Mark Sheehan, a Spurs fan and regular at White Hart Lane for over three decades, has fallen out of love with Spurs. Find out what broke him.
RIP Tottenham. RIP Football
My 33-year love affair with the club that I would have once died for has come to an end.
Spurs, the club that once upon I time I would have bled for and I have inked on my body are not to blame. It’s the way football has so dramatically changed in the years I’ve been obsessed with the game and Tottenham Hotspur. Pride of North London.
According to my old man my addiction to Spurs began during the 1980/1981 season. l may have only been for 4, but I vaguely remember decent football being played in a 4-3 win against Ipswich played on a terrible pitch.
The one thing I vividly remember and what looking back started my addiction to Spurs was the was the atmosphere reverberating around the rickety old wooden stands. The rhythmical stamping of the feet, the raucous cheering and shouting, all manner of people coming together to share one passion, even if the passion wasnt positive, it was still passion.
I remember the constant barrage of abuse directed at Irving Scholar, for 90 minutes, game after game: “Irving Scholar where’s the money? He spent it on the prozzies!!”
[linequote]Today football is a theatrical experience with players the performers, experts at diving triple salchows[/linequote]
I made my old man ensure we went as often as possible, which resulted in pretty much every home game for 33 years and counting.
Those days have long gone. Times have changed, the bobbly pitches replaced by manicured and patterned ones, we no longer have one substitute (I miss Gary Brooke) but an area full of them and its very rare you that you will see a player with a crudely bandaged head with his shirt covered in blood.
Today football is a theatrical experience with players the performers, experts at diving triple salchows, sporting fresh haircuts and arriving at the stadium with designer headphones just in case a member of the public dares to approach them. Cheating, something I loathe, has also become a big part of the game.
What I dislike about football today can be traced back to the biggest change in football in 33 years I have been watching it. Money. The cold harsh cash that now flows through the game, changed the game. Some think it has made football better, but I can only assume the latter are the new breed of fans who know no different.
[fullquote]What I dislike about football today can be traced back to the biggest change in football in the 33 years I have been watching it. Money[/fullquote]
I think the day my love for the game began to waiver was when Sulzeer Jeremiah Campbell walked out of the club he supposedly loved, to join our hated rivals. Not once did the well being of his club cross his mind. He left us for nothing. He strengthened our rivals for free. Think about it. We gave them, he gave them our captain and an England international for nothing.
After stringing Spurs along he and his agent Sky Andrew expertly navigated past attempts by the club to get him to sign a new contract. Interviews were met with sly smiles and coyness, all the while they were working behind the scenes to find the club willing to offer the biggest bag of silver. The one positive from this debacle was the first North London Derby after his departure was a magnificent hate fuelled spectacle.
Those days are gone now. The football and the atmosphere has lost its bite. I have to admit that I fall into the brigade of booing a performance or lack of one at full time as an acceptable way for the fans to show their discontent. How else can we let the players know that we are heading home miserable and a fair few quid lighter?
The players get their salaries regardless of their lack of performance or result. They have no responsibility to us so long as they get to sustain their mansions, model wives and latest cars.
Long gone are the days of one club men like Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher and Ledley King, who would give their all for the cause. Please note that with regards to Ledley I am on the fence, who knows what and where he would have gone had his career not been ravaged with injury. The point that I am trying to make though still stands, I don’t feel any of the current crop of players care about the club.
People excited about Lloris recently signing a new contract need to have a word with themselves. This isn’t a show of loyalty its a pure business move by Lloris and the club. All his contract does is secure a high wage for him and when the day comes a large transfer fee for us.
Player power dominates the game now. They call the shots. They know they can hold clubs to ransom. This is where Levy deserves some credit. He held out for top fees for Bale, Modric and Berbatov, and even secured a large fee for average players like Livermore and Caulker. However, he is far from innocent in the whole mess we now find ourselves in.
[fullquote]People excited about Lloris recently signing a new contract need to have a word with themselves. This isn’t a show of loyalty its a pure business move by Lloris and the club[/fullquote]
My hope is that some rich American group or Arab buy us out, so I can say finally walk away from it for good. I reckon it’s safe to assume the majority won’t understand this point. They’d love to see the cream of the crop at Spurs. If we did it by merit, continually get top 4 and Champions League money, fine, but not with dirty financing. Without this push I’m in a sort of limbo where I feel I should go, but linger on through habit and the vague hope that it will all just get better.
This season I’ve used my season ticket only once, for the battering of QPR, this game should have propelled me forward with enthusiasm, but the whole day left me empty. I used to wake up on matchday with butterflies and adrenaline pumping through my veins, now I see it as a chore going to games.
