The Glory Game - Boost or Burden ?

[flatback4]

“Football 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's legendary quote defines the 'Tottenham style'. Skilful attacking football. Winning 5-4 instead of 1-0. For 50-odd years we've tried to live up to that ideal. We've idolised the likes Hoddle, Ardiles, Gazza, Ginola and so many more in that mould. We've spent big and we've bought in big stars. Yet - being honest - we've never had the kind of sustained success that the likes of ManU, Liverpool and A*****l have enjoyed. Sure, they've had flair players too - but they've also been good at something that's never been the Tottenham way - just grinding out results week in, week out.

So I wonder whether the Glory Game and the Tottenham style - which every manager since Billy Nick has tried to recapture - has become a bit of a millstone round our necks ? I wonder whether we have to accept that to do well in modern football, the old Tottenham style just isn't possible anymore.

I wonder if the whole club needs a change of philosphy from top to bottom. The understanding that a style that achieved everything 50-odd years ago isn't going to win much today, where the emphasis is on not losing just as much as it is on winning.

I've always loved it when Tottenham have gone out and bought great players - present crop included - but that really doesn't seem to cut it anymore. It's just not working. Much as I love seeing us play dazzling football, I think the time's come to maybe abandon the Blanchflower ideal and inject a bit of realism into the club's outlook. Sure, football is about glory - we had that last spring - but it's also about hard-nosed consistency too. And that's never been Tottenham's strongpoint. Maybe time for a change ?

 

[DC_Boy]

good debating point

I've always diasagreed when people have disparaged route one/long ball football as 'not Tottenham'

1) plenty of times we have played it - and if it's part of a successful strategy as it has been many times for us - then 2) I'm all for it

 

[Max_Junglie]

Good post :up:

I'm not greedy and I prefer the romantic ideal of the glory game. I'd be perfectly happy having a decent run at the top places and the odd bit of silverware.

I wasn't around to see the teams of the 50's and 60's, but I do wonder how much of their legend is romanticising (I'm not being critical btw!) and whether we had a distinctly unglamorous side to our game that's simply been forgotten. Some of the older members will hopefully be able to give their views.

Anyway, I'm with Blanchflower on this one.

p.s. I'm sad to see that my post count has surpassed 400 and that I'm no longer Paul Stewart. :violin: I wish I could have been Paul Stewart for ever. Even though he didn't exactly embody the spirit of the game I'm endorsing above.

 

[Azrael]

Without a doubt the glory game has long presented a problem. It has generated a conundrum where fans say that would rather see pretty football than win a trophy through 1-0 Arsenal style campaigns....yet these are the same fans who the complain when we don't get to the top.

Ultimatey I feel that the glory game is a luxury and in today's modern premiership you can only afford the glory game wher eyou have some reasonable measure of good success to sit it upon.

 

[polski sklep]

It is a lot easier to play negative, boring football to grind out results. It is the team taking the initiative, within their respective means, that deserve more to become victorious.

If we start grinding out results, we will become just another negative football team. The process of developing a new team into an intricate, attacking style will take longer than simply playing percentages.

Ramos is building towards our glory game and only with time, patience and support, will we have our old Tottenham back.

 

[Azrael]

It is a lot easier to play negative, boring football to grind out results. It is the team taking the initiative, within their respective means, that deserve more to become victorious.

If we start grinding out results, we will become just another negative football team. The process of developing a new team into an intricate, attacking style will take longer than simply playing percentages.

Ramos is building towards our glory game and only with time, patience and support, will we have our old Tottenham back.

See this kind of attitude is, with respect, nonsense. How can you possible be content with seeing more seasons and game after game of us no winning when we otherwise should be.....just for the glory game. Can you even remember when we last properly saw the glory game?

 

[polski sklep]

See this kind of attitude is, with respect, nonsense. How can you possible be content with seeing more seasons and game after game of us no winning when we otherwise should be.....just for the glory game. Can you even remember when we last properly saw the glory game?

This is what Ramos is building towards. Developing a new team to play intricate, attacking, entertaining football will take a while. If we choose, now, to grind out results then we will negate this process.

 

[Max_Junglie]

See this kind of attitude is, with respect, nonsense.

IMO it's only nonsense if you take the view that winning is the only thing that matters. That's what this thread asks - are you a win-at-all costs man or a win-some-with-style, lose-some-with-style man? George Graham or Ossie Ardiles?*

The ultimate aim is to be a win-everything-with-style team, but that probably is nothing more than a pipedream for any side. We all want to see Spurs be successful, but we have no automatic right to success regardless of history or expenditure. What price are you / we willing pay for success?

I can live with a few glorious defeats. They make the glorious triumphs all the more delicious.

(*I know, bad choices.)

 

[spursphil]

I have followed spurs for 40 years, and like many the style of play is important, after all its supposed to be entertainment.
In 70's and 80's it was the norm to go and watch other teams with mates as football was cheap to watch then. West Ham always tried to play football but arsenal's style was pure dross yet produced winning teams.
We always went for flair players and the flair players wanted to come to spurs.
The 86/87 team were an absolute joy to watch, by far the most entertaining team that season, but how many thousands of fans did we win playing football the way we did?
The acid test is go ask an arsenal fan would they prefer to go back to the football they played pre wenger, to a man they would say no!
Yet arsenal are finding it hard to win anything of late.

