Have you ever felt more disconnected?

[spids]

I am more disconnected from football in general than just Spurs. VAR. No fans. Free kicks given for the slightest contact. Financially doped clubs. The increasingly unfair distribution of TV and prize money to a select cartel of clubs (which to be fair we’ve been part of recently). Football is just boring. Back in the 90’s and 00’s I’d watch any football game on TV. I just loved watching football. Now I only watch Spurs games. Stopped watching England a while back. And it’s dull. Football’s spectator peak was probably the pace and power, mixed with real skill, of the late 90s. Euro ‘96, France ‘98, even Man U’s attempts to win the CL culminating in their triumph in ‘99, all massive events that you went to the pub to watch. Unfortunately we were very poor back then as a club (despite Ginola’s best efforts). But CL games and top of the table clashes were thrilling for the neutral. It’s been on the decline the last few years, accelerated by VAR. I just couldn’t give two hoots about the sport now.

 

[yankspurs]

Even during the Sherwood tenure there was some reason for optimism. We had decent players who were young and showed potential. Right now, we are full of aging players, most of whom could care less. We have a chairman who just sold the game up the river in an attempted quick fix for COVID, then turned around & charged the most of any club for fans returning & was the only club to stick the fans in the nose bleeds in favor of advertisements. We have an interim manager picking players in cup finals who have no business being anywhere near a match day squad. We have a club trained player who is the best striker in the world so desperate to leave it has completely ruined our season. There's just nothing to be optimistic about at the moment. And I think all of this is why alot of people consider this to be the most disconnected they've felt about the club in a long time.

 

[ultimateloner]

Trust me, NickHSpurs, it was far, far worse in the 1990's. Today is a walk in the park by comparison.

Sugar and his pitbull, Claude Littner, had absolute contempt for players; for staff; for fans; even for football.

People think our approach to player and manager recruitment is scattergun and shambolic now... it's nothing compared to what it was back then. People think Levy is miserly... he is Father fucking Christmas compared to Sugar. People complain that we can't compete with the biggest clubs now...we couldn't even compete with Sheffield Wednesday or Middlesbrough under Sugar.

We were charged sky high prices to finish 14th instead of sky high prices to finish 6th. Everything about the club was cheap save for tickets and merchandise.

Truly, the atmosphere surrounding the club was poison.

Now only seems worse, perhaps, because we have the internet and twitter and all the many echo chambers within it.

This is absolute gold. I am about the same age as the OP (38) and have been supporting Spurs since the PL era.

I would venture to say that off the top of my head, max 5 players before the Martin Jol days would be able to challenge for a starting spot in our current team. Even Les Ferdinand would struggle to start for us now.

 

[ultimateloner]

Oh man that was something else, what a time to be alive.

It was seriously bad back then, the defeats at Notts County and Bolton for example will forever live long in the memory.

The ones that live in my memory are the losses to Man City and Arsenal..we were leading 3-0 at HT against MC and somehow lost 3-4.. The Arsenal one i would never forget when Viera literally walked through our team to score.

Those were dark days.

 

[riggi]

Has anyone mentioned the 90s yet?

 

[Dirtysanchez6]

No

 

[MunkoSpurs]

It doesn't matter who the new manager is, if we go into next season with those players still stinking the place out, I'm done. I genuinely think the majority of them are pricks with a way too overinflated opinion of themselves. They need a reality check. They are stealing a living at Spurs, have got far too cosy. They have world class facilities and stadium to play in, without any of the ability.

I think it's probably the modern era of football that is adding to the disconnect of fans. The commercialisation, ticket prices, KO times, transfer fees, player wages, agents, VAR, 24 hour coverage of repeated nonsense, social media "banter?" and media celebration of financially doped clubs. It's all making me fall out of love with the game but I will always follow Spurs.
For as long as I can remember, Spurs' result has always affected my mood. Whether it was during the 90's or during the Poch years which I'd consider hugely successful (although media and pundits don't agree). Fortunately, as I've gotten older, I've learnt to deal with this a lot better but this year has been tough to take. Probably down to the feeling that we were so close to success and now we have taken large steps backwards.

I completely agree with the assessment above and feel a bigger disconnect with the players'. Seeing them strolling around the pitch thinking they're superstars angers me. The bare minimum should be to give 100%. Watching players hide for 90 minutes in a cup final sums it up. As it is largely the same group of players that showed passion and commitment under Poch, has this success resulted in overinflated egos? Has the profile of the club with a world class stadium and training facilities made players believe they are better than they are? Watching the Amazon doc, it felt like a culture within the club of pandering and pampering the players whereas some need a reality check.

More so than at any other time, I believe the foundations for future success are in place. The choice of the next manager is vital though and dealing with the toxic environment and attitude that appears to have developed within the squad is the number one priority.

 

[Karol]

No, the disconnect is very real and the ESL was the straw that broke this camels back

I was there when we were relegated, I've seen plenty of dross over the decades but this is different

My passion has been smothered, the club after all these years has gone from being a lover to a business associate

 

[shelfboy68]

Has anyone mentioned the 90s yet?

