Dougal
Staff
- Jun 4, 2004
- 60,362
- 130,125
- Staff
- #1
Just incase you hadn't realised already it's 'Wedding Season', that time of year when a man says his last tearful goodbyes to familiar friends and drinking establishments before embarking on the all too long road to the grave. His chosen companion for the trip, be it 'the love of his life' or 'the result of his lust for a night' will don a white gown and join him at the alter where they shall be joined in Holy Union 'til death do they part. Or at least until pre-season kicks in properly.
Yes, indeed, 'Wedding Season' actually translates as 'There's bugger all footy on the telly Season'. A time where your caring wife-to-be knows there's no escape, you can't get out of this one! So, it's off up the aisle you go and you might have a bit of a sunshine break when you're done, presumably the moment when the heat gets too much for your new spouse and she completely forgets that you have another, longer lasting, Union which once more needs your attention for the following nine months. For once it's in your favour that Spurs asked you to stump up the cash early for your season ticket, you're all signed up and paid for, as much as you'd like to go shopping with her on a Saturday now that you're married that other commitment cannot be ignored.
I'm not married myself, recently engaged, but I do feel the effect of this short and well-timed season. In a few weeks time, my cousin in Ireland (who I converted to Spurs when we were kids
) will tie the knot and although it falls outside of this 'football-free' window he did manage to avoid having it clash with the much anticipated (by me at least) pre-season clash with Celtic, my 'second team' if you can reasonably have one. Bullet dodged. A few weeks further down the line my fiancé's cousin is wed, inconsiderately clashing her big day with our trip to Stamford Bridge. Tut tut.
And it was just two days ago that I returned from Prague, a nicely-timed outing where I caught the Euro 2008 final on a big screen in the Old Town Square, soaking in the atmosphere of one of the increasingly popular fanzone area's. Nicely done! So my thanks to my mate Paddy for that, that's how you time a Wedding if it does have to clash with football, although I suspect his wife had more to do with the organising on that whole thing. So anyway, moving things on before the kick-off at the Riverside catches up with me, I slide effortlessly from one recently married Tallaght man (Mr Paddy Ryan) to another (Mr Robbie Keane). It seems that while I was away he has found himself at the centre of quite a bit of speculation concerning a move to Liverpool. So, what to make of that then?
For those who don't know me my avatar here on SC would probably be enough to give away my immediate reaction to the news. Are hubcaps not enough for the thieving bastards, they're now trying to crowbar away my hero at The Lane? As many who take a trip abroad know, scraps of footballing news can be hard to come by on your travels and I only got my hands on a Sunday rag on Monday morning so finding an inlet and outlet for what little knowledge I had on the whole story was quite difficult. I finally got home, visited the forums of Spurs Community (if you haven't already done so, they are highly recommended :up: ), read the paper reports within, along with the passionate viewpoints of many and the original panic of the whole situation subsided. I suddenly felt relaxed about the whole thing due to, what I could see, was the complete over-reaction of many others. My delay in receiving the news had given me a chance to review it all in my own time and not as it was drip-fed in from one newspaper report to another. So here's how I see it.
Robbie Keane hasn't said anything directly. This may seem a difficult thing to grasp for the people I have seen since my return from holiday who tell me that he is off but so far I can't find a quote. That's not to say that he hasn't said anything. I haven't a clue. But as it stands I believe he is on his honeymoon so I'll let him be the one getting over-excited for now.
Liverpool, so often a club in the now distant past that have been respected for it's dealings, seem more likely to treat a transfer like the proposed move of Gareth Barry, no class whatsoever, blundering in with the subtleness of Real Madrid and sounding out a player publicly. Shameless behaviour. Whether this is their tactic with Keane, time will tell, for Barry there is no doubt.
Tottenham don't like to respond to speculation, they even take their time responding to actual facts if their website is anything to go by, so again, best not to give their apparent silence to much credence.
Juande Ramos, apparently subbed Robbie loads of times which is enough for some people to think he dislikes him. You look for an answer so hard sometimes that you will find it whether it is there or not.
Those viewpoints above seem pretty obvious to me yet they don't supply answers to whether he is off or not. Mainly because there aren't any answers yet, unless you subscribe to whatever edition of ITK Weekly or tabloid rag, not really my thing, for the safe-keeping of my own sanity.
So, that leaves us, the Spurs fan, of which there are many. Where do we stand? Sadly, not united. Some beg him to stay, others say good riddance, many question the loyalty of a player who supposedly loves Spurs but now wants to take the exit out. People in the past have suggested we get £5-7m from Villa, Celtic or Everton, 'he can't be that good, the top 4 never come knocking'. Are these the same people who call him every name under the sun when a rumoured £20m approach from one of the elite clubs sprinkled with a pinch of hearsay means that now he is that good and so he should show them some loyalty?
