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The sins of Tottenham Hotspur

5 min read
by Bardi
There are those who demand patience, then those that demand action. Taking a stance and pushing your views is part of what makes following football so interesting, but wherever you stand and whatever you think, there are some sins Tottenham can't deny.

Denied the presence of evil there would be no good. In a world without glory there would be no despair. Without God there is no devil and without common sense there is no lunacy. Without depression to drag us down there is no happiness to pull us upwards.

It’s the variables that makes the world a better place. The disagreements the arguments, the points and exchanging of views. It is what makes this universe of football following so interesting. It is what stops it being a smooth Ken doll soft play arena, into one which brings up the sheer inner pleasure of furiously bashing away at keyboard, or sitting back chilled and nodding in agreement.

Denied the anger and ether we may as well stroll into the Emirates with our Frappaccino’s, don a Petr Cech helmet and vote in an online poll. For me it is the ether that makes following, commenting and chucking my few pence worth around the game worthwhile. If everyone is right all the time the world would be a rather tepid place, if just one or two individuals are right all the time then we would be living in Germany in the late 1930s.

This week we have seen some of the best Spurs commentators on the web, Windy and Seb “The Premier League Owl,” gave intelligent and well written opinions on the baffling transfer policy of Spurs. The Ying of well written football opinion has of course brought forth the Yang. The voices that live on the opposite side, but to deny the Yang would be to deny the sport. Their opinion matters just as much as those that take an alternative stance.

[linequote]The Ying of well written football opinion has of course brought forth the Yang. The voices that live on the opposite side, but to deny the Yang would be to deny the sport[/linequote]

There seems to have been two clear lines drawn in the sand. Pro or anti Levy and his methods, personally I stand in-between, unable to pick basically because I understand the defence but the prosecution, they have a hefty case.

Daniel Levy has failed. Tottenham have failed. Glenn through to Mauricio have failed.

Our transfer policies are wrong. Our inability to break the top four despite finishing within the top four twice is ridiculous.

This isn’t anti Spurs, this isn’t banging the ENIC or POCHOUT drum it is simple fact.

Our net transfer spend over ENIC’s term is shameful, we have sold our best players, we have replaced them with duds. We have failed to give managers time, or given them too long. We signed Ryan Nelsen and Louis Saha when Kun Aguero, Luis Suarez and an uninjured Pepito Rossi were available.

We have replaced stars with helium star shaped balloons. We strolled with the supermodels but cast them aside for Devine Brown.

These are the sins of our club, sins that we enable and they expect us to carry on enabling by paying ludicrous amounts of money to watch us play in further most Russia before flying back to throw away three points at some tin point lower to mid table PL club.

We are burning our lives away making Spurs rich. We shouldn’t have to pay £4,000 to be a founding member and have our name on a seat at The New Pizza Hut KFC Arena Lane, we should have our names added to the foundations as we gave up holidays, family days, time and friendships to witness Erik Lamela try and be something he is paid to believe he is.

And friends we have to do this with a Client Reference number as our ID. We are not supporters, we are a valley of bodies plugged into the Matrix powering the beast of Tottenham, then when the moment we are of no more use we are blended and fed back to the next client.

These points are valid. Every single one of these points is valid, just as the points made by Windy about dealing with expectations are valid. Should we clamour for Levy’s head to be delivered on a platter? Should we support the project? Frankly it matters very little to me what you choose, or what I choose.

It is our interpretations and beliefs that alter what we choose to accept. Opinions are what bring us back each time to the reason why we are here, the moment you believe however that you exist to correct people’s opinions is the moment you have lost.

Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, atheism, scientology and Jedi are beliefs that each individual follower believes whole heartedly in. It’s not for those of sound mind to dismiss someone else’s beliefs just because they are different, instead we should admire what their belief inspires them to build or how they celebrate.

The truth is in the end it doesn’t matter how loud you shout, how many caps you write with or how often you push your agenda. The truths are there, Spurs are failing us. We are not achieving the levels we all want, but then again they are achieving, as Windy said, exactly what they should be.