A 4-5 hour round trip for something I no longer have the same feeling for. I know a few others who feel the same. My old man is reluctant to give up the tickets as he thinks my feelings will change. Will the game change back to how it was? No. Will my feelings therefore change. No
I admire the 1882 movement for trying to get the life back in to the Lane. It’s admirable. But I’ve never joined in to date because going to a game and singing your lungs out for 90 minutes is all well and good, but it would just make going back to the normal game all the more unbearable.
I’m done with football. Corrupt at the top, which filters through to other levels. Grassroots football is where it’s at and needs way more publicity.
[linequote]I used to wake up on matchday with butterflies and adrenaline pumping through my veins, now I see it as a chore going to games.[/linequote]
So in summary, RIP football. You were beautiful once, especially that glorious Champions League season, that in the long run dragged out so many plastic fans. I hope they stick around to see what being a Spurs fan is really about. In an ideal world, Spurs would get relegated and we would be left with players who actually give a shit about the club and proper fans who love the club no matter what, not just because of one European season where we made an impression.
Supporting Tottenham is a roller coaster of emotions, mainly downs, but that’s part an parcel of the being Spurs, being one with the club. We’re a decent side who every now and then have a gem or two, who we sell on at a profit. Football is a business, not a sport.
I’m sure people are going to read this and disagree, but I know Spurs like an annoying brother. Best of mates one day and then the next you want to kill them. This is Tottenham. I love the club, but I hate football and the affect it has had on my beloved.
All views and opinions expressed in this article are the views and opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of The Fighting Cock. We offer a platform for fans to commit their views to text and voice their thoughts. Football is a passionate game and as long as the views stay within the parameters of what is acceptable, we encourage people to write, get involved and share their thoughts on the mighty Tottenham Hotspur.
20 Comments
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08/12/2014 @ 4:41 pm
couldnt have summed it up any better. Football these days is terrible. best league in the world they say, not sure why, how many world greats play in our league, one, two max??? Certainly neither are at spurs i know that much. Our players are faceless modern footballers with no feeling for us, so why should we feel anything for them??
Yes we werent great when we had Defoe, Keane, Dawson, King but they were Tottenham, you really felt they cared as much as we did even if they werent very good from time to time.
These days when we lose, I’m might tut under my breath but in the main i dont care anymore. I used to be gutted for days after any defeat but now nothing. What bigger sign is there that something is wrong?? Souless rich businessmen in charge of souless rich players. Pathetic.
08/12/2014 @ 6:00 pm
I’m 61 and have supported Spurs since I was 10. Through the late sixties and seventies I attended many games home and away. There were so many heroes back then. Over the last few years I don’t go to so many, for one reason or another. Being a Spurs fan is for life, through thick and thin, ups and downs. Over the last twenty-five years or so, it’s been mainly downs, filled with endless false dawns. Like Mark I don’t blame Spurs. I blame money, Sky and the Premiership. They are guilty of taking a working class sport, played by mainly British footballers in England and creating this theatre of money-grabbing, mainly average foreign mercenaries, who couldn’t give a hoot about what shirt they pulled on as long as there was an obscene pay cheque at the end of the week. To the fans who have only known the Premiership and Sky, you don’t understand what it used to be like and good luck to you. I know it wont ever be like it was but I do wonder what the future does hold for football. I was at the Lane on Saturday and it wasn’t a bad match to be fair. The Palace fans certainly created an atmosphere. Spurs are an average side at best and I’m afraid will never compete with the likes of Chelsea and City, which is down to money. Clubs with the most money win the league. Clubs like Spurs can’t put up a consistent challenge anymore. Fact of life.
08/12/2014 @ 4:43 pm
What the actual fuck?
08/12/2014 @ 5:24 pm
Couldn’t agree more, sadly.
I’ve been going since I was ten years old. My first match was in 1978, just before Ossie and Ricky joined. I’ve been there through thick and thin, home and away, good times and bad. My first date with the lady who would go on to become my Wife was at Spurs (Stoke at home, 1984. Won 1-0 thanks to Mark Falco). We both had season tickets for the shelf. We both sat in after a game when the announced it was going to be pulled down (home to Luton, I think). Then, shortly after we married, the missus gave hers up. Too expensive (in 1993, even then.) I soldiered on, on my own and have ever since. I was there for the 84 UEFA Cup final, and the 87 final, and all of ’91. It’s been a rollercoaster, that’s for sure. But last season, and all of this season….I dunno. I make a round trip of 110 miles. Something that costs me 7 hours of my day and £30 in travel. And for what. To watch listless football, listen to those around me moan their arses off, and to trudge back home disappointed and downhearted. It never used to be like this.
