Spurs and my tears of joy

At the risk of sounding a bit of a wuss I just want to say that “My name is Vass and Spurs have made me weep”. Now I am not talking about the gut wrenching self-destructing tendency that successive Spurs teams have had over the years which mess up our weekends/weeks or make us blank Match of the Day type of weeping. Nor am I talking about events that can easily be encompassed by the currently in vogue verb of “Spursy” which is a way of sharing the pain and saying that things can typically only happen to us. It’s not about karma being a bitch and knowing where Spurs fans live. We’ve grown immune to that stuff unfortunately.

No I am talking about tears of emotion.

Of utter pride from belonging to something as glorious as Tottenham Hotspur and the realisation in a single moment at what being Spurs means to more people than you will ever comprehend. That realisation isn’t always there, but just sometimes it hits you, usually when you are not ready for it and when it does it’s a fantastic feeling.

Now I hear some of you thinking already that I am off my rocker but just bear with me for a moment. I am going to leave all the issues that divide us aside. Which player should play; who we need to buy; why we won’t spend; sack the board; sack the manager; why we lost; why we won; who’s useless; who’s brilliant; who’s right; who’s wrong! You see none of this matters in the overall scheme of things.

[linequote]We all want to win and we all want to a successful team but ultimately Tottenham Hotspur is about you and me and thousands upon thousands of others just like us[/linequote]

Of course we all want to win and we all want to a successful team but ultimately Tottenham Hotspur is about you and me and thousands upon thousands of others just like us. We’ve nailed our colours to the lilywhite mast and the pain of supporting this club is hugely offset by a series of single moments in time that make us proud.

Take a look at some of the video compilations on You Tube for example. Lump in the throat stuff. The back drop to every emotional aspect of glorious triumph or painful defeat is us the fans. Those videos would be bland without shots of the fans going mental or singing in unison.

When I hear a pod cast of Spurs fans based in the USA and listen to what Spurs means to those guys, it makes me proud. When I hear the plethora of “podcasters” and read stuff from bloggers in the UK and elsewhere, then I know what Spurs means to people. People write books about Spurs because they love the club; people have made films about Spurs because they love the club; we go to games, we watch on TV, we cuss we swear we may even kick the cat (not guilty), but we all love the club.

You only have to look at the guy next to you, or listen to the chorus of “yidio” after we score a goal; or know that you will embrace any person standing next to you at that precise moment when joy just leaves your body uncaring of circumstances, logic or sanity. THAT’S what it means to be Spurs and there are millions of us (no they’re not all on twitter) and THAT’S what should make us proud.

[fullquote]I feel a sense of pride for my US friends across the pond who are learning to love Spurs the way I do[/fullquote]

The tears?

I first let them out at the UEFA cup final in 1984. I couldn’t understand why but it just happened. But there was a trickle from my eye in 91 at Wembley too and again in 2008 at the end of the Carling Cup final, but not because I was at that last one. No, my sons were. I couldn’t get a ticket. So when that final whistle went I shed a few tears at home for them. Because they were there and they experienced what I had experienced before.

Now I feel a sense of pride for my US friends across the pond who are learning to love Spurs the way I do. The way we all do. And to the people all over the world that have created Spurs supporters clubs and gather together to watch games fully kitted out in our colours. Whether California, Texas, New York, Scandinavia, Dubai, Europe, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia; just about anywhere.

Are we one big family? Absolutely, no matter how cringe worthy that might sound. We’ll disagree; we’ll argue as all families do. But ultimately we are brothers in arms. We are unified by a cockerel standing on a ball whether it is jokingly called a “chicken badge” or not and we are embalmed in a glorious history.

[linequote]We half expect it as Spurs fans don’t we? But I tell you what, take a look around. We are everywhere. COYS![/linequote]

We’ve taken the word “Yid” and all the issues which that invoked as a badge of honour. We’ll choreograph the “oh when the Spurs” chant so that everyone knows when is the right time to speed it up and clap and sing. And of course we’d like to be at more finals and have more “San Siro” moments and hopefully they will come again, but until then we will all remain “TTID” because we are all the heart and soul of the club. And if you haven’t welled up over something Spurs related before then there will come a time that you will and that’s when you will know it.

And yes I know that after writing this that it will be really “Spursy” if Sheffield Utd make me shed a tear for an altogether different reason tonight. We half expect it as Spurs fans don’t we? But I tell you what, take a look around. We are everywhere. COYS!