The Tottenham Way.....

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It’s been written about before regarding Spurs sides of previous decades, but I thought I would apply ‘The Tottenham Way’ to our current side as I truly believe this is the best squad I have ever seen in my lifetime.

It’s not the fact that we are currently joint 2nd in the best (and toughest) league in the world, or the fact that we are half way through January and we have only lost 3 games in the league. Audere est Facere and all that, and I too am starting to really believe we can emulate the great ’61 side, yet I find myself not wanting to believe in case it all implodes in February with a potential nasty run of fixtures in the post. By the way, do well next month and we will really be contenders.

But what I am really loving is the swagger, the arrogance, the style and class with which our current squad put away tackle after tackle, shimmy after shimmy and opponent after opponent. Coupled with desire, grit and bags of pace to burn from front to back this is a potent mix, which even the most dogged of bus-parkers cannot handle.

It pains me to say it, but Woolwich played some beautiful football last term (all be it without anything to show for it)but their tic-tac Barca style was very different to how we play. In fact nobody plays the way we do, mixing up quick pass and move routines with pacey old school wingers and steel when required with powerful holding midfielders. They won’t all admit it, but pretty much everyone enjoys watching Spurs now, as it is simply so entertaining.

Bill Nicholson, Peter Shreeve and Keith Burkinshaw all adopted and encouraged the Tottenham way, and Harry also has this running through the veins of his squad. A five yard pass is a simple task, but when done the Tottenham way, it oozes class and style, with a follow through and exaggerated arm movements, a subtle head turn finished with the chest out, looking two passes ahead to receive the ball in an equally polished manner with a sublime first touch, perhaps with the outside of the foot.

Take man of the moment BAE for example. At one point vs Everton he made three outrageous dummies on the edge of their penalty area, with each one gaining him an extra yard to get a quality cross in the box. Kyle Walker also shows that ‘chest-out’ self confidence when delivering a short pass whilst our mouth-watering midfield, whatever configuration it is deployed in each have their own individual elements of the Tottenham way.

I’ll end my words with a phrase that I’ve remembered and used over the years from the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off ( & later sampled by LTJ Bukem)

‘Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it’.

Well, enjoy this season, we are over half way through it and are all privileged to be witnessing something very special. So next time you watch those Lillywhite Gods play, look out for The Tottenham Way, you’ll see what I mean.
COYS
 
:bow: Great first post encapsulating the Spurs style and a reference to LTJ Bukem, who I never hear about any more but used to love, and not sure if you meant it or not but an apt reference given Bukem's status as the king of liquid DnB and the Spurs style of play.

One thing you touched on is something I have thought many times: despite admiring the tippy tappy style of football as exhibited in Spain and, to a lesser degree, by the scum since Wanger's transformation of that club, I prefer to see, in British football especially, the style we play. At it's best, it incorporates long chains of possession with defensive tenacity and scintillating pace.

Anyone saying they prefer one style of play to that of Barcelona will get quickly mugged off by all and sundry of course, but to me that's part of the problem. Increasingly there's a kind of monotone elitism under which we all have to bow down to Barca and nothing else is good - other than cheap imitations of course. That appears to be the limit of our ambitions in this country.

But the reality of football is that each region of the world has produced different styles, throughout the history of the game. So while it's good to be influenced by others, taking the best bits and adapting them to mix with your own attributes, in this country if you want to play pure tippy tappy football, you'll always be an imitation, never the top dog in that style. I think (again, when it's at its best), British football will retain possession a lot better than it traditionally does, should pass fluidly and quickly, but will also retain the physical tenacity and the burst of pace on the wing that have always been its hallmarks.

So yeah, basically, I am still basking in the incredulity of watching the finest Tottenham side for decades. Since my time following the club, I would never have believed I'd be privileged enough to be witnessing that.
 
linnet_spur said:
Thelonious said:
great post, however, we ain't joint 2nd, we're 3rd!

Alright, Killjoy
:harryblow:
keep+it+real.jpg
 
Here here, I certainly forget and don't enjoy a lot of games due to caring so much about the result. With your post I'm going to try and just enjoy the game more and whatever happens, happens. COYS. (Don't hold me to this)
 
I've always wanted to see 'Push-and-Run' re-introduced... don't get me wrong, I think the current Spurs team is about as close to it as we'll get in the modern era... fuck me, we've already started pinging it about & seeing players switching positions... but to take it to the next level, we need to make the opposition look like they're trying to catch chickens... BRING IT ON!

With Bale, Lennon & Walker, we have the players FAST enough to do it, and in Modric, Huddlestone (eventually) Ade & Van Der Vaart we have players CUTE and INTELLIGENT enough to put it into practice... maybe Harry will go all out and implement it for the remainder of the season...? the rest of the Premier League won't know what's hit 'em!!
 
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