I don’t mind losing. What I hate is players not caring. Ignore the guff they come out with. They couldn’t give a shit.
I could. And still do. But nowadays I feel like I’m on my own.
My local non league club charges a tenner matchday. £100 for a season (roughly 30 home games, so that’s £3 a game). The last one finished 6-5 to my local club with the score at 4-4 at half time. Now that sounded like fun.
I’ve got a massive decision to make come May (although more likely, April) about whether I renew my ST or not.
At the moment I’m on the not side. More time with the family, no more silly Sunday kick offs, £700 more in the bank, getting home in 10 minutes, but more importantly, watching people who play the game because they love it and not because it means they can buy a new mansion or engineer a move to a club with more money (and therefore chances of glory).
It sickens me and I’ll miss it terribly but in reality it’s been gone a long, long time.
08/12/2014 @ 5:31 pm
I thought I was the only one falling out of love with Spurs – I’ve been going to virtually to all home games and a few away since 1966 and it’s got to the point where I really don’t care anymore, watching Spurs now is like seeing the same bad film twice a week! The day’s when a Notts Forrest or a Derby could win the league are long gone – now it’s all about money and it’s killed the game stone dead, let’s face it Chelsea and City buy whoever they want regardless of price and they will always finish in the top four, so that leaves about six teams fighting for the other two places – the premier league has become totally predictable as we all know at the start of the season who will be at the top end of the league at the end of a season.
To the writer of this article – thank you – I now know that I’m not alone
in the way I feel towards my once beloved Spurs
08/12/2014 @ 5:34 pm
Unfortunately, after being a supporter since 1962, I can only agree with this post. If players getting £50k plus PER WEEK don’t give a damn about the club, why the feck should I care? I’ll go and watch the kids playing parks football on a saturday. At least, they care!!!
08/12/2014 @ 6:10 pm
Spot on .When you can buy any player that you want and stick them on loan clubs like Spurs have little hope of competing. Money wins ,all of this talk from players about CL is rubbish its I want more money.We like to think that we have a number of high class players at Spurs , but in reality how many would get into a Spurs all time eleven? I think we need to concentrate on our academy and be happy that we stay in the BPL.By the time we get our new stadium there wont be anyone wanting to see our poor style of play!
08/12/2014 @ 6:24 pm
The Redknapp era of 2008 to 2012 apart, I’ve spent most of the past twenty plus years wishing Tottenham Hotspur FC had actually ceased to exist when Scholar’s mismanagement took us to the brink of liquidation in 1991, because we could have gone out in a blaze of glory courtesy of our Gazza-inspired cup victories over Arsenal and Forest, and been spared the horrors of the PL era.
Yes, quite seriously, I’d be happier with golden memories of real players like Knowles and Roberts than with the reality of the mercenary scumbags of today (and I share the writer’s reservations about King’s ‘loyalty’ – it was never tested because of his injury record, and I doubt he’d have rejected a ‘bigger’ club if he’d had the option) – the pain of supporting Spurs has been infinitely greater than the very occasional moments of pleasure, there’s no sign of improvement any time soon, and I can only be grateful to have seen the good times when we were the Kings of London football rather than its sick joke.
08/12/2014 @ 6:30 pm
I’ve fanatically supported the club since 1978, and for the past 12 months have completely lost interest, which is something I never thought would happen. I cannot relate to the current situation, as the heart appears to have been rip out of this club and it’s once fine traditions thrown into oblivion through a desire to achieve a positive net spend. Our once flamboyant style has been replaced by turgid shite dished up by over priced mediocre. There is no game changer or world class superstar, just a team of Chadli’s.
08/12/2014 @ 7:57 pm
Frightening. Due to reasons that I will not go into I had the chance to get a refund on my season ticket this year (which meant losing my automatic right to purchase) and I took it. After 40 years. I too have totally fallen out of love with the game, the club and everything that football stands for. If I was not supposed to be a man I really could cry
08/12/2014 @ 9:38 pm
I also tend to agree but I can also remember going in the mid to late 1970s and hearing the 40-50 year old men moaning that “modern” football was all rubbish compared to our great sides of the 50s and 60s. Let’s not forget our average gate is higher these days compared to the 1980s and that despite the limited number of seats available and the astronomical prices. I have no idea why (as I hate the slow boring tatics of the current and previous managers) but football now is hugely popular and the youngsters find it very exciting. Maybe in 30 years time they will herald the likes of Lloris, Eriksen and Mason! Who knows, maybe we will get our Tottenham back soon should Levy for once in his life be able to spot a decent manager.
09/12/2014 @ 1:24 am
I sympathise with you and understand your point. I’m glad this forum has allowed you to express your opinion.
