The best of times: the worst of times

[JimmyG2]

Why don't we keep our heads down and keep quiet? Why do we have to keep mentioning Top Four,Champions league,Cup runs and so on? I've been a Spurs supporter now for a very long time and been through some good times; some very good times, and some bad times; some very bad times.

That's what this is; a bad time. It's not one of the very bad times, but it might be. We don't know yet. Its not likely,the team is talented and young and we have a good manager. I thought we would do well this season, but then I always do.

So why don't we keep quiet and wait for things to take a turn for the better. This applies to the players too. They are either talking public relations platitudes on the official website, or caught in the headlights of a reporter's microphone spouting rubbish. See this week's performances by Jenas talking about 'playing ugly' and Bales woeful meanderings about 'video nasties'. Although I'm not sure that he actually said these words.

Well, we don't keep quiet as fans because we follow a great club, with a fine record and a history and tradition to be proud of. We have a right to expect better and to look towards the future with optimism.

We may get relegated. There's no law the says that Tottenham have to stay in the Premiership. So be it. We are still a great club,with a fine record and a history and tradition to be proud of. The fair weather supporters will melt away and the true fans will remain.

There is an obstinate, awkward streak in most fans and certainly amongst Spurs fans that insists on talking top four as we lose yet another winnable game. Good for them I say. That's what supporters do: they support.

Sometimes its hard and the boos at the end of the Wigan game are not helpful to the team. We were pretty quiet during the first half too as nervous as the players it seemed. Perhaps if we had given them a tumultuous welcome and cheered from the start it might have made the difference. But probably not. The place for our forensic analysis and even for withering criticism of the players is on fansites which hopefully the players and manager do not read.

If we don't stand up and back them who will? I think its fair to say that we are the laughing stock of the Premiership,at the moment, well apart from Newcastle of course and by a neat coincidence we played them tonight and won. But we often are of late because of some over inflated delusions,not only by us, but by the media. Fans always hope and perhaps think that their team will win the Premiership every year. And so they should. That's what fans are for. Let our opponents run us down, don't do their job for them.

I think that Levy has mishandled the replacement of Berbatov, Keane and Defoe. I think that we have performed with a lack of spirit and the longer a poor run goes on the harder it is to reverse it. I think that Ramos has been wrong in some of his team selection and placement of players. But in general the Board has backed the manager and the team is better and has more potential than in previous seasons. It needs time to settle,or gel, as the current term has it. But gel it will,probably sooner rather than later.

But,if it doesn't, hang in there. All these problems and mismanagements are temporary blips in the long and wonderful history of our club.

 

[paxton_soul]

Easier said than done - when they are at their lowest thats when you really find out about people. And now you really find out about Spurs fans - we want it all and we want it now.

A bit of the old 90s attitude and flavour has crept back in when every player treated the ball like a live hand grenade knowing the cat calls that would follow. But that lot were rubbish and knew it (Cundy? Edinburgh? Austin? Walker? need I go on). This lot are suppposed to be some of Europe's cream.

So players fault yeah?

Levy has been a twat - holding on like he did over berbatov he HAD to win. That berbs went anyway shows how futile the whole thing was. He has badly misjudged comolli and like an obstinate fool clings to him knowing his sacking would reflect badly on him. He is the epitome of poor British company management and only the balance sheet matters to that poison dwarf. He can sell out white hart lane with barely adequate - so why aim higher and risk destabilising the business.

So Levy's fault yeah?

And then there is us. With our talk of great history of glory glory nights and the Spurs way. The great body and spirit of Tottenham fans who have with our exhibition match view of what what football looks like have turned us into show ponies. How else can it be that for 20 years we have ocassionally looked imperious, had some wonderfully skilled players and tactically brilliant managers through the door but have NEVER been able to defend or win a midfield battle? The sum of our parts ALWAYS amounts to less than the individuals?

All these people couldn't have been so incompetent right? No - they gave us what we wanted. What we want permeates through every level of the club from the stockbroker grubbers who have the ear of the backroom staff in the players lounge to the boos that ring out round the Lane. We bring this on ourselves everytime.

There are players out there - limited footballers who would get laughed off a Spurs training ground, whose face wouldn't fit - but whose other talents would enable our skilled players to do their best, who would galvanise our side, who would drive us on when things are not quite working, who would make us a team. They don't get a look in. I honestly wonder if Dave MacKay or Graham Roberts would last two seconds at Spurs these days...

...in my darker moments I wonder if relegation might not actually be a good thing for Spurs. It would hurt like hell but we would have to toughen up and maybe knock the showpony mentality out of us all for good.

Then we come back twice as hard, nasty, mean, determined, hate losing more than enjoy winning...AND skillful. That was the kind of teams Nicholson and Burkinshaw built.

 

[spud]

Well said JimmyG2. Take the (often very) rough with the (infrequent) smooth and get on with it. Support the team and, who knows, something good might happen.

Paxton soul, I hope that you feel better now you've got that off your chest. Good for you, but please don't dare to suggest that the immortal Dave McKay - arguably the greatest player ever to wear the shirt - was a 'limited footballer'.

 

[alchemission]

Only had to read the first line... spot on.

Fans need to understand that cracks in the foundations start on a site like this. I implore everyone to cast aside any ideas of management or personnel change or rash criticism as it will only work against our Club. YOU will be counter-productive to the cause.

Support, supporter. You wouldn't blast your Dad if he came home from a bad day at work. Have some respect.

