The alternative
Spurs News 24/7I wrote a lengthy article on 'what's wrong with Tottenham' which you can read here. One of the responses in the comments stated:
I can see where you are coming from. Some of your statements are quite valid, others are, I am sorry to say, show that you HOPE something good will happen.
Is 'hope' not the fundamental building block of football?
I know I'm emotional, I know that I display less pragmatism than our coach does. I've said it before, if he stays and he fails then I'll have got it wrong. Not for the first time. I just think, all things considering, we've tried to compete at the top or attempted to strive for it for 20 odd years and have mostly failed. We are not a title challenging club, never really have been. We've won three trophies in that period of playing catch-up. No doubting we are now in a position to truly contend and we should aim as high as possible, no half measures.
I guess the football under our head coach doesn't quite match the romantic notion of how Tottenham should play, but the 'Spurs way' has usually been more about the calamitous defending alongside the attacking intent. Andre Villas-Boas is lopsided with his attempt at the moment and has to find that sacred middle ground that would give us some of that tradition back but balance it out with a spine strong enough to achieve history we've not achieved for half a century.
Thinking about this, although we're out of the dark times of the Sky dominated Top Four and the incredible gap in terms of class between them and the rest, the task at hand is still something that hasn't really been undertaken with any success in my life time. It's fair to say, tangible progress has been made over the past 5 or so years. Since the Jol tenure.
Other clubs around us have the virtue of seasoned experienced, already hard coded templates of football philosophy and untold riches and tax paid wages. This was never going to be easy. Our sense of entitlement perhaps out of sync because we know how close we're getting.
In the past we've tried almost everything, every type of manager/coach. It's all failed, although it's all been relative to where we sat in the league and the type of players we had at that given moment. There's a belief that we are under achieving and there is no way of changing that unless we replace our coach now.
Have I got it wrong?
Should we as supporters and as a club be more ruthless in our quest for success? Is it a sign of weakness to wait and hope? Maybe all of us - club, coach and supporters need to display more bravery. The ruthless thing hasn't worked for us in the past either.
For once, how about we work through the hard times (yes, this season is considered that defined by reaction to the last result) and see where he can take us? Or is that naive of me to wish for? Is it a case that it has to work now, because another chance gone missing will set us back a few steps and therefore leave us in a perpetual state of rebuild?
If you believe that, you're forgetting that other clubs are in flux and that is it almost impossible to know what will happen from one season to the next. I'm pretty sure during Harry Redknapp's time at Spurs and even last season under AVB - before the season started, few realistically thought we'd be in with a chance for 4th. That hope transcends during the season itself.
If football is about results. If football is about the short term gain to allow for longevity and that there is no more allowance for '2-3 year plans' (just win something, get into the CL, and don't fret about empire building) then there's little point in myself, or anyone else for that matter, bothering to drown in expletives and explosions as we try to over analyse every single nuance of our players and teams and tactics.
Embrace the glorious football moments that see white and blue ribbons on a cup that history will remember over a 4th or 3rd or even 2nd place finish. Except, aiming high means we should also look beyond that 2nd spot.
Might as well take one game at the time, seek to be entertained, drink loads if we win, drinks loads if we don't. That's more the Spurs way, right?
If we win something at the end of the season, we celebrate, if we don't we look ahead to the next.
No more concerns about how we look to rival supporters, how we compare to the past and no set deadlines of achievement to weigh us down as we gamely follow the season.
Belong to Spurs, follow Spurs. Everything else seems to only result with unnecessary stress and pressure.
This is meant to be escapism, not a prison sentence.
