When will the fans' mentalities change?

[JimmyG2]

You can't change the habits of a long lifetime as a Spurs fan.
And the final games of last season were the living proof
that all is not won until the fat lady sings, gargles and gets changed.
She obviously collapsed on stage in May.
But I am enjoying the uncertainty much more with this team under Pochettino.
And because I have few expectations I have fewer disappointments,
Enjoy the ride and forget the destination.
Spurs perpetual Magical Mystery Tour.

 

[bubble07]

Lets win a trophy first

 

[THFCSPURS19]

Reminder: Only 5 months ago, we managed to finish 3rd when we were in a 2 horse title race.

That's the sort of shit Chelsea and Arsenal fans come out with.

 

[Shadydan]

Or people who desperately try to discredit and play down what we did that season

 

[Japhet]

I'll feel more confident when we stuff a team that we've outplayed for 80+ minutes.

 

[TheSpillage]

"Positive pessimism": still assuming we'll fuck things up but looking forward to being pleasantly surprised when we don't. It's the new "Spursy".

 

[yankspurs]

Or people who desperately try to discredit and play down what we did that season

Your asking when we will change our mentality meanwhile the team ended last season with a few extremely spursy things in a year of not many spursy occurances. We lose the title to a sure to be relegated Leicester City of all clubs, we finish 3rd in what many believed to be a race to the title between us and Leicester for about 2 or 3 months, and we get crushed the final game of the season 5-1 vs an already relegated side.

We had a great season last year, there is no denying that and no one is discrediting it. But stop overexaggerating it to the point where the fans should change their mentalities of expecting bad stuff to happen even though just last season, very bad stuff did happen at the end. If we won the title last year, or even a trophy, then it would be different.

 

[Shadydan]

Your asking when we will change our mentality meanwhile the team ended last season with a few extremely spursy things in a year of not many spursy occurances. We lose the title to a sure to be relegated Leicester City of all clubs, we finish 3rd in what many believed to be a race to the title between us and Leicester for about 2 or 3 months, and we get crushed the final game of the season 5-1 vs an already relegated side.

We had a great season last year, there is no denying that and no one is discrediting it. But stop overexaggerating it to the point where the fans should change their mentalities of expecting bad stuff to happen even though just last season, very bad stuff did happen at the end. If we won the title last year, or even a trophy, then it would be different.

Oh my days, the extremes of your posts

Okay well firstly we didn't lose the title to an already relegated Leicester, the title was never ours to lose and Leicester also beat 19 other clubs to the title. Yeah bad stuff happened, but it's not the usual bad stuff. We overachieved, we were never favourites to win the title and it's not as if we were leading the league and we threw it away, well 13 mins but it was hardly a bottle job. In fact there were more moments which you wouldn't typically associate with Spurs last season as opposed to the traditional Spursyness:

Best defence in the league
Best GD
Being in an actual title race
Qualifying for the CL
Period of 16 games unbeaten

When have you ever associated that with Tottenham?

And this is kinda the point, people want to hang onto that word as some sort of comfort blanket just in case Spurs do manage to mess it up it justifies their self wallowing. The very fact that rival fans ridicule that kinda proves my point, if someone said to you that Spurs will finish 3rd on a two horse race before a ball was kicked last season you'd be delighted that we'd finish 3rd, it's only now that you're trying to find a blemish on our season that now the quote is amplified which in turn fuels your negative thoughts, the very fact that we were in a title race should be fucking celebrated, not ridiculed.

 

[mike_l]

You can be pleased with those achievements without becoming an obnoxious supporter that expects us to win every match though, I'm not sure what you feel a change in fan mentality would achieve?

 

[RomanzoCriminale]

Oh my days, the extremes of your posts

Okay well firstly we didn't lose the title to an already relegated Leicester, the title was never ours to lose and Leicester also beat 19 other clubs to the title. Yeah bad stuff happened, but it's not the usual bad stuff. We overachieved, we were never favourites to win the title and it's not as if we were leading the league and we threw it away, well 13 mins but it was hardly a bottle job. In fact there were more moments which you wouldn't typically associate with Spurs last season as opposed to the traditional Spursyness:

Best defence in the league
Best GD
Being in an actual title race
Qualifying for the CL
Period of 16 games unbeaten

When have you ever associated that with Tottenham?

And this is kinda the point, people want to hang onto that word as some sort of comfort blanket just in case Spurs do manage to mess it up it justifies their self wallowing. The very fact that rival fans ridicule that kinda proves my point, if someone said to you that Spurs will finish 3rd on a two horse race before a ball was kicked last season you'd be delighted that we'd finish 3rd, it's only now that you're trying to find a blemish on our season that now the quote is amplified which in turn fuels your negative thoughts, the very fact that we were in a title race should be fucking celebrated, not ridiculed.