 

[AdelaideSpur]

I was thinking the exact same thing this morning, I dont think i have ever heard Villa, Everton, Portsmouth or Man City (except for the new owners) talk about top 4 this and that.
Its good that the players have confidence but a bit more action and a little less talk wouldn't go amiss............
You can relate that top paragraph to fans, players, owners, pretty much everyone involved with the football club.
I bet our toilet cleaners talk to the other teams toilet cleaners about how great it will be cleaning up after Real Madrid or Juventus next year :grin:

 

[kernowspur]

Agree with you Jimmyg2. Like everyone else I am disappointed with the start to the season and depressed after another bad performance. But I will always be a Spurs fan and support the team. I have known good and bad times, I am old enough to have watched the Double side and to remember relegation in the 70s. Tottenham is a great club with a great tradition and history and nothing changes my love for Spurs.

 

[Stoof]

It was the best of times; it was the blurst of times!?? STUPID MONKEY!

Good post Jim.

 

[paxton_soul]

Well said JimmyG2. Take the (often very) rough with the (infrequent) smooth and get on with it. Support the team and, who knows, something good might happen.

Paxton soul, I hope that you feel better now you've got that off your chest. Good for you, but please don't dare to suggest that the immortal Dave McKay - arguably the greatest player ever to wear the shirt - was a 'limited footballer'.

Lord no! Completely agree he was a legend. I dream of a team of Dave MacKay's....I just don't think we as fans or as a club would be able to spot a potential dave MacKay if he was standing right in front of us.

Its on us fella. Its on us.

 

[Paxtonite]

To be fair, ever since our consecutive fifth placed finishes and the "supposed" demise of Arsenal or Liverpool, it has been the media pushing the top four thing.

Every interview with a spurs player or coach has contained the words "do you think a 4th place finish is achievable?" or words to that effect.

Or you could be looking at some pundit on Sky or BBC saying "if anyone can break the monopoly of the top four it will be Spurs".

Then you will have hour upon hour of phone in's on the radio abou tthe subject and so on and so forth.

The spurs fans get swept up in it.

Of course there is always the fact that we blow everyone away in pre season (or have done in the last four years) and expectations for the start of the season heighten again. Cue media top four topic of discussion.

Then we make some purchases and the media led discussions start again.

Football media and punditry is a circus of average joe's trying to make a living and all they do is fuel fires. The "Spurs top four" fire is the one that usually burns brightest and gives everyone a stick to beat us with.

That said, we cannot, as fans, expect to accept the same old transitions and excuses each season. There is a time when our history as a great club has to move into the present, and whether we need a kick up the backside by getting relegated or not is a moot point. The fact is that we have a talented squad; a talented management team; and a strong financial base from which to work. At some point the potential has to be realised and it is fair for fans to expect this and not be kept waiting indefinitely.

 

[tottenham4life]

keeping quiet is not the spurs way!

 

[hodspurs]

his top 4 thing that has been going on for the last year or 2 is a joke.i thought in the summer before we sold keane top 8 would be hard, but now i see top 10 as being hard...

 

[JoeT]

It seems to me that the 'top four talk' emerges after a pint or three...by quite a few fans on here and at times by players as well . The vast majority who KNOW deep down, that for this to happen our players will have to play out of their collective skins all season long, we will have to experience the rub of the green all season long, and all of the stars will have to align over WHL. Look at our squad and compare it with ManU....they can put out two teams as good as ours. It's nothing more than wishful thinking until we really change....from management, coaches and to the players.
For what it's worth, I posted - more than once - that RIGHT AFTER the Carling Cup win Ramos should have demanded the team in the next day for practice...still drunk or not. He didn't do it and we sank without a trace accordingly. Until our team and management develop a 'totally comitted' attitude like...and I'm going to say it; Arsenal and Wenger, we will never be a really outstanding football club. I see that our 'sulker' Berbatov...whom we put up with all of last season, is now hearing the rumblings around Manchester that he'd better start working harder in games....they just don't put up with nothing less than total effort....even with their 'stars'.
I still haven't given up on Ramos by the way...maybe he can really drive the players; until then, any top four talk will never come from me.

 

[gibb]

To be fair, ever since our consecutive fifth placed finishes and the "supposed" demise of Arsenal or Liverpool, it has been the media pushing the top four thing.

Every interview with a spurs player or coach has contained the words "do you think a 4th place finish is achievable?" or words to that effect.

Or you could be looking at some pundit on Sky or BBC saying "if anyone can break the monopoly of the top four it will be Spurs".

Then you will have hour upon hour of phone in's on the radio abou tthe subject and so on and so forth.

The spurs fans get swept up in it.

Of course there is always the fact that we blow everyone away in pre season (or have done in the last four years) and expectations for the start of the season heighten again. Cue media top four topic of discussion.

Then we make some purchases and the media led discussions start again.

Football media and punditry is a circus of average joe's trying to make a living and all they do is fuel fires. The "Spurs top four" fire is the one that usually burns brightest and gives everyone a stick to beat us with.

That said, we cannot, as fans, expect to accept the same old transitions and excuses each season. There is a time when our history as a great club has to move into the present, and whether we need a kick up the backside by getting relegated or not is a moot point. The fact is that we have a talented squad; a talented management team; and a strong financial base from which to work. At some point the potential has to be realised and it is fair for fans to expect this and not be kept waiting indefinitely.

Great post mate, you should be a journalist, i agree with every word....