Player loyalty means absolutely nothing in the game of football, but that is definitely a two-way street, it works for the fans and the players. Players who represent the club are treated according to whether they haven't done enough to stop them being the lastest in a long line of scapegoats, at the mercy of a hungry baying crowd. Much like the tabloids, as quick as you can be put on that pedestool you can be thrust from it too. This isn't as much about Keane showing disloyalty as much as it is about Robinson signing a 7 year deal, having one of the best relationships with the fans and then getting slaughtered within these and other messageboards when the chips are down. We have loyalty to the name of Tottenham Hotspur in so much as when asked who our team is we provide that answer but everything beyond that one question is then up for grabs. Players come and go. The badge? It changes. The kit, changes. The manager, coaches, staff, chairman, maybe even the ground, all change. I've seen quite a few incarnations of Spurs in the last 25 years and and so many aspects of the club have at some point some been under both sides of the love/hate relationship that I'm surprised Marmite haven't been approached for a shirt sponsorship deal. We show loyalty to all of these things when it suits us and expect an unwavering return. Sorry, but you can't expect it to work that way as much as it would obviously be pleasing.
In the next few days/weeks/months the whole weekend long Keane Saga will have provided the answers that we crave now but until things are much clearer we need to support our player and not end up looking like that Scouse gobshite who, a couple of seasons back on hearing that a deal could be on, set fire to his Gerrard Liverpool jersey live on Sky Sports News just hours before Stevie G let Chelsea know that it wasn't happening after all. Here is our chance to show loyalty, even at the risk of getting hurt. Stop stuffing and dressing your Keano effigy, stop comparing him to Sol Campbell unless he actually signs for the Scum for free and sit back and wait. The Irishman is almost as prolific in giving interviews as he is in sticking the ball in the back of the net but we can blame this particular dry spell on him consumating his nuptuals until we know anything concrete.
Some say that supporting a club is like a marriage. Well it's a marriage made in Hell if it is. It's far too one-sided to be based on equality (Now it begins to sound like a dream marriage for some of you ). Taking you club for better, for worse, in good times and bad, in sickness and in health is far too rare these days. It's all about 'till death do us part and anything that happens 'til then will suit me, me, me. Is it any wonder the other half of the equation might want to take up their own options when it suits them? In two years times, when I take my vows, obviously after the 2010 World Cup finishes and before the 2010-2011 season starts, I hope I'll enter into it with a loyalty that in no way similar to that associated between a fan and his club, that's no way to do business or pleasure.
And it wouldn't do my long term happiness any harm at all to see Robbie Keane dressed in white for the next fews season either. The bouquet, veil and garter are optional but ill-advised.
Yes, indeed, 'Wedding Season' actually translates as 'There's bugger all footy on the telly Season'. A time where your caring wife-to-be knows there's no escape, you can't get out of this one! So, it's off up the aisle you go and you might have a bit of a sunshine break when you're done, presumably the moment when the heat gets too much for your new spouse and she completely forgets that you have another, longer lasting, Union which once more needs your attention for the following nine months. For once it's in your favour that Spurs asked you to stump up the cash early for your season ticket, you're all signed up and paid for, as much as you'd like to go shopping with her on a Saturday now that you're married that other commitment cannot be ignored.
I'm not married myself, recently engaged, but I do feel the effect of this short and well-timed season. In a few weeks time, my cousin in Ireland (who I converted to Spurs when we were kids
) will tie the knot and although it falls outside of this 'football-free' window he did manage to avoid having it clash with the much anticipated (by me at least) pre-season clash with Celtic, my 'second team' if you can reasonably have one. Bullet dodged. A few weeks further down the line my fiancé's cousin is wed, inconsiderately clashing her big day with our trip to Stamford Bridge. Tut tut.And it was just two days ago that I returned from Prague, a nicely-timed outing where I caught the Euro 2008 final on a big screen in the Old Town Square, soaking in the atmosphere of one of the increasingly popular fanzone area's. Nicely done! So my thanks to my mate Paddy for that, that's how you time a Wedding if it does have to clash with football, although I suspect his wife had more to do with the organising on that whole thing. So anyway, moving things on before the kick-off at the Riverside catches up with me, I slide effortlessly from one recently married Tallaght man (Mr Paddy Ryan) to another (Mr Robbie Keane). It seems that while I was away he has found himself at the centre of quite a bit of speculation concerning a move to Liverpool. So, what to make of that then?
