if we do win trophies, but will a small part of the varnish be taken off for you if it comes as a result of pragmatic, negative football or does it just not matter?
I don't know the right answer to these questions. It's something I've been thinking a lot about since we appointed Jose, and I'm interested to know the opinions of people who have been around the club a lot longer than I have.