Sing up if you love Tottenham

Some of you may already be aware but there is a feeling amongst some Spurs fans that we shouldn’t be singing the “Tottenham Boys Making All The Noise” song because it demeans us. You see it is a generic lower league song and for that reason we shouldn’t be adopting it as one of our own.

One fan even thought it right a couple of days ago to scold the Spurs Official twitter account for retweeting a young girl fan singing it and thereby “encouraging” her. I considered this odd firstly because it was merely a retweet and nothing to do with the official account; and secondly this was a little girl fan revelling in a Spurs song and who really doesn’t distinguish whether the song is apt or not.

I was advised in the ensuing twitter conversation that followed, that we as a club have our own repertoire of songs that we should be promoting and not adopting songs from the lower leagues. Personally I don’t know when we got so snobby about these things and secondly I can’t really remember much of a “repertoire” since the days when we were taking more care of Archibald or telling everyone that Hoddle was the born king of White Hart Lane.

[linequote]The only true “Tottenham” songs that come to mind is “Oh When The Spurs” and Glory Glory Hallelujah[/linequote]

There hasn’t been much collective singing at WHL in recent years other than telling Defoe that he was a yiddo; comparing a one kneed Ledley to the Chelsea captain; or singing that Bale was born to play for Spurs. We stole the last one from the Welsh national crowd, and perhaps we shouldn’t have done as they are not a top tier footballing nation! The other songs were sung to more generic tunes in any case. In fact we couldn’t get more generic than all the “stand up if..” songs that have evolved into “shoes up” songs but yet these tunes aren’t met with the same disdain.

No, the only true “Tottenham” songs that come to mind is “Oh When The Spurs” (and even here one fan moaned that we weren’t even doing that correctly because fans begin clapping too early) and Glory Glory Hallelujah which we have all but stopped singing and has been adopted by Man Utd as their own some years ago. I was then advised that “it’s a grand old team to play for” is one but I think that this was nicked from Celtic or Everton I’m not sure; and “Can’t smile without you” is one too but that seems to be as generic as you can get.

Whilst we have one of the best away supports in the country, the sad thing is that WHL has been bereft of atmosphere for a while for a number of reasons and this is why we revert to the generic. The reasons for this could be (open for debate):

1. It’s a different crowd now which is dictated by who can afford tickets and how often they can attend.
2. All-seater stadia that does not allow like-minded individuals to congregate
3. Players not staying at Spurs long enough for the fans to bond with
4. The fact that those “creative” supporters that instigate the kind of songs that may one day form a repertoire, would rather attend an away game precisely because of the atmosphere created there and lacking at WHL.

I personally don’t have an issue with what songs we sing as long as we can create an atmosphere. Anyone that witnessed the NLD at WHL last season will know that the “everywhere we go” song lifted the stadium and the players as it rung round the ground with such vigour. We were never going to lose that day, and for too long we have sat in the stands at WHL and waited for the team to lift us as fans rather than the other way around as it should be. On the day of that NLD the roles were rightly reversed.

[linequote] Anyone that witnessed the NLD at WHL last season will know that the “everywhere we go” song lifted the stadium and the players as it rung round the ground with such vigour[/linequote]

And I wouldn’t be too quick to denigrate the lower leagues either. In my former life as a referee I was at non-league grounds where Northwich Victoria took 10 fans and a drum to Ilkeston and sang for 90 minutes despite losing 3-0; or seeing 1800 FC United fans turn up at Barwell for an end of season game. These fans are just as loyal (possibly more so) and belong in the football fraternity. We shouldn’t put ourselves on a higher pedestal just because we are Premier League.

All I can say to all Spurs fans is sing up and sing loud. Home and away. And if the song is generic then it shouldn’t matter. We as fans are there to create an atmosphere, and if some bright spark can conjure up a song that is unique to us then that is fine too; of course it is and more power to you for that. And when we get our single tier stand in the new stadium you can bet your bottom dollar that like-minded people will at last congregate and put the fear of God into visiting teams. Until then though, please don’t be a snob.

“Oh…..when……..the …….Spurs……………..”