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The shirt or the man in it?

4 min read
by Editor
LiamCSWY looks at how we support and whether the player in the shirt has become more important than the shirt.

Graham Roberts tweeted “The Crest on the front of the shirt will always be bigger than any name on the back. COYS”

It’s almost worrying that this is becoming another tired footballing cliché that’s used so much that the true meaning of the phrase has probably now been lost to some.

The most profound change that I have witnessed in the stands at Spurs ever since my first game as a boy isn’t the dreaded and much-discussed decline in atmosphere, or the arguable change in demographic of some of our fans. For me, there’s been a gradual and almost unnoticed shift in the whole experience of following the team.

Collectively, I don’t see people worshipping the club as much anymore; I see people cheering on certain players over others and praising or berating individuals ahead of the team as a whole. Should we be scared of this?

Has the emphasis changed from supporting the club to supporting the players that play for the club?

Obviously, people have formed these opinions on individuals purely because they are playing for Spurs – and playing for Spurs is why we cheer these players on. This will never change and I’m not for one minute saying that supporting the crest is now irrelevant – of course that’s b*llocks. But in this modern era of the importance of individuals to a side (often hyped-up by the press and even used as an insult in “one-man team” jibes) I can see many young fans choosing to support Spurs because of a certain player.

[linequote]Marquee signings sell the shirts; but are you then creating false idols that take support away from the idea of supporting the entire team[/linequote]

Whether that’s right or wrong is another story, but I just can’t get my head around that idea. Shirt sales and the opportunity to have one player’s name on the back obviously provides revenue; you also get marquee signings to sell these shirts; but are you then creating false idols that take support away from the idea of supporting the entire team, regardless of which squad is selected that day?

Added to this, players now have their own pedestal of social media. Updating their thousands of dedicated Twitter followers on a daily basis can also lead to an aura around them; a cult of personality that can draw people in to forming an opinion of players (Holtby anyone?) irrespective of their contributions to the team on the pitch. Should we be worried about this shift away from loving the crest to loving the players?

You can see it in chants and songs, too. I’m myself guilty of frantically trying to come up with a song to fit in the syllables of our latest signing’s surname way before creating or joining in with chants that encompass the whole side. Most players in this squad now have their own songs – and we’re quick to give these a rendition when they are playing well – but where are the songs that prove our ‘love for the shirt’?

Of course, we can’t smile without them and we want to be in that number; but that’s where it seemingly ends for me. There are way more chants and songs about certain players either being on fire or scoring when they want. ‘Tottenham ‘til I Die’ and ‘We Love You Tottenham’ are now much rarer than they used to be and it’s interesting to wonder why that is.

English football culture remains stubbornly independent from mainland Europe. On the continent, chants are more focussed around the love of a team and a love of a crest or colour(s). Individual player chants are on the whole nothing more than monotonous chanting of a player’s surname. Here, ‘80s chart hits are transformed from being about pushing spiked fruit and grinding coffee beans into a player making a rival look sh*te.

Whether this takes emphasis away from supporting the side to idolising players is up to the individual; but for me, this undercurrent surely inflates the egos of some players rather than stressing to them the importance of playing for the club we all adore. Do they feel less responsibility or pride in representing the ‘crest on the front of the shirt’ if we chant their name for 90 minutes rather than chanting the name of the team they play for?

[linequote]On the continent, chants are more focussed around the love of a team and a love of a crest or colour(s)[/linequote]

Thankfully, there’s recently been a rise in support that’s ‘team-focussed’. For example, the iconic ‘Up The Spurs’ banner has made a comeback from being in almost every picture of players emerging from the tunnel in the ’60s to being in the crowd at most away games the past two seasons.

The 1882 Movement has also started to turn the tide back towards crest-worshipping, too. Merely being at youth games and showing just as much vocal support towards them as you would the first team just goes to show that fans will follow the world-famous chicken-on-a-ball in whatever form it is in when given a small piece of direction. Long may that continue.

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.

Editor

Spurs supporter, history reader & European fan culture obsessive. Full member of @THSTOfficial.

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