People’s reading habits are changing all the time, advancing.
“The great fallacy is that the game is first and foremost about winning. It’s nothing of the kind. The game is about glory. It’s about doing things in style, with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.”
I occasionally see a West Ham fan on the bus. Yesterday he was positively breezing through his latest summons for shoplifting with just a finger tracing along as he silently mouthed the words. Not once did I see him ask anyone for assistance.
That Blanchflower quote has become almost an unofficial club motto at Spurs. And it has also proved something of a millstone for every team that has followed in the footsteps of the Double winners. It is taken as evidence that the way the team plays is more valued than the results it gets. But this, I would argue strongly, is to misunderstand the point Blanchflower was making. It’s the “first and foremost” bit that gets overlooked. Blanchflower never dismissed the importance of winning. He was a professional footballer with enormous ambition, after all.
The section that talks of “going out and beating the other lot” is a pretty clear indication that winning was foremost in his mind. The point is that for Blanchflower, winning was a given.
Of course you were there to win, because that is the nature of sport. But how you win is what distinguishes mere success from glory and, as he said, the game is about glory.
Mde De Hotspur has a kindle apparently. I only know this as it one of the things with a red sticker on it and I’m not allowed to play with anything that has a red sticker.
He was, in the words of sports journalist and long-time admirer Julie Welch “football’s stylish song-and-dance man, playing the game the way Gene Kelly danced”.
And let’s not forget that point, because for all that can justifiably be said about Blanchflower the thinker and personality, he was without a doubt one of the finest footballers to grace the turf.
Martin Cloake and Adam Powley are quite rightly among other things highly respected authors. This is another reason to appreciate their literary efforts. The pair have teamed up yet again to produce a series of ebooks called Sports Shots.
The Danny Blanchflower Sports Shot is 12 chapters of all you need to know about a revered Spurs legend. After all, aside from that Connor MacCleod bloke and Cliff Richard, non of us are immortal. This is the stuff that keeps the new blood in our tribe well and truly in touch with the past and how important that it is kept alive.
Blanchflower was a clever man, but he recognised the simple pleasures of football and much of his intellectual application was dedicated to debunking the efforts of those who would make it overcomplicated.
At just £2.99 this includes VAT & free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet. HERE
Make someone’s Christmas and watch them get merrily stuck in to a great slice of Tottenham’s past (readers purchasing for themselves will have to use a mirror to achieve this).
Danny Blanchflower: ‘Our aim is to equalize, before the other team scores.’
If we beat the teams we should beat, and get a couple of draws away at the top teams, then 2nd is not out of the question.
“I occasionally see a West Ham fan on the bus. Yesterday he was positively breezing through his latest summons for shoplifting with just a finger tracing along as he silently mouthed the words. Not once did I see him ask anyone for assistance”.
That observation is pure Dickens 150 years on I’ll bet his name is “Dodger”.
Nickname, ‘Soapy.’
I’ve always had problems with that. They’ve all got the same nickname.
30 days to Xmas, 37 till the transfer window opens. So who do we need who we can afford and is available ?
Struggling to think of anyone who fits the bill, although some cover down the left for BAE & Bale would be nice.
Fernando Llorente from Athletico Bilbao, the same guy we needed last January, if we had bought him then top 4 was guaranteed and another 39mill ??? certainly enough to have paid for his services. If we miss out this coming window it will indicate the club is not ready for the next level. That 4-2 defeat to Blackpool is a recurring nightmare, the night the wheels came off. COYS.
I am going to make a prediction about the transfer window. At the end of if we will all be holding our heads in our hands, and telling anybody who will listen, that Levy is a tight-fisted git. we will be organise whip rounds to to try to bribe the Jury in HR’s case to rrange a holiday for him, and predicting that we will never ever again qualify for the CL.
And then come May, we will be wondering who Levy is going to buy, because qualifying for the CL will not be enough, and we must have nothing less than Messi and Ronaldo, because we deserve nothing less than to win the CL.
How can I be certain in my predictions? Because we are Spurs and that’s the way we do things around here!!!!!!!!!
one stand behind the goal at one end should be “The Park Lane End” in honour of all those who sang their hearts out for years and helped create the atmosphere