Are spurs fans that different ?

[Belgian Spur]

I've been (as most amongst you) an almost lifelong Spurs fan and during that lifetime i have seen loads of evolutions (mostly negative) in our beloved game. But something that struck me early 2000's is occupying my mind more and more. Are we really that fickle, are we really that much of a hatefull bunch that we always need to turn on eachother, on players, on coaches, on the board and so on. Negativity seems to be the only way we respond to the fact that we are now bigger and better then we ever were in the 90's (bar maybe 1 or 2 seasons - my memory is starting to fade). Is it just us or is it because we can smell succes (not glory) and just cant reach it.

I see the same thing at my home team, we were div 1 and relegation fodder for a long time and we stuck together, we move up the ranks and become top 5 team and everyone starts whining and arguing amongst themselves. Hating on players and coaches but not as bad as the spurs community.

Sometimes i think that we are so used to failure (and recently without a true echo of glory) that we just want things to go pear shaped.

Are you familiar with other sets of fans and their ways, are we the exception or is the rule just that people are insufferable cunts and should be forced to drink from a massive cup of poison ?

 

[jimmyriggle]

most football fans are stereotypically fickle armchair managers who repeat the same cliches ad nauseum. This last point grates me the most. When you listen to a football phone in and some bloke has decided to spend his time and money calling in to make an ill thought out point that thousands have made before him. It's like when a commercial radio station does a request line and people call in to ask for a song by Rihanna that has been played a billion times that month and will more than likely be played again several times that day. WHY???

 

[WookieD]

There are a few things at play aren't there. Social media and the web have given everybody a soap box to stand on and the monetisation of the sport leaves a lot of us feeling bitter and disenfranchised when we think the club aren't using all of our cash in the best possible manner.

As Spurs fans there's the added element of wanting to be entertained. I honestly believe that had we been playing flowing football and received the same results this season, AVB would still be behind the desk as the fans wouldn't have created the same pressure and Levy would have held off the trigger for a bit longer.

But essentially, we are a the same as the majority of other fans, we just have our own idiosyncrasies, but we bleat as hard as anyone else... Except for the Scallies of course.

 

[Fryer]

I think when performance does not match expectations you will always get a lot of focus on why and who's fault it is.

 

[sammyspurs]

Sometimes i think that we are so used to failure (and recently without a true echo of glory) that we just want things to go pear shaped.

Personally, in this case, I simply think the majority were bored shitless

 

[Joaquin]

I'd say it's frustration more than anything, to constantly be the bridesmaid, falling at the last hurdle, we've been done over by fate on more than one occasion the last few seasons and there's a huge amount of pressure and expectation.

I imagine everyone was hoping AVB would sort us out, we'd grow as a team as he improved as a manager and we'd have a settled squad for 4-5 years and go on to achieve glory. I think that's why a lot of people are disappointed to see him sacked, as we're back at square one again.

Things might've been better in the 90s when there was little expectation. We've had a brief glimpse at the potential, but we can't seem to grasp it.

 

[Belgian Spur]

Personally, in this case, I simply think the majority were bored shitless

wasnt talking about pro or contra AVB , just the way we react to everything

 

[sammyspurs]

wasnt talking about pro or contra AVB , just the way we react to everything

I think its different....I think some people still thought we could get top 4 with AVB, but didnt like his style of play....so I dont think it was a demand for success in this case.

With Arry, it was more the England thing and the capitulation, though looking back now, Im sure many would like to know how far he could have taken us had he not had his head turned.

Ramos was survival, not lack of silverwear

Jol was never going to get us top 4 it was widely felt. I dont think there was a demand for his sacking, but it was felt he couldnt take us further.....Levy was rightly slated for how he handled that one.

Before that we had searched for 8 months I think, for Santini....so I think one thing you shouldnt accuse this club of is being too demanding. All we want ( as the first step) is 4th place at the end of the day.

