Tottenham till I die
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 11:57AM #2
A question was posed on a forum asking why you support who you support. Not highly original, I know, but it's always interesting to delve into the responses to see how other peoples allegiances were birthed.
Your answer ought to be geographically influenced, but commonly it's down to immediate family and on occasions, if you are devoid of having a dad (or mum) or siblings who are interested in the beautiful game you just pick whomever is top of the league. Which is why when I was a young lad everyone in London seemed to support Liverpool*.
*Two minutes silence for their current plight please people. Two minutes.
Of course, not everyone glory-hunts. And many live abroad and simply fall in love with the history or traditions of a club in another country, based on a game they've witnessed or a book they've read or the majesty of a shirt. I appreciate that not everyone is pre-selected.
I had the privilege (curse) of having a family of Spurs supporters around me. I was also born in Tottenham. Well actually, no I wasn't. A hospital on Tottenham Court Road. Well, actually the hospital was just a brisk walk from Tottenham Court Road. Nowhere near N17, but that's just a technicality. Tottenham Court Road, right? COYS.
My grandfather (God rest his soul) was a keen follower and frequenter of White Hart Lane during the 50's and 60's and my uncle, a fanatic during the 70's hardly missed a game. The latter, the one who influenced me and guided me into the light that is Lilywhite.
No rebellious I want to support someone else or I like their badge so I'm going to choose this lot instead - which wasn't uncommon, again, with people who had no given affiliations to a club when they were old enough to understand and make their selection. A successful team, usually defeating the local team as the winning option if they wished to fast-track themselves to the top tier. But plenty followed their hearts instead.
How some families managed to be split down the middle between two clubs always fascinated me. It's fragmentation that can never be resolved. My dad supports Spurs. My brother. My sister. My uncle's kids. We have no split. I did celebrate Trevor Brookings goal in the 1980 Cup final by running outside into the garden and attempting to head the ball into an imaginary net but that isn't confliction, it's a natural reaction. An acceptable lapse. A Newcastle supporting father and a Sunderland supporting son a story I remember hearing about. They hardly spoke, always fought. Football before family, always.
Reminds me of a bloke who stood in front of me in one of the East stand turnstiles back in the very early 90's. 1991 season I reckon, home to the scum. 0-0. Gooners waving their wallets at us from the Park Lane. Gazza almost scoring an own goal as I stood in the corner of the Shelf side in those cracking days of terraces. So this bloke in the queue had a Spurs and Arsenal badge on his jumper. A ridiculous paradox.
"I support both", he stated proudly.
The steward looked at me and I just blankly stared back. If you support two clubs, two rival clubs, then you've not quite grasped the concept, have you? It's like people who ask the question: Who's you favourite team? There is no place for favourite team in football. If you do it properly, you don't have a favourite team. You just have the one. A relationship for life. No break-up. Plenty of heartaches and headaches, and the two of you are together until your very last breath.
'Yeah, so, I really love Man U but I dig Real Madrid in their all white kit and also adore Wolves because they got a cool name. So Utd are my best, Madrid my second bestest and Wolves my third bestestest. If any of them play each other, I'd like a draw'
If you ever met someone who stated a resemblance of the above, I wouldn't look down on you if you smothered and buried him in a shallow grave in Epping forest. Favourite? There's no room for favouritism. Following the results of your local side, if you perhaps don't actually support your local side isn't betrayal. There are no affairs and no two-timing. 100% unequivocal commitment. You love your team, but you can have a soft spot for your local side. Bit like some Spurs fans I know who watch Barnet or Orient. They don't 'love' Barnet. They would practically (heavily metaphorically) die for Spurs.
However, every now and again we do get some Sol Campbells amongst us. Ooh.
My brother-in-law knew someone who, after a depressing Saturday at the Lane in a depressing season (I guess the mid-90's), and partly thanks to some peer-pressure from outside his group of friends, 'quit' supporting Spurs and not long after ended up an Arsenal fan. Quitting because your team lost? Spare a thought for supporters of clubs who never climb out of the lower tier divisions. The spirit of Benedict Arnold lives on with some.