Points wise we didn't over achieve, we were about par for where we have been the last few years. If we'd had a better start like we have this year then we would have over achieved..... and won the league.

Sit back and enjoy the ride, from now on it's gonna be a lot lot less bumpy

 

[SandroClegane]

We lose the title to a sure to be relegated Leicester City of all clubs, we finish 3rd in what many believed to be a race to the title between us and Leicester for about 2 or 3 months, and we get crushed the final game of the season 5-1 vs an already relegated side

Not sure why people keep harping on this. Our goal as a team was to win the title, not finish above Arsenal. When we didn't win the title, the squad's desire dropped, it's simple sports psychology. You can say you approach the games the same way but there's a lack of intensity when you've completed goals (qualified for CL) and have none remaining (once the title was lost). It's human nature. Stop being ridiculous.

 

[Hazardousman]

I completely agree, but this team clearly had a bit of a mental collapse at the end of last season so that's why people still fear it could happen again.

Last season surpassed all expectations, but we should have ultimately done better so I can see why people are worried that we still have that type of performance in us.

But this team is made of hardier stuff now. If they can do it for a whole season, we may have to consider being optimistic every now and again.

I actually read something just the other day where Poch said it was a mental collapse as well, here it is http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foo...id-wasnt-physical-it-was-mental-a3367896.html

I still don't think we are past that mental block yet, we are on our way towards it but honestly I still think it's too early to say we are past it.

I think a trophy would be the catalyst for complete change with this team, once we win a trophy we will know just how good we are because sometimes I don't think the players believe they are as good as they are hyped up to be, some do, but other don't, like Danny Rose last season when Lamela said we are playing for the league and how he couldn't believe he would say that.

I think that's something that as time goes on the players will believe more, the Man City result is another example of that belief but I can't help but feel of that City game was at the tail end of the season and we were 4-5 points behind City the result would have been different at this point, hopefully this season will be another learning curve.

I expect us to finish third this season, I think we are more than capable of that again, 1st? Maybe, that just depends on our mentality because I think we have the talent to win this league, for all the talk of the big names and all that bollocks I believe we have the best team and I genuinely think we have some of the best players in this league individually as well.

 

[SandroClegane]

Points wise we didn't over achieve, we were about par for where we have been the last few years. If we'd had a better start like we have this year then we would have over achieved..... and won the league.

Sit back and enjoy the ride, from now on it's gonna be a lot lot less bumpy

The points required to win the league will continue to drop as the lower table teams strengthen. That's the price you pay to be the most difficult league in the world (arguably). We overachieved relative to every other team last season, just because it wasn't our record points total doesn't discredit what we did.

 

[Hazardousman]

Oh my days, the extremes of your posts

Okay well firstly we didn't lose the title to an already relegated Leicester, the title was never ours to lose and Leicester also beat 19 other clubs to the title. Yeah bad stuff happened, but it's not the usual bad stuff. We overachieved, we were never favourites to win the title and it's not as if we were leading the league and we threw it away, well 13 mins but it was hardly a bottle job. In fact there were more moments which you wouldn't typically associate with Spurs last season as opposed to the traditional Spursyness:

Best defence in the league
Best GD
Being in an actual title race
Qualifying for the CL
Period of 16 games unbeaten

When have you ever associated that with Tottenham?

And this is kinda the point, people want to hang onto that word as some sort of comfort blanket just in case Spurs do manage to mess it up it justifies their self wallowing. The very fact that rival fans ridicule that kinda proves my point, if someone said to you that Spurs will finish 3rd on a two horse race before a ball was kicked last season you'd be delighted that we'd finish 3rd, it's only now that you're trying to find a blemish on our season that now the quote is amplified which in turn fuels your negative thoughts, the very fact that we were in a title race should be fucking celebrated, not ridiculed.

To be fair, that Arsenal game was a complete bottle job, could have gone top of the league and had it in our hands, 2-1 up with Arsenal down to 10 men, that was the very definition of "spursy."

 

[onthetwo]

If our last 'Spursy' moment had been 10 years ago I'd agree.

But it was less than 10 games ago, so I think it's understandable.

My last home game was WBA where we battered them, conceded a soft goal and then hung on for a draw.....that memory is still raw.

 

[Spurger King]

I blame Jol. Before he took over we had two decades of mediocrity and a couple of surprising cup wins. 'Spursy' didn't exist then...it was just Spurs being typically inconsistent.

Since then we have been given that poisoned chalice called hope. Missing out on CL because of Lasagna-gate was Spursy. Missing out on CL despite finishing 4th was Spursy. Missing out on 2nd due to a thrashing by Newcastle was Spursy.

My point is that 'Spursy' seems to mean missing out on higher and higher rewards. It's a good direction to be going in. The disappointment is larger because the stakes are increasingly higher. Got to be better than being apathetic. If some fans are wary when going into games, that's healthy scepticism, and that's something I'd prefer our players to have instead of being over confident or arrogant.