Football has changed so much in the years i have been watching the game and it hasn't changed for the better. Competition has gone now with the new structures in place, even arsenal fans are beginning to realise that 4th spot is seen as success even if they don't win a thing.

Spurs have never been consistant in the league, hence only two championships. But our greatest asset has been our tradition of playing attacking football. The great Billy Nick left us his legacy to uphold a tradition that is known throughout the football world.
The club has tried maybe harder than any other to break into the top 4, but that won't happen untill we find a mega rich backer like man city have. Thats when i will call it a day with premiership football.

 

[Krafty]

I think its why supporting Spurs is unique. Sometimes we are magnificent, sometimes we are terrible, but you just never know. One of the reason's so many people are angry at our start to the season has been we havent been anywhere near magnificent. If we were playing good stuff and getting beat there would be some sympathy.

That being said, I think we would all take a horrible 1-0 win somewhere in the league, problem is we are not setup like that. If a team is going to win 1-0 in a fortnight's time it will be Stoke. People take a general view, so its not a mistake to say they were great days and played great football, but if we recover this season, finish 12th and win the Uefa cup our start to the season will just be a footnote

As for the glory glory days of the past, everything looks better hindsight. No doubt amongst the great games were some rubbish ones, the mark of a great team being winning games while playing badly. In the end

 

[themanwhofellasleep]

Preferably we win with style but I'd prefer to win 1-0 than lose 5-4.

I think that Spurs fans want the same as any other fans - to see their team play well, see attacking football and win games and trophies. I doubt there's a team in the country whose fans say "Oh, we love it when our team wins 1-0 with a dour performance. We'd much prefer that to winning 5-1 playing flowing football".

Bill Nicholson or Glenn Hoddle don't have a monopoly on Spurs. That is the past. We have to play the football that gets results in the Premiership in 2008, not in the first division in the 60s or 80s. We have to be realistic about our position, the other teams around us and what it takes to win things. None of that means that we should abandon an attacking approach, but it does mean that we shouldn't be slaves to one way of doing things. In the seasons when we've done well in the league, we all remember that games where we win 5-0 but conveniently forget the scrappy games we won 1-0.

My problem with some Spurs fans is that they think that Spurs don't have to do the dirty work. They think that we're a Rolls Royce and deserve only the finest. They would rather see us spending £15m on Pavlyuchenko because he's a glamour player, rather than £5m on Marlon King because he's a journeyman. Never mind that Marlon King might be more effective than Pav. They think we're competing with Man U, Arsenal and Chelsea - we're not. We're competing with a whole load of mid-table teams and we need to get the basics sorted before we start dreaming of glory.

 

[Real_madyidd]

For me it's all about style, especially now where it is just "richest club wins". May as well just get all the owners to Wembley at the start of the season, see who has the most cash and hand them the prizes.

Now more than ever I want to be entertained, as winning at any cost just isn't important. I support Spurs because of how we play, if it was simply down to geography I would support Carshalton Athletic or Crystal Palace. If it was just win at all costs I would just support whoever is the best (as many people I know have done). I support Spurs, not for the glory of winning, but for the glory of playing the game in the right way.

 

[Banjo]

Azrael,

You are having a seriously bad posting day. Not to mention publically confessing to being a lawyer.

If I could give you the complete quote, from the Oxford Dictionary thereof:-

"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."

Are you sure you really understand Spurs and want to be a fan. Or are you just to young to understand the real meaning of 'glory'?

 

[DEFchenkOE]

I think its why supporting Spurs is unique. Sometimes we are magnificent, sometimes we are terrible, but you just never know. One of the reason's so many people are angry at our start to the season has been we havent been anywhere near magnificent. If we were playing good stuff and getting beat there would be some sympathy.

That being said, I think we would all take a horrible 1-0 win somewhere in the league, problem is we are not setup like that. If a team is going to win 1-0 in a fortnight's time it will be Stoke. People take a general view, so its not a mistake to say they were great days and played great football, but if we recover this season, finish 12th and win the Uefa cup our start to the season will just be a footnote

As for the glory glory days of the past, everything looks better hindsight. No doubt amongst the great games were some rubbish ones, the mark of a great team being winning games while playing badly. In the end

Good post, what you said about us not being magnificent yet is my biggest problem with us at the moment. Personally if we cannot win the league or get in the CL I want us to at least be playing good football. Unfortunately we haven't played anything resembling good football at all this season. I'm not even sure what style of football the team is trying to play. As everyone knows we've always been shaky at the back but if we can't even attack properly then that is a serious issue as we're finding out. I don't think we're burdened by the glory game. It's not as if we're playing top quality stuff and still losing.

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

arsehole dont grind out results, if they did they would have done hull and sunderland. arsefuckall can do alot but they cant grind.

 

[themanwhofellasleep]

arsehole dont grind out results, if they did they would have done hull and sunderland. arsefuckall can do alot but they cant grind.

When people talk about Arsenal being dull, they are clearly talking about George Graham's Arsenal. The galling fact is that over the last decade not only have Arsenal won lots more than us, they have played the kind of attacking football that Spurs used to be famous for.