I knew someone a few years back, a Hammers fan, who revealed he was a Spurs fan when he was a teenager but ended up following the Irons because his group of mates got involved with the ICF and he was more interested in the friendships and fighting than the football. It was, to him, more about being part of a group. A hooligan rather than standing on his own every Saturday at 3pm. Each to their own I guess.
My personal favourite (I'm using that word here because it's in context) has to be the story about these two blokes (in Leyton at the time), one of whom was completely disinterested in football and the other a West Ham fan. They both lusted after this one girl who was an Arsenal supporter. And both of them became gooners as a consequence to win her over. They both actually dated her, one after the other (she went out with one, dumped him then went out with the other one). The two blokes even had a punch up at one point outside the local pub. Heated stuff. The bloke who supported West Ham and defected for the sake of having her thighs wrapped round his back, paraded himself in a JVC shirt often without shame.
It's a bit like shitting yourself in public whilst wearing white trousers. You will never live it down. Nobody will forget the humiliation. The white trousers are bad enough, but the diarrhoea? It will define you forever. How could anyone look you in the eyes and take you seriously after something like that? You would automatically lose all credibility. For life. A few years later I spotted him back in a West Ham shirt. Pathetic.
You simply cannot disdain the fabric of football and the lack of its complexities relating to allegiances. It's quite simple. You choose your team and are bound to them for life. No get out clause. That's it.
As for me, I have an almost five month old baby daughter (I've managed to part name her after our beloved club - work it out yourselves) so getting her to follow the Spurs might be a difficult task if her mother pampers her with shopping trips, Jimmy Choos and Gucci handbags when she's old enough to succumb to the frivolous vanity driven past-times of womanhood. However, there is hope. When she was just two months old, she projectile vomited when Cesc Fabregas appeared on the tv during a Sky Sports News report. There's hope for my THFC family bloodline yet.
TTID.
You've been reading the second part of Spooky's International Break diary journals.
Part one can be read here.
Reader Comments (140)
My old man has always been spurs fan and one of my first memories is being paraded around in a spurs shirt when i was about 4-5. (dad showing off to his mates, blatently!!) all the kids from my estate were liverpool fans (Rush was sik) so i was constantly bombarded by scouse propaganda. im 28 now and, while i did not succome to the nazi-esque brain washing tactics used by my (so-called) pals, i do feel a bit sorry for the Pool and their plight....... but thats as far as it goes
Bring on Inter!!
C.O.Y.S
More chat
http://glory-glory.co.uk/forums/thread/1013830.aspx
AOC , you are right , i would try to find reasons why one team deserves it more then the other. I guess it would be allright of one team (Spurs more likely) are superior to the other one ... But if Kaa Gent won the game after cheating with a pen or something and i would come on here and read everybody slating of the team i played for ... would be pretty hard to take.
On another note :FC TWente is coached by the former Kaa Gent coach , their star midfield player Ruiz comes from our team (and was our most beloved player ever) along with their rightback Rosales. So i wanted spurs to win but was a bit taken aback by the sub standard refereeing , Spurs were the better team and should have won without help from the ref
Yep been a fan since the 81 final too. Was 5 years old standing on the High street when they paraded the cup. There was something that day that at age 5 I knew was really special about the whole thing. Was born in the north middlesex but at age 6 my parents decided they wanted to raise me in Ireland where my dad's from.
There's nothing like supporting spurs. From the highs to the lows I've been through every concieveable emotion since then. Something else from my early memories was watching us on the beeb, getting ready to settle down and watch us do our stuff then a minute or two later the crummy second half caption would flash up. Damn I hated that.
My uncle and his son & daughter and quite a few others are spurs fans too but she married an arsenal fan. Nice but of banter at that wedding!! Where we moved to in Ireland there are quite a few arsenal fans actually the houses immediately to my left and right and 2 across the road all are arse houses 6 mad bastards in all. I'm surrounded. There's a few at work too but I have 2 other yids to back me up. The arse fans at home say they started supporting them because of Brady and o'leary. Fair enough it's a reason I suppose.
