Stop everything you’re doing and read this

[DenverSpur]

Liverpool chat? In Spurs Chat!?! It actually relates to many many fans and perfectly puts into words a problem I, and seemingly many others, have when discussing the modern game. Whole conversations descend into drivel due to the appearance of the sort of fan mentioned here. I’ll shut up now and let this gentleman do the talking.

The Cold World of the Extremely Online Liverpool Fan

The odd existence of the digital football supporter who doesn’t care about football

dean-magazine.ghost.io

Great read. Some very recognizable types there) and on here)

 

[allatsea]

Honestly this is so, so pertinent right now. The negativity and entitlement is absolutely unbelievable. And we can't just say "oh, that's Twitter for you". This place is frankly becoming an unbearable cesspit and I'm finding myself spending less and less time here. No offence intended whatsoever to the staff who do an amazing job, but you'd honestly think we'd lost 5-0 today, not drawn 2-2 away with a side that played Champions League last season. Our online fans are en masse taking out their anger at not having got over the line to a major trophy a few years back on a manager and many players who weren't even here at the time, and to be honest I think that's very sad to see. Whatever happened to getting behind your team?!

Fantastic post !

 

[dudu]

Honestly this is so, so pertinent right now. The negativity and entitlement is absolutely unbelievable. And we can't just say "oh, that's Twitter for you". This place is frankly becoming an unbearable cesspit and I'm finding myself spending less and less time here. No offence intended whatsoever to the staff who do an amazing job, but you'd honestly think we'd lost 5-0 today, not drawn 2-2 away with a side that played Champions League last season. Our online fans are en masse taking out their anger at not having got over the line to a major trophy a few years back on a manager and many players who weren't even here at the time, and to be honest I think that's very sad to see. Whatever happened to getting behind your team?!

Great post mate - I cannot stand 90% of the threads in spurs chat.

Posts are identical, not discussing anything with a context or thought, just emotional responses followed by blaming Levy/Nuno/Paratici/Winks.

It's fine to be frustrated and to vent after a loss or poor performance but venting is meant to be a cathartic process. Posters are whining, like children. It's not venting by any stretch of the imagination.

Watching last night I was frustrated but I loved seeing all these young players, thrown in the deep end together in what seemed like an amazing, hostile atmosphere, dig in and grind out a result. I peeked into the match thread, the Nuno thread, the Paratici thread and it's the same, angry angry posts over and over again. I spend more time on here in the non-football chats nowadays because they are (mostly) less toxic and a hell of a lot more interesting.

 

[kremlyn]

Perhaps we all need to wake up and smell the roses? It's not a club anymore, it's a business. They aren't club players anymore, they're professional athletes.

What connection do we actually have with the players? Some of them are local lads but our favourite tried to leave for money and silverware this summer despite being within touching distance of a club scoring record, the premier league scoring record, the national scoring record. There is a difference in wages but not such a significant amount and, if they stayed, the real if remote chance of winning our first silverware for years; something most of us could only dream of. We talk of the club as if it were a family but they treat it as were a girlfriend, something to be improved upon.

So, a few things. Why the hell do we support a business fanatically? It's like the 'Apple' love in; a tribal thing you can't quite explain. Why do we debate and get emotionally involved in an organisation that we have NO insight or involvement in? The answer is that it is just an asset that we expect to perform; hence the entitlement. We feel entitled to our money's worth. Players are merely investments and are disposable if they don't work. This is all true. We should be scratching our heads and wondering why we bother.

And yet...

When Danny Rose walked around the pitch in his Watford kit and applauded us, I felt something. The presence of a real human being, someone who cared and had principles and struggles. There is still a club there, a place where people feel loyalty to each other. In that club, away from our sight characters like Sissoko make a difference, supporting others, creating belonging.

We can't affect the money or the brand or the transfer decisions but we can, if we still want to, cling to the idea that this is a club and look beyond those things. It means not viewing players as just winners or machines. We have to see that it's not just the manager that needs to 'put an arm around them', it's us; if we really want to see Spurs as a club that is.

There's a quote by Dostoevsky, I think, that says you can judge a society by the way it treats its prisoners. The way the online community treats N'Dombele, Winks, Aurier and Sissoko or any player who struggles is damning but it is a vocal minority who do it.

I'm not advocating witch hunt of these super-entitled online fans but I do think we should (and the site should) remind them of the damage they do to the idea of us as a club when they launch their attacks. If you care about the club then an attack on its players should be something you feel responsibility for.

Or is it just a business?

 

[Stamford]

I will be honest. People that write blogs are needy. And more pathetic when they ask for money to read more content like he has done.

Writing words is needy now. What a strange strange opinion.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Perhaps we all need to wake up and smell the roses? It's not a club anymore, it's a business. They aren't club players anymore, they're professional athletes.

What connection do we actually have with the players? Some of them are local lads but our favourite tried to leave for money and silverware this summer despite being within touching distance of a club scoring record, the premier league scoring record, the national scoring record. There is a difference in wages but not such a significant amount and, if they stayed, the real if remote chance of winning our first silverware for years; something most of us could only dream of. We talk of the club as if it were a family but they treat it as were a girlfriend, something to be improved upon.

So, a few things. Why the hell do we support a business fanatically? It's like the 'Apple' love in; a tribal thing you can't quite explain. Why do we debate and get emotionally involved in an organisation that we have NO insight or involvement in? The answer is that it is just an asset that we expect to perform; hence the entitlement. We feel entitled to our money's worth. Players are merely investments and are disposable if they don't work. This is all true. We should be scratching our heads and wondering why we bother.

And yet...

When Danny Rose walked around the pitch in his Watford kit and applauded us, I felt something. The presence of a real human being, someone who cared and had principles and struggles. There is still a club there, a place where people feel loyalty to each other. In that club, away from our sight characters like Sissoko make a difference, supporting others, creating belonging.

We can't affect the money or the brand or the transfer decisions but we can, if we still want to, cling to the idea that this is a club and look beyond those things. It means not viewing players as just winners or machines. We have to see that it's not just the manager that needs to 'put an arm around them', it's us; if we really want to see Spurs as a club that is.

There's a quote by Dostoevsky, I think, that says you can judge a society by the way it treats its prisoners. The way the online community treats N'Dombele, Winks, Aurier and Sissoko or any player who struggles is damning but it is a vocal minority who do it.

I'm not advocating witch hunt of these super-entitled online fans but I do think we should (and the site should) remind them of the damage they do to the idea of us as a club when they launch their attacks. If you care about the club then an attack on its players should be something you feel responsibility for.

Or is it just a business?

Great post however I still feel that it’s possible for top clubs to act as clubs and businesses.

 

[kremlyn]

Great post however I still feel that it’s possible for top clubs to act as clubs and businesses.

They have to. It's more that we shouldn't.