We spend the 6th most on wages in the league and we finish fifth. We sold Bale then reinvested the money, true it was spent badly but they tried. Our youth academy is starting to produce players with a genuine, not a social media rooted, affinity with the club. Yet still this isn’t enough, and it never will be enough, not for everyone.

[linequote]Spurs are failing us. We are not achieving the levels we all want, but then again they are achieving, as Windy said, exactly what they should be[/linequote]

Opinions depend totally on where you stand and what you choose to believe in. Love or hate, respect or disrespect, it is the same thing. Shouting louder doesn’t win, throwing big words and stats at something draws a blank also. In an age of opinions and thoughts our ability to cultivate an ideology is shorn. Look across our political spectrum, it’s in tatters due to everyone being right or being told they’re wrong.

We will never agree on anything other than our support for the club. Enjoy the sharing of opinions, enjoy the immediacy with which you can read, listen or see each other’s opinion. There was a time when men tied a messages to a pigeon, or sent smoke signals, today we are blessed with media and the internet. If you don’t like it, don’t look, read or listen.

However, I AM RIGHT ABOUT TOTTENHAM’S SINS.

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.

Bardi

2 Comments

  1. SpurredoninDublin
    21/08/2015 @ 12:02 pm

    “Opinions depend totally on where you stand and what you choose to believe in”.

    That is probably the wisest thing I will read about Spurs fans for years to come. We have a chairman who is not famed for being a “rent-a-quote” mouthpiece, so what we think we know about him is usually based on un-named “sources” on Newsnow rather than what he says personally. Thus if we are Levy fans, we tend to believe everything positive, and if we are not, we tend to believe everything negative.

    With the lack of hard evidence against Levy, I tend to be a supporter of his. About the only thing I can agree with the other side on is that “He’s in it to make profit”. So was his predecessor and we should be thankful that Sugar’s eye for a profit saved us from Maxwell.

    But I am not an unquestioning acolyte. If the problem is that we keep hiring crap managers, then you have to look at the person who does the hiring and firing.

    As for the transfer policy, I recall the furore when we failed to land Damaio and the hints at parsimonious jewry being at work by the opposition. It turned out that there was a complex third-party ownership attached to this deal. Damaio is still paying in Brazil and it seems that Levy was not the only PL Chair who baulked at the complications this might present.

    We can look at others like Aguero, who Redknapp claimed was available to him at £12 mill. Makes you wonder why Mancs paid £38 mill for him when we were being offered such a bargain. Or Suarez? I think we ultimately dodged that bullet, but in those days our record transfer fee was in the region of £15 mill, and Pool had just received £50 mill for Torres. Suarez was coming from the Dutch league which has always had a reputation for being a soft touch to score goals.

    But what do I know?

  2. Raziel
    21/08/2015 @ 4:44 pm

    With all due respect to a nicely written piece, the idea that there are always two sides to a story is nonsense and typical modern PC stupidity.

    Here’s the problem with the concept that Levy and the clubs transfer policy has failed, or that ENIC is in for a profit or any of the other sins that we cast on the club -> There is no actual data that supports any of it, it is the childish jealousy of wanting something that for the moment is beyond your fiscal reach.

    Facts (not opinions) show that 5 clubs outspend Tottenham (over a realistic period of time, e.g. 6 years and using true spend, i.e. Wages +Buys) by 2X-3X. Those clubs also have the incomes to allow that expenditure.

    Yet Tottenham has actually out performed every one of those clubs (except 1) on at least one of those 6 season, in the case of Pool, 5 of the 6 seasons. Yet we have failed?

    Bad buys are in no way unique to Tottenham, nor are failures to capture a player that based on media speculation we were after (someone has actually posted a full team of players United won’t have for this season that supposedly they were targeting, with their budget).

    We might actually be unique in the number of exceptional buys/developments over the last decade, from Carrick, Berbatov, Modric, VDV, Bale, Lloris, Eriksen, Kane and on …

    The need of Spurs supporters to reach so far to try and discredit the club we support because we can’t separate dreams/wants from what is realistic for the club is sad . lets leave that for the nomads …

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