Best supporting story I've heard is when my dad and his best mate went to London to work in the 60's. They decided to go to a match so went to arse v manure at highbury. They flipped a coin to decide who they'd support. My dad got manure his mate arse and the rest is history. They still support them nearly 50 years later. And rip the piss out of eachother (and me!) in the pub.
As a foreign yid , the internet is one of the best things that has ever happened to me as a fan ... , never need to be scared that MOTD will dissapear , being able to judge the players performance with my own eyes in stead of having to read about it. I try to come to London at least 4 times a year but it is pretty expensive , and am going to Milan 2 (between the italian fans because no tickets left for the visiting fans).
Tom , lots of arse fans over here 2 , even more now that Vermaelen plays there.
"Best supporting story I've heard is when my dad and his best mate went to London to work in the 60's. They decided to go to a match so went to arse v manure at highbury. They flipped a coin to decide who they'd support. My dad got manure his mate arse and the rest is history. They still support them nearly 50 years later. And rip the piss out of eachother (and me!) in the pub."
Gold.
Born at the North Middlesex hospital a short walk from the Lane. Lived in N9 and N18 (Edmonton) most of my life and my dad was a Spurs supporter...it was a bit of a no-brainer for me.
There was the issue of my mums and dads family all being Islington based Gooners though...my dad, it seemed had rebeled from the dark side and saw the light, this didn't deter my family though and I was under constant pressure to change....but as I said to them, 'some things can't be changed'. Their pressure abated in '91, there was an FA cup semi-final...my decision was vindicated.
I know someone who did change though. About the time of Abramovich's take over of Chelsea a friend of mine turned up at football training with a Chlesea shirt on...despite the Spurs tattoo on his leg! He claimed he wasn't jumping on the billionare bandwagon and that he just 'liked Chelseas style of football', it was at that point I knew he was lieing so I duly kicked him up in the air once we started playing!
Guernsey has a fair few spurs fans, possibly cos Len Duquemin (a couple of posters on here may remember him?) was a local.
If asked my old man would say he is a spurs fan, but he wouldnt be gutted if he never went to the Lane. Because of his vague support, i became a Spurs fan as early as i can remember, but it was at 8 years old watching Gazza and Lineker at the world cup that really got me into footy and made me a Yid.
Both me and one of my brothers are spurs , but my youngest brother swapped and changed through childhood. He was forced into spurs, VERY briefly rebelled and became a goon, then glory hunted with United, before settling with Newcastle at about 10 years old, which to his credit he has stuck with.
London is bl00dy expensive to get to from Guernsey, and tickets for decent spurs games hard to come by when you dont go regularly so i only got to my first Spurs game in sept 07 which was the 3-3 draw at craven cottage - hell of a game, shame about the final score! I have been to few other random games in the past (Forestv Luton, Brentford v Shrewsbury and Saints v Coventry in the late 80's / early 90's), but first (and only so far) trip to the Lane was the 1-1 UEFA 2nd leg game against Prague in feb 08. Never mind the result, i love the lane!!! HAving a kid has put paid to further visits so far, but she will be getting her first SPurs kit for her birthday, and i am sure she will be coming along to the New WHL in the future.
COYS
Reckon you've struck gold with this topic! I've found it pretty interesting reading everyone's stories. Personally, my dad took me to my first game which was 1979 v Bristol City - where are they now? But I have a strong recollection at about age 6 of being given a hand-me-down Spurs shirt from my brother - embroidered cockerel and everything! My mum sewed some dark blue ribbon on the back to make a number 9 - Martin Chivers! Must have been pre-1976. At the age of 10, my elder brother was allowed to take me along with his mates to my first visit to the Shelf. I couldn't see a bloody thing, got beer poured over my head which my brother and his mates thought was hilarious. I remember being very confused as to why spurs fans were singing Eric, Eric, Eric Gates, Eric Gates, Eric Gates until they got to the "punchline" - oh....wank, wank, wank wank, wank, wank, wank etc... and wondered why a man in a white "foreman's" coat seemed to be able to start off all the singing. Enthralling, mysterious stuff! COYS!