 

[Éperons]

wasnt talking about pro or contra AVB , just the way we react to everything

But I think it speaks to certain conflicts within football support in general, and they're basically unresovable unless you're Man. U. Namely:

style / results
current form / future (also win now / build)
league / cups
domestic / europe
british / foreign
spend / develop
tradition / innovation

None of these are Spurs specific, but they affect us especially maybe since I think we're always teetering between both sides without the resources to fill both sides. Sadly, there's no comfort in the aporia.

And every supporter rates him or herself differently along each scale, so you end up with, what, 7 degrees of freedom? That's a lot of variation

 

[Adam Clark]

My opinion is that 99.9% of football fans are fickle. Of my close friends, there is only 1 that I can have a reasoned and objective conversation with and, ironically, he is Woolwich. The rest are so fickle it annoys me. For example, I have a couple plastic scousers in my group (never been to Liverpool, let alone Anfield). Haven't heard a peep from them for years, now all of a sudden they are crowing about how good Liverpool are. Last week they said without Gerrard they would slide down the table as Henderson was terrible and Sterling was not up to it just yet. Now after one game, Henderson is the best young English midfielder and Sterling is probably worth about £50m.

Drives me bonkers. At the same time, it's usually the fickle fans that tend to point out how they are better than other sets of fans at other clubs for always being behind the team and not fickle etc. Part of me thinks a lot of it is down to people not having the time or perhaps footballing intelligence to form their own opinion about players/clubs etc so they believe what they are told in the papers or by other people and as sensationalism always seems to step in (players are either amazing or ****) people's opinions are bound to swing regularly.

Whatever it is, it isn't just Spurs fans, we are no better and no worse than anyone else and unfortunately it is more down to the fact that people are just insufferable c-bags as you delightfully put in!

Also with regards to the arguing amongst themselves, that is unfortunately what happens on forums. It's easy to misinterpret the tone of a message and incredibly easy to pick fights when you don't have any repercussions so it just gets out of hand on an almost hourly basis it seems. Shame that most threads descend into people just taking pops at one another without actually discussing football/spurs! Don't think that will ever change unfortunately.

Can;t we all just get along.... :adebaehug:

 

[Smoked Salmon]

I have to say that out of the nearly 20 years I've been supporting the club the fans have pretty much gone down the shitter. As much as I admire the efforts of the likes of 1882 & Co I find our fans for the most part insufferably negative, aggressive and impatient. They never used to be quite as bad as they are now. During the shitty years people just didn't seem as concerned with instant success as they are now and, I hate to say it, but a lot more fans these days seem to be struggling in the intellectual department.

Once upon a time we were different. Not anymore.

Maybe I'm just not looking at it with young eyes anymore.

 

[sammyspurs]

I have to say that out of the nearly 20 years I've been supporting the club the fans have pretty much gone down the shitter. As much as I admire the efforts of the likes of 1882 & Co I find our fans for the most part insufferably negative, aggressive and impatient. They never used to be quite as bad as they are now. During the shitty years people just didn't seem as concerned with instant success as they are now and, I hate to say it, but a lot more fans these days seem to be struggling in the intellectual department.

Once upon a time we were different. Not anymore.

Maybe I'm just not looking at it with young eyes anymore.

To be fair, as I touched on above, its not really a demand for success.

No one is demanding titles, and trophies. I think most people get pissed off that even at this stage, with this amount of investment and quality, we cant even muster up finishing behind 3 other teams for two years on the spin.

Its not much of a demand, really.

 

[Adam Clark]

I have to say that out of the nearly 20 years I've been supporting the club the fans have pretty much gone down the shitter. As much as I admire the efforts of the likes of 1882 & Co I find our fans for the most part insufferably negative, aggressive and impatient. They never used to be quite as bad as they are now. During the shitty years people just didn't seem as concerned with instant success as they are now and, I hate to say it, but a lot more fans these days seem to be struggling in the intellectual department.

Once upon a time we were different. Not anymore.

Maybe I'm just not looking at it with young eyes anymore.

