Good afternoon. Well. That wasn’t very nice was it?
We were in all too many respects link a racehorse the handicapper got to. Bale’s wife went into labour. Dembele was injured and these two absences sent the dominoes inexorably falling. The worst of it was in the middle of the park. Sandro without his foil found himself drowning.
The first mistake was starting Brad. I really believe that we need to give Hugo a run of games now. He’s not some child, give him the shirt and let’s get on with it. This isn’t taking a punt. He wasn’t cheap. He’s one of the best keeper’s in the world. That’s not opinion.
Kyle Walker was finally busted. Not interested in how hurtful the Tweets were. He’s been gormless all season and we need to be thankful we spotted sooner rather than later. He might not need abuse, but he needs benching and it’s vital he’s dropped in favour of someone competent. The Forest Gump runs never impressed me and the headless chicken routine has just become depressing.
People were screaming for Gallas’ blood yesterday but with a no midfield in front of him and a lobotomised llama next to him he was never going to win the day. He did do some good work; but there seems a general undercurrent of unkindness toward him. His header out was powerful. It was blind luck it fell so kindly for Cahill.
Neither Caulker or Jan seemed to be quite at the races. Were they overawed? Well their performances against Manchester United suggest that wasn’t the case. But there were no runs, no dynamism. No sense of dynamism.
Huddlestone stepping in for Moussa wasn’t helpful. In fact it was equivalent of shoveling road gritting salt into a wound. He’s a sweet touch and that’s all he has. Like a comic trading off one good catchphrase. He struck several wonderful passes and then stood as if waiting for the applause. Desperately immobile. A desperate waste of a career.
Elsewhere we looked generally weak and a rather timid. The same old Lennon. Whizzing and skipping and zipping about but not really achieving all that much. It’s heartbreaking. Dempsey and Siggurdson were horribly unmemorable.
Villas-Boas is playing a risky strategy here with his choice of forwards and his seeming reluctance to make substitutions. Defoe is extraordinarily limited. Is Adebayor still not fit? If not, why not? This was a game where the midfield decided the outcome and we simply didn’t have one.
Brilliant. It’s as if they get their interns to make up any old bollocks for the purpose of checking their spelling.
bale became a dad on Sunday
and Walker a mother on saturday
Wenger is ‘worried’ about the 10 point gap to Chelsea…
Shouldn’t he be more concerned with Swansea, Fulham & Stoke?
Hmmm, all a bit depressing really & I’m not talking about he game.
I have to agree with Ben/watever on a lot of counts & LLL made some good points on the previous thread about the twitter incident. Even HH wrote fluently about in previous posts about the poisonus atmosphere at WHL before seemingly marching up angry alleyway.
Spurs supporters have always been hard to please but have equally always been strong in support. As success has mounted on the pitch, we seem to have become increasingly impatient off it… Like smartphone geeks ranting about a 5 minute outage in service.
Being frustrated at the team is one thing, but it seems to be that we’re constantly looking for an individual to vilify. A sacrificial offering to make our tantrum better. Maybe it’s an effect of the modern ambulance-chasing culture where someone must always be to blame. Whatever it is, I really don’t really like it.
I’ve sung myself hoarse at Anfield when we were 7-0 down and when Brady’s goons put five past us, sung when we were relegated – But the mood at WHL at the moment is just plain weird. Without a doubt, it seems to be one of ‘waiting to be entertained’ & all it takes is a slight mistake and the personal level of vitriol heaped on individual players is horrible.
In past seasons, players have recommended us to their ex-teammates when it comes to transfer time. Come to the Lane, you’ll love it here. There can be no getting away from the fact that this term, the team look happier playing away than they do at home. That doesn’t really sound like it’s a place they really want to be or would recommend to anyone?
I have actually avoided going to WHL for some time.
The overwhelming atmosphere is like people in a cinema waiting to be impressed from the off.
Spurs fans have always been demanding but at Home they’ve now mostly lost the run of themselves. The team need to earn a song, work for a cheer. This isn’t support, it’s a nasty reward system put in place not by supporters by people ‘attending’ games.
You know I can’t remember the last time I had a good experience there. Yet every away game and more or less every game watched in a pub was great.
There’s an arrogance and a contempt been doing the rounds for a good few years now – and I don’t want in.
The cinema comparison is spot on.
All seater stadiums do have that feel to them.
Also, in the old days, the ground would start filling up 2 hours before kick off so each teams fans could clear their throats and greet each other with mutual threats and abuse.
Now, if you walk past the local pubs 15 minutes before kick off, they are rammed with supporters who have still not left to get to the match.
You are shooting the hand now,Harry, that feeds Tottenham.
That is The fans.
The want what they want.I cant blame them.
They have had too many promises based on the premise that we are a big club.Thats what they have been sold.
You expect too Harry but you have made the bold move of a commitment to AVB. They havent.
I would never not go to Tottenham because of the fans.I would go because of the team and the standard.
Its been too long.
Its one step backward,two forward,two back one forward.
My judgement is on the team.Im invested already too much in them.More years than most.
Playing Freidel over and over and leaving Lloris to look like a schmuck is too much.