I went to school in London only about 10 years ago, I don't have a rich vein of history to mine for anecdotes but this is something important to me. I grew up and still live in a pretty far-away country, without much of a following in football, but I had the honour of boarding with a family of Spurs supporters while going to King's.
The football at the time was a bit shit, but I was regaled with stories about the resistance of the fans against members of the BNP trying to peddle their unique brand of bullshit at White Hart Lane, the whole story about how the name "Yid" was appropriated and turned from being a pejorative to a distinction. That meant a lot to me, and it still does. I always enjoyed the game, but until then I never had much to do with club football. Been hooked ever since.
As for the 'other club' lark, I can understand the compulsion, especially in places where the support isn't so rabid, but I don't get the same lump in my throat watching a Spurs game as I do when I watch anyone else. I can appreciate the footballing ethic or the history of other teams, but I couldn't ever say 'that's my lot, right there,' not unless I had a very good, very personal reason to do so. Otherwise, it just seems like equivocating.
Cheers. Love the blog.
Thank you Geoff,don't feel quite so old reading these now. Was born on saturday 3o'clock on the day in 1953 when we lost 4-0 to the' Woolwich',so i guess i felt sorry for Spurs and been that way ever since!
Lived in deepest Hertfordshire where the postman would drop the programmes in from the midweek games he'd been to in the early 60's,still a prized possession is the Benfica one.Mum and Dad started taking me,first game Man Utd in the double year,family all supporters in the 50's bless 'em,so no choice about who to follow.Watched them for most of the 60s & 70s,never dull are they?
All three kids didn't have to be persuaded and they still won't wear anything red.Still enjoy seeing us try to play the 'Tottenham' way,Modric and VdV a joy to watch.
COYS
Simple for me, one James Peter Greaves lit up a football pitch and I was hooked. I was born in SE4 and the old fella was Millwall through & through, but he never said a word. He just said no matter how many women you fall in and out of love with, you'll never be able to change which club you fall for, they're with you for life.
Belgian Spur, I've been to KAA Gent and it's a nice club. Great bar across the main road and home fans who really went out of their way to make us feel welcome for the game against Roeselare. Since then I always check how they're doing!
I will chime in as an "international" supporter. Hope it isn't too chatty for the group.
I am 38 years old and live in Montana. Last year, for reasons I can't really explain, I decided to make an effort to follow the EPL through a full season. I grew up playing 'soccer' in the early 80's. An interesting time, our coach was a full blooded Italian who ran a pizza joint. None of the other dads knew anything about the sport. After high school, I had only a passing interest in the game, watching the US every four years in their World Cup spasms and gyrations.
Picking an EPL team wasn't that easy. I knew from the start that Manchester United were out. They are like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox rolled into one. Lots of cash, too much attitude, and way too much success for their own good. I'd heard of Liverpool and Arsenal but I balked at the idea of picking a team that was an out and out favorite from the get go. Then there were teams that I had never even heard of, like Bolton, and team from London called Tottenham Hotspur.
From the outside looking in, it's an odd sounding name (of course you could say the same thing about the Kansas City Wizards). And the badge? A bird on a ball? I was intrigued. So I watched them tentatively. Redknapp seemed like a good guy in the interviews. Defoe had pace and agility. His smoking of Wigan was epic and his ankle stomping red card was enigmatic. There was this giant named Peter who had a perma grin and when he occasionally scored it really looked like he had a true love of the game. The team looked like they had pluck and I liked that they were predominantly English.
With three feet of snow outside, I stared fixated at my 4x4 inch illegal internet stream of this team far, far away, playing at 7 in the morning my time in places like "Goodison Park." Over the season I learned a bit of the history. How this team had performed well in cups, but had not done so well in league play. It was a team of heartache and rapture reading forum posts. Capable of massive disappointment and sheer joy. Since I followed the US national team it was territory I was accustomed too.