But I strongly disagree with a lot of what you’ve said. It would be best for everyone involved if you did cancel your season ticket. There are people like me waiting to cheer the team on have a good time.
09/12/2014 @ 10:48 am
I once lived and breathed a Championship club and the same disillusionment came over me too. The season ticket went, the away travel went – better things to do with my life – even the less frequent journeys to my own East Anglian ‘Mecca’ lost the buzz it had for so many years.
The comments above encapsulate much of what I feel, the game is less of a life-long passion and more just another form of entertainment, competing with all of the others in modern life.
I started my love affair by consuming every printed word in any old programme I could get my hands on, so I could – and still can – name players from way before my own time than I can the ever-changing squad of today.
So long, football of our youth, and football of times further back. I wonder what football of twenty or thirty years time will look like. Perhaps, as has already been mentioned, it won’t look much like the football we see today and today’s youngsters, the future disillusioned middle-aged folk, may be sounding just as we are today.
I want to go down the pub to drown my sorrows but I don’t even have a local these days – another sign of the times!
09/12/2014 @ 12:49 pm
You’re, take note, a cunt
09/12/2014 @ 1:40 pm
Agreed
09/12/2014 @ 2:41 pm
Watching since the early 60s, Harry produced the best team I’ve seen – and it’s been downhill ever since. £200million spent in three years – and where are we? Bale, Modric and Van de Vaart have simply not been replaced and the money largely wasted. Why buy average players? Only Erikson has so far justified the spend – and it is Kane and Mason (both home grown) who have performed regularly well this season).
Chairman Levy apparently runs a tight ship, so why Addeboyor / Soldado / Chiriches? Where is Benny? Why let Huddlestone go?
Watching a game recently, I realised I couldn’t even recognise four of the players.
I’ve reached the stage where I have just lost interest. I feel little allegiance to a squad of overpaid (mainly) journeymen most of whom will be gone in two years.
I have never seen us lose four of our first six home games and see little sign of improvement. I have no idea what our first-choice team is – and, for the first time, don’t really care.
I thought it would be a big wrench – but it’s more like weight off my shouldets
Football today is not the game I signed up to – and if I was 18, I’d think it was great (as an entertainment, it is superb).
However, it’s now just a circus.
09/12/2014 @ 5:23 pm
I am stunned!
I am stunned because if I didn’t know better, I would have thought that I had written that piece myself.
I am completely numb to football at the moment, have been for a number of years now. Not just Spurs but all of professional football. I have no desire to go to the Lane at all. I only want to go now when my mates go. The game itself is on the verge of being dead to me. I think what spurred me to this conclusion (forgive the pun) was watching the Olympics. It appears that it, and the efforts by all of the athletes there, had a bigger impact on me and my apathy for football.
I despise the prima donnas that play the game we all should love. I can’t stand that we are being bled from our souls to feed the ego and bank balances of those that run and play football. Don’t even get me started on the higher power known as FIFA!
I’ve been to watch Basingstoke more times that Spurs this season. The football is shit there but that’s what I love about it. They all come off the pitch covered in mud, blowing out of their arseholes and you know, you bloody well know that they have given everything even if they have just been beaten by Boreham Wood! Can we say that about out team, our professionals? Not bloomin’ likely I’m afraid.
Perhaps it is a generational thing. Perhaps because I can remember football before the money that I miss it so. Perhaps I miss the lane as it used to be, only 10 years ago. Full of noise, full of moans and groans, full of cheers for the likes of Andy Reid, Michael Brown, Kasey Keller and the Ginger Pele. We were shit as recently as then but in the scheme of things, things have got worse.
And what really gets on my fucking nerves, what really winds me up is the whole commercialisation of the game means that I can’t even throw my season ticket book on the pitch at the end of the season. No grand gestures nowadays!
I need a hobby.
09/12/2014 @ 6:29 pm
Quiz tomorrow at 2pm sharp… I’ve PMed the big guns. Prize to be confirmed.
15/12/2014 @ 9:02 pm
I love Spurs and I am always behind them no matter what. What gets me down is this whole Premier League, Sky Sports, Champions League, money money money, overhype everything.
16/12/2014 @ 3:11 pm
I too became a spurs fanatic at 4yrs old. Just like I have evolved in the last 40yrs so has football. I’m not saying it’s better or worse but it’s football, the game I love. I’ve got choices. Watch it and complain that it’s not exactly how I would like it to be, watch it and take as much enjoyment out of it as possible, or watch netball. One things for sure, I’m Tottenham Till I Die, and I’m not dead yet. To the author of the article and the commenters, enjoy your netball season.