I tried to but it keeps coming back.

 

[punky]

One thing I do think is turning me off football is where people say "The club need to show more ambition" "The club needs to match Harry's ambition". Ambition is a euphemism for money and the only way you show ambition to the fans is spend, spend, spend. Football and money have always gone together but now it seems that it's only about money.

 

[aliyid]

I was more disconnected during the Sherwood spell as felt like none of the players cared. Bit similar to now but I can see more potential now than back then.

At the moment I can still see our potential and belief that we can return to the levels we were reaching 2-4 seasons ago. Many people are quick to forget just how good we were a few years ago (arguably the most complete team in the league).

Next year will be huge for us, get it wrong and we’ll settle back into mid table but get it right and we can get back up there again.

 

[mumfordspur]

Has anyone mentioned the 90s yet?

I think somebody should as as it is the most important era of being a Spurs supporter.
I wake up every morning thinking "we don't want to do a Leeds"

 

[Meercat]

Is it weird that on the back of everything we’re hearing, and the most underwhelming season filled with horrors like Zagreb and now the exodus, I’m really hoping we tear it down to start again? I’m not normally a fan of revolution over evolution as I tend to worry that the identity gets lost along the way… but it just feels like we need revolution this time. Keep a handful of the core professionals who still give it 100% to help hold the identity of We Are Tottenham Hotspur, but gut the spine, new CB, new engine room, new striker partnership, focus on youth, look to the likes of Aarons at Norwich, bring Skipp and Sess home, and plunder some talented youth. We’re still an attractive package to the right manager, and there will be money there as fans won’t be gone forever, so it’s not unreasonable to think there’s a 200m spend coming over this window. Sure we won’t attract the established names we might have with Jose as our lure, but London is one of the most exciting cities in the world, the Prem is the most coveted league in the world, and we are a sleeping giant that someone with the right level of ego will think ‘I can wake them up…’

 

[db1]

The ones that live in my memory are the losses to Man City and Arsenal..we were leading 3-0 at HT against MC and somehow lost 3-4.. The Arsenal one i would never forget when Viera literally walked through our team to score.

Those were dark days.

Plus they were down to 10 men. We also were 3 up against utd before a 5 3 loss?

 

[mr ashley]

Would like to know more about what happened today before answering

 

[ultimateloner]

Plus they were down to 10 men. We also were 3 up against utd before a 5 3 loss?

Yeah. Another thing that stood out was you could kind of see it coming.

 

[tony_parkes]

I'm also 37 and very disconnected, the 90s were rough but maybe I wasn't of the age to really understand what was going on. Plus we still had some attacking flair in the team and we're exciting to watch despite being soft touches when the going got tough. Now we actually have some genuine world class players and internationals but we're just terrible in all departments. With headless chicken leadership from the top.

i think you and nickhspurs should connect. 2 37 year olds feeling disconnected find each other and connect. It’s beautiful

 

[tony_parkes]

We were terrible for most of the 90’s but still won 2 trophies in the decade. Had gazza, linekar, sheringham, Anderton, barmby, klinsmann and ginola play for us in that time. League finishes were poor and we used to ship a lot of goals and collapsed to embarrassing defeats. The summer of 94 and signing klinsmann and popescu and dimutrescu was sooo exciting. May not be a popular opinion but I don’t hate Alan sugar. There were a few occasions he definitely backed the manager and spent quite heavily for the time.

 

[ultimateloner]

We were terrible for most of the 90’s but still won 2 trophies in the decade. Had gazza, linekar, sheringham, Anderton, barmby, klinsmann and ginola play for us in that time. League finishes were poor and we used to ship a lot of goals and collapsed to embarrassing defeats. The summer of 94 and signing klinsmann and popescu and dimutrescu was sooo exciting. May not be a popular opinion but I don’t hate Alan sugar. There were a few occasions he definitely backed the manager and spent quite heavily for the time.

This is unlikely to be popular opinion but of the players you mentioned only Gazza would make it into our current starting line-up.
Klinsmann too maybe but he's only had 1 productive season for us.

 

[rez9000]

I'm not disconnected, but I am very, very dispirited.

I always have hope for the future when it comes to Spurs, but so much has happened this year, that it's diminished to a very small dot. So close to disconnection, just not there yet.

Those 'dark days' that some of us have gone through in the 90s and early 00s were where my proper Spurs journey began so, for me, I started at the bottom and have seen a lot of upticks.

There have been low points too, but often there's been the place I started to look back on.

What has me depressed about Spurs right now is that the slope is steeper now. As the doped clubs keep chugging along distorting the landscape more and more and more, the effort to break into the top gets harder. If we had managed it while Poch was here or while Mourinho was here, so much so that Kane would have committed to the club for the rest of his career, then I could take a blip or two, even a howlingly bad season like the one just finished.

But because we tripped before we could get there, it causes a small element of despair because if he does depart, then it makes the work needed that much more significant.

When we name a new manager, then I'll have a better handle on how I feel about the club. But until then, Spurs depresses me.