HOW BLOODY DARE YOU!
I don’t use bold – I’m an OMO man :devil:
I think you are right, although I do think it has worsened considerably this season. The mixture of the pain of last season coupled with a lot of skepticism over the new boss and a lot of the old fashioned fickle ‘gimme’ culture you describe has made WHL a rather joyless place to be. At least it was on the only game I’ve attended so far this season – QPR – which we actually won!!
It is disappointing for sure. But unlike HH I feel the online culture of abusive trolling and bullying is a much more depressing indictment still.
Have to agree on all counts. The Lane seems to be a mix of the worst elements of all the branches of support at the moment – From the jaded ‘we’ve been here years & feel disenfranchised/I remember when all this was fields’ season ticket holders to the ‘I told you so’ wallah’s who seem desperate for AVB to fall on his face. Add in young impressionable fans attracted by the recent success who think it’s as easy as playing CM to win the league and you have a burden of expectation that’s holding us back rather than providing fuel.
But I wholeheartedly agree that it’s the online aspect of this that’s really sour for me – And not just with the Spurs fans. Some of the things we’ve seen this summer with online attacks against people like Tom Daly is a sign of something really malignant. Yes, you could say it’s the death/flipside of celebrity culture and some such as Ashley Cole have courted any attention they attract but there is a blurring of the line between honest criticism and plain hateful spite that just sends a shiver up my spine.
I like a bit of Twitter and I’ve read a few of Kyles tweets. They’re genuinely full of joy for the thing he does. He loves playing for Spurs and loves the interaction he gets with the fans. When the AVB b/s was at it’s peak before the Man U game, Kyle was the first on twitter to defend the boss. That, to me doesn’t justify hate mail for a ‘bad day at the office’.
There are a lot of keyboard warriors out there, sad individuals with nothing better to do with their time.
I do think Kyle needs some training in the art of defence, he gets caught out of position so often and there seems to be no communication between him and the central defenders.
You don’t need 4 great defenders to have a great defence (think back to the miserly gooner defence that included Steve Bould) but they need to work as a unit and I don’t think ours are doing that at the moment.
But Kyle is still just a kid and has plenty of time to learn if he has the inclination.
It was not so long ago that the current Chelsea and England LB (I shall not repeat his name) burst on the scene and everyone said he could attack but not defend. I doubt anyone would argue that now.
him and kyle have the same hair
I think the fans can’t be blamed alone for their reaction (or predetermined attitude) at WHL. Whilst its certainly a shame that this is occuring (personally i’d be shouting till I ruptured at least one of my testicles – although I haven’t been to WHL for seven years) it cannot be blamed just on fans having a ‘gimme culture’ alone.
I would suggest the ‘gimme culture’ was created by the FA, media, sponsors, club management and of course the players – the fans are just niave enough pay for it. I believe the fans are a product of all these factors coming together (look at Man U and Arsenal and how their ‘culture’ adapted when success came in the 90’s – Chelsea never had any to start with :lol: ).
I believe its quite complex and has a number of fiscal and social drivers. It’s highly unlikely the fundemental core cultures of a large group of people can change over night (or a season)… All I can suggest is that (a) it must have been happening over a number of years (probably since we started seriously competing with the big 4?)and (b) the fans are not the ones to blame, but are merely a product (some or all) of the items below:
1) Ticket prices are astronomical (which I imagine is largely contributing to the ‘working class’ football fan finding it hard to attend?);
2) Wages are also astronimical, firmly linked to above;
3) Egos are even higher than wages and ticket prices combined!;
4) Social media has made the players far more accessable which which has also increased their vulnerability / risk of negative public perception whilst continually placing themselves upon their gold plated pedastals;
5) Arsenal and Chelsea have witnessed far more recent success;
6) Agree or not AVB was a ‘risky’ strategy and not popular with all fans. AVB hasn’t lit WHL thus far, fact. Also made some strange decisions before / during games “for a tactical genius” which hasn’t helped at all. My jury is still out;
7) Fundemental changes to a squad finishing 4th added to peoples frsustrations and expectancy;
7) Several really disappointing transfer windows that flattered to decieve – Dempsey, Siggy, Moutinho, Hulk etc etc etc; and
8) I believe we have a lesser squad than last season, which really shits me!
This may be an unpopular comment, but an individual pays his money (maybe 10-20% of his salary) they have the right to be expectant, go crazy from the kick off, not say a word, even a quick boo at half time, as long as its done in an appropriate and controlled manner. 80’s footballing culture has gone and never to return.
Although I tell you what HH if people started clapping and cheering during the opening scenes in my local cinema, I wouldn’t be too happy!!!! :angry:
Maybe we should just have a board that tells us all when to cheer and have done with it???
While there must be limits to ‘let the people decide’ I would say that Tottenham fans are not different to anyone else.
The actions are just reactions.
We would have to look a bit deeperinto the history and why the expectations are so high.
Our fans have been great generally,better we listen to both their voices and the managements results and assess
hoping that we demolish the gummi bears manufactures on thursday to make amends for the mishandling of sundays malarkey.