Nothing wrong with a bit of cautious belief. I'd prefer that to the likes of Liverpool fans booking their title celebrations based on a couple of wins.

 

[Shadydan]

Points wise we didn't over achieve, we were about par for where we have been the last few years. If we'd had a better start like we have this year then we would have over achieved..... and won the league.

Sit back and enjoy the ride, from now on it's gonna be a lot lot less bumpy

Points wise you can't compare seasons because every season is unique. We overachieved due to our financial footing in the league compared where we are meant to finish.

You can be pleased with those achievements without becoming an obnoxious supporter that expects us to win every match though, I'm not sure what you feel a change in fan mentality would achieve?

Expectation is very different to belief.

 

[RomanzoCriminale]

The points required to win the league will continue to drop as the lower table teams strengthen. That's the price you pay to be the most difficult league in the world (arguably). We overachieved relative to every other team last season, just because it wasn't our record points total doesn't discredit what we did.

Did we really though..... Arsenal still just finished above us, Chelsea imploded due to Mourinhos ego, United finished where you'd have expected them, City dropped off sure. but If they'd all had what many pundits would say was their usual season we'd have finished 6th maybe 7th. That's not to demean anything about our season, it was amazing, but I still think if we'd had a better start we would have won the league by 5 or 6 points. Poch's right about mentality, once we got going and playing to our ability and Poch's way we blew teams away. It was inexperience and probably disbelief that we were that good, why we blew it against Leicester at home, Arsenal at home, West Ham away etc. If we'd had a better start who knows we might have believed more.

You're right though other teams are getting better, but have any of them really improved that much to threaten the top 6, look at the table already, every team has brought in first teamer's that need to settle. We've all seen the top teams keep a settled core year on year and adding a couple of top players. That continuity has helped keeping that success going, for the first time in years we have a settled young squad that we would have struggled to find better first teamers to replace them in the window. What we needed was greater depth, which Poch got and what we've got even more importantly is a squad that is a year older with more experience.

Last year though will have shown the players that they now can go into any game expecting to beat who they're playing. The Chelsea game will have done wonders for our belief, sure the result wasn't what we wanted, but we showed that we can play them off the park and then go toe to toe with them when it starts to get rough. The players will have grown a set from that game and you can see it now, against City we just bossed them with an arrogance that said yes we are this good, we can play, we can run, we can fight, we expect to beat anyone, we're not just lads it's Tottenham...... we're shit lads its Tottenham fucking Hotspur.

I'll be surprised if we don't win the league this year by 5 points, other teams now have to be as good as us to keep up. It's time for us all to believe and start taking that belief into games, get behind the team more than we ever have.

 

[cliff jones]

I mean the players mentalities have which was pretty much instilled by the management so when will the fans? I'm talking about dreading going into a tough match like West Brom for example and actually thinking that we'd get something out of it...because it seems like there are still quite a number of fans who look forward to matches with dread?

I know it's deeply ingrained into our Tottenham DNA, yes it was true that Tottenham used to always let you down and if Tottenham didn't let you down there was always an outside influence (lasagnate, 4th place 2011/12) okay yes fair enough and also Tottenham were a bit 'Spursy' (I really despise that fucking word) at the end of last season...Yeah yeah Newcastle blah blah

BUT

Surely by now the tide is shifting where we are beginning to act like a top team, I mean the evidence is overwhelmingly pointing towards it... does anyone think any of our players are bricking it at the prospect of facing Solomon Rondon? Do you think our players throw hissy fits at poch claiming he get it wrong when they see the team lineup before the matches? Do you reckon they expect to get rolled over by one of the bigger sides before they face them...nah me neither so why do the fans?

So yeah...Spurs fans, isn't it time to man up a little rather than marinating in self wallowing and pity and bemoaning something which happened 10 years ago, we're a different side now so yeah can we stop being pussies please, cheers

* Cue us getting totally spanked by Brom tomorrow

I've almost graduated from doubting wreck to genuinely believing we won't get turned over. I'm not quite there yet though. Boro away, should have been home and dry, coasting, then we let a shite goal in from a set piece (cheers Sissoko) and I spend the rest of the game convulsing. But bear with me. I think silverware would be my silver bullet. Until it comes, I'll be cautiously optimistic thanks. You go your way...

 

[spursram]

Not sure why people keep harping on this. Our goal as a team was to win the title, not finish above Arsenal. When we didn't win the title, the squad's desire dropped, it's simple sports psychology. You can say you approach the games the same way but there's a lack of intensity when you've completed goals (qualified for CL) and have none remaining (once the title was lost). It's human nature. Stop being ridiculous.

I would have thought that the players, knowing how disappointed we were in not winning the league, would have raised their game for one more 90 mins to give us bragging rights over our NL rivals. IMO.