For those who don't know me my avatar here on SC would probably be enough to give away my immediate reaction to the news. Are hubcaps not enough for the thieving bastards, they're now trying to crowbar away my hero at The Lane? As many who take a trip abroad know, scraps of footballing news can be hard to come by on your travels and I only got my hands on a Sunday rag on Monday morning so finding an inlet and outlet for what little knowledge I had on the whole story was quite difficult. I finally got home, visited the forums of Spurs Community (if you haven't already done so, they are highly recommended :up: ), read the paper reports within, along with the passionate viewpoints of many and the original panic of the whole situation subsided. I suddenly felt relaxed about the whole thing due to, what I could see, was the complete over-reaction of many others. My delay in receiving the news had given me a chance to review it all in my own time and not as it was drip-fed in from one newspaper report to another. So here's how I see it.
Robbie Keane hasn't said anything directly. This may seem a difficult thing to grasp for the people I have seen since my return from holiday who tell me that he is off but so far I can't find a quote. That's not to say that he hasn't said anything. I haven't a clue. But as it stands I believe he is on his honeymoon so I'll let him be the one getting over-excited for now.
Liverpool, so often a club in the now distant past that have been respected for it's dealings, seem more likely to treat a transfer like the proposed move of Gareth Barry, no class whatsoever, blundering in with the subtleness of Real Madrid and sounding out a player publicly. Shameless behaviour. Whether this is their tactic with Keane, time will tell, for Barry there is no doubt.
Tottenham don't like to respond to speculation, they even take their time responding to actual facts if their website is anything to go by, so again, best not to give their apparent silence to much credence.
Juande Ramos, apparently subbed Robbie loads of times which is enough for some people to think he dislikes him. You look for an answer so hard sometimes that you will find it whether it is there or not.
Those viewpoints above seem pretty obvious to me yet they don't supply answers to whether he is off or not. Mainly because there aren't any answers yet, unless you subscribe to whatever edition of ITK Weekly or tabloid rag, not really my thing, for the safe-keeping of my own sanity.
So, that leaves us, the Spurs fan, of which there are many. Where do we stand? Sadly, not united. Some beg him to stay, others say good riddance, many question the loyalty of a player who supposedly loves Spurs but now wants to take the exit out. People in the past have suggested we get £5-7m from Villa, Celtic or Everton, 'he can't be that good, the top 4 never come knocking'. Are these the same people who call him every name under the sun when a rumoured £20m approach from one of the elite clubs sprinkled with a pinch of hearsay means that now he is that good and so he should show them some loyalty?
Player loyalty means absolutely nothing in the game of football, but that is definitely a two-way street, it works for the fans and the players. Players who represent the club are treated according to whether they haven't done enough to stop them being the lastest in a long line of scapegoats, at the mercy of a hungry baying crowd. Much like the tabloids, as quick as you can be put on that pedestool you can be thrust from it too. This isn't as much about Keane showing disloyalty as much as it is about Robinson signing a 7 year deal, having one of the best relationships with the fans and then getting slaughtered within these and other messageboards when the chips are down. We have loyalty to the name of Tottenham Hotspur in so much as when asked who our team is we provide that answer but everything beyond that one question is then up for grabs. Players come and go. The badge? It changes. The kit, changes. The manager, coaches, staff, chairman, maybe even the ground, all change. I've seen quite a few incarnations of Spurs in the last 25 years and and so many aspects of the club have at some point some been under both sides of the love/hate relationship that I'm surprised Marmite haven't been approached for a shirt sponsorship deal. We show loyalty to all of these things when it suits us and expect an unwavering return. Sorry, but you can't expect it to work that way as much as it would obviously be pleasing.
In the next few days/weeks/months the whole weekend long Keane Saga will have provided the answers that we crave now but until things are much clearer we need to support our player and not end up looking like that Scouse gobshite who, a couple of seasons back on hearing that a deal could be on, set fire to his Gerrard Liverpool jersey live on Sky Sports News just hours before Stevie G let Chelsea know that it wasn't happening after all. Here is our chance to show loyalty, even at the risk of getting hurt. Stop stuffing and dressing your Keano effigy, stop comparing him to Sol Campbell unless he actually signs for the Scum for free and sit back and wait. The Irishman is almost as prolific in giving interviews as he is in sticking the ball in the back of the net but we can blame this particular dry spell on him consumating his nuptuals until we know anything concrete.
Some say that supporting a club is like a marriage. Well it's a marriage made in Hell if it is. It's far too one-sided to be based on equality (Now it begins to sound like a dream marriage for some of you
). Taking you club for better, for worse, in good times and bad, in sickness and in health is far too rare these days. It's all about 'till death do us part and anything that happens 'til then will suit me, me, me. Is it any wonder the other half of the equation might want to take up their own options when it suits them? In two years times, when I take my vows, obviously after the 2010 World Cup finishes and before the 2010-2011 season starts, I hope I'll enter into it with a loyalty that in no way similar to that associated between a fan and his club, that's no way to do business or pleasure.And it wouldn't do my long term happiness any harm at all to see Robbie Keane dressed in white for the next fews season either. The bouquet, veil and garter are optional but ill-advised.