I think it is the age old problem of tasting success. It's human nature to always want bigger and better and once you've experienced it it's hard to go back. Getting in to the champions league is arguably one of the worst things that happened to Spurs in recent history in that now a large majority of our fan base thinks it should be a bare minimum every year.

Even with the argument that we failed to take advantage of our champions league appearances to attract the big name players to hopefully retain our position in the top 4 it still would have been incredibly hard for us to hold on to a top 4 spot indefinitely with our finances. United and Woolwich, whatever you think of them, have commercially played a masterclass and have set themselves up to generate funds that allow them to compete with the sugar daddies.

Unfortunately we cannot compete at these levels on a consistent basis and until we build this hallowed new stadium we won't ever be able to do so and a top 4 finish is realistically a very good achievement for Spurs, and that's before you even have to worry about Liverpool and Everton pushing for the same target. At the end of the day, money talks, and until we can start paying high transfer fees and wages without having to sell off other players first we will always be a team where Europa is the minimum target and champions league is a good season. Of course there will the odd season where we can have a good run or one of the bigger boys slips up for a year but they don't come round all that often and the sooner people accept that the better.

At this point I realise I am settling for 5th place each year, I'm not. I always want to get in the top 4 and win trophies but I don't lose my **** if we don't. Granted I'm disappointed but there is always next year which will almost definitely be our year!

 

[Smoked Salmon]

To be fair, as I touched on above, its not really a demand for success.

No one is demanding titles, and trophies. I think most people get pissed off that even at this stage, with this amount of investment and quality, we cant even muster up finishing behind 3 other teams for two years on the spin.

Its not much of a demand, really.

Are we the only ones though? The likes of Newcastle have thrown money at their clubs and not gotten what they want. Even while Liverpool were challenging for the title they still didn't manage to win it. Should their fans say the same?

I dunno, but I've followed the club long enough to not get carried away. I think people who say "is it too much too ask?" sometimes forget that for all the business side of the modern game, it is still a sport and the end of the day and you cannot buy guaranteed success, no matter how much investment improves your chances.

Managerial woes are not, we are still vastly superior to the team that I first saw at the Lane. We are 5 points off fourth and still in all competitions, yet people act like the situation is more dire than, say, when we were fighting relegation under Christian Gross.

It's all down to impatience. It's not what supporting a club is all about. Rather it's expecting that club to give you some sort of return in exchange for your support.

Nah, not me mate. If I expected a return on my emotional investment I'd go and support the likes of Chelsea.

 

[Audere]

I have to say that out of the nearly 20 years I've been supporting the club the fans have pretty much gone down the shitter. As much as I admire the efforts of the likes of 1882 & Co I find our fans for the most part insufferably negative, aggressive and impatient. They never used to be quite as bad as they are now. During the shitty years people just didn't seem as concerned with instant success as they are now and, I hate to say it, but a lot more fans these days seem to be struggling in the intellectual department.

Once upon a time we were different. Not anymore.

Maybe I'm just not looking at it with young eyes anymore.

20 years supporting? How old are you? You look about 40 in the pictures I've seen of you. Who did you support as a kid then?

 

[Smoked Salmon]

20 years supporting? How old are you? You look about 40 in the pictures I've seen of you. Who did you support as a kid then?

And what pictures would they be?

 

[gaz]

graham roberts is presently asking for tomorrow's team selection on twitter.
prize for one that matches his.

every one either has an injured or suspended player in it.
that's yer demographic right there.

 

[Audere]

And what pictures would they be?

Well there's that one where you look like a bullfrog kissing ramsingh I think. And the video of you at Barnet.

 

[Smoked Salmon]

Well there's that one where you look like a bullfrog kissing ramsingh I think. And the video of you at Barnet.

What video at Barnet?

 

[Audere]

What video at Barnet?

Oh I've been following you from a distance for some time now. I have a few videos.

Anyway lets not ruin the nice Belgium mans thread by proving we are cunts. Just tell me who you supported as a kid because there is no way you are 25.