I read this very authoritarian poster saying I´m a "Mourinho supporter" - and not a Tottenham supporter - and I thought I could use this opportunity to talk about my relationship with Spurs - and why it´s so special to me. This is not an answer to you, my dear angry hater
Joe Clash
. And I apologize to everybody else for writing a big post that is not connected with Harry Winks at all (and also for my bad english in general).
To my dear posters from The Fighting Cock:
"I´m a football fan, more than anything else. I love the game, I love it´s unpredictability. I love the fact that you can win - and you can play well - in many different ways. I love the fact that, unlike in other sports, the best team during a game won´t necessarily win the match. Since a very young age, I eat and breathe football. And I grew up in the 90´s - when football played in Brazil was still very rich. My beloved club is Botafogo, a very traditional Brazilian team - the club of Garrincha, Didi, Nilton Santos, Gerson, Jairzinho, Zagallo... But the truth is that Botafogo don´t win many titles (especially in recent years) and for that reason we are intensely mocked by our rivals - sounds familiar?
Anyway, in the early 2000´s football played in Brazil started to deteriorate and we began to lose players not only to top European clubs and leagues, but also to Turkey, Japan, China, etc. I need to consume football at the highest possible level - so I had to turn my attention entirely to Europe for the first time. Jose was beginning his career in Portugal at that time. I remember watching his Porto team in the Uefa Cup (2002-03). It was a solid team, with players full of energy and confidence. A small side fighting and winning against much bigger clubs. More than anything else, it was a very tactical team - able to change and adapt according to different oppositions. They were not trying to be "adventurous". It was about knowing everything about the game, and then finding a way to win it. That was the immediate connection I felt with Jose Mourinho. Not the pure "winner" thing, but the disposition to win using everything that this beautiful game allows you to use. In a way, it shows
more respect towards football than anything else.
Now, I don´t care (I never did) about anything Jose does outside of his managerial functions. And I don´t dislike other managers - on the contrary, I also follow their teams independently of Jose. I don´t have a Twitter account (I use my wife´s account when I need) and my relationship with my father is pretty good. So, please, forget about any stereotypes that you might have in your mind about what a "Mourinho supporter" is. It´s just that, as a teenager football fan already following the game with a strong Brazilian background
, it made more sense to me to follow Jose´s works than to simply choose an European team and call it "My team" - after all, I already had a team. Until now, I watched and rewatched Jose´s teams as an observer - which actually gave me a privileged position to analyze and judge his works. My perception of things, for good and for bad, was always different than what fans were thinking. I never screamed at the window when Inter Milan scored a goal, for example. I never wanted to write in a Manchester United forum.
But when Jose came to Spurs last November and I did a small research inside Spurs communities, it felt different.
And most of all, because of the fans. Spurs fans are pessimistic. There is a real inferiority complex around - just remember how scared people were about the Amazon Doc before it´s release. Fans are tired of their club being mocked by rivals. Tired of not winning. In many ways, it´s exactly like my people - "Botafogo supporters" - are feeling since the 60´s. And then of course, knowing more about Spurs culture and History, it all came together and it was very easy to feel like a fan - and not just as an observer. I didn´t simply choose an European club in an artificial way.
It took me almost 20 years to feel a real connection with one. It started because I´m a "Mourinho supporter", yes, but it will last forever.
Finally, this is the reason why I disagree that Jose fans, or "Sonny fans", or "Bale fans" will necessarily abandon Spurs once these high profile football personalities are gone. Some of them will, of course. But others will stay, and the most important thing:
Tottenham will only get bigger in the process,
exactly by assimilating different fans from different backgrounds and different parts of the world.
We are all Spurs supporters."
COYS