They played with class. Didn't see too many antics and they weren't prone to drama. As the final quarter of the season approached I found myself slightly obsessed with this team roughly 4000 miles away.
When we fell to Portsmouth in the FA cup semifinal I was crushed and when Crouch put us over Man City it was pure elation.
The wife didn't understand.
“Spurs are going to the Champions league!” I cried.
“Who?”
“My team in England that I've been following,” I explained.
“Oh the Tottyham players?”
-sigh-
So this season has seen me purchase a television, and cable package that helps me watch as many games as possible. I still have to resort to the internet feeds from time to time. Certainly some highs and lows already, but in my estimation we have what it takes for another top 4 finish.
I have to say I envy all of you that live in England. The EPL is something else. I cannot believe I've missed out on this for so long. One day I hope to make it to White Hart Lane to see my team, my Spurs. I don't have a long knowledge on football. I don't have any family rivalries. I don't have any friends that follow it. But I know that when they score you can probably almost hear my shouts all the way across the pond.
COYS
Excellent I love talking about my Spurs origins. My family is split. Mother's Irish and they emigrated to a house on Drayton Park in the early 60's, had an Arsenal shop front on match days right through the 70's, all MASSIVE goons. Father grew up in Kings Cross, started going to Arsenal one week with goon mates, Spurs the next and because it was the 60's, fell in love with Spurs and gave up going to Arse pretty soon and then by the time I'm born in '72, he's seriously obsessed but has managed to marry my Mother somehow and produce children. Naturally fearful of his first born son being taken by the goonside, he dresses me in a massively oversized Spurs baby grow to leave the maternity unit and from that day on begins a fairly intensive brainwashing programme. So successful was it, that despite being taken over the North Bank and clock end a lot in the late 70's by Uncle Terry and Jack, it was all water offa ducks back and I lived for my trips with Father to WHL. And then of course it was the early 80's and I was at all the cup finals and on the terraces on a little pedastal so I could see over the crash barrier for some classic games. As a sideline, my elder sister who had been ignored football wise by Father due to her being a girl, got her own back by allowing herself to be taken by the goonside and become a militant goon of the worst kind. Still is. Father learned from that and brainwashed my younger sister in the correct and now established family fashion. I of course have 2 children both brainwashed Yids. When my boy was 4 he returned from the childminders in an arse shirt. I suprised myself with the ferocity of my reaction and decided that intensive brainwashing of one's own children is necessary and acceptable where football is concerned, because If you dont do it, some other c*nt will.
Cracking thread this.
re-reading my post;
"but I don't get the same lump in my throat watching a Spurs game as I do when I watch anyone else" should be the other way around.
Montana man, I'm just north of you, here in darkest Alberta.
82 season Park Lane with my grandfather ray his soul. Never look back, there is only room for one team ever!
COYFS
I was born in Croydon (for my sins) so I should really be a Crystal Palace fan as we only lived 10 mins down t'road, however, just like one example Spooky used my old man and family HATED football (the only thing they watch is Formula 1), especially when the Palace fans nicked our parking spots.
I never supported a team and my mates at school used to take the piss out of me for it. So one day, when I was 10 years old, I decided to sit down and watch the FA Cup final. It was 1987 so Spurs v Coventry. I picked the London team of the two and even though we lost embarrassingly I have stuck with Spurs and become obsessed with them ever since. Never been a season ticket holder but still got to quite a few games before I moved abroad, especially as I lived in North London.
Regarding "Soft spots" I've always had a soft spot for Palace being my local team as a kid and I've also got a soft spot for Werder Bremen as I spent a lot of time there as a kid, got friends there etc. I always promised myself that I'd go to a Spurs v Bremen game if they got drawn together so was actually gutted when it finally happened this season as now I live in Toronto and can't really justify the cost of travel. I'm still 110% behind Spurs for the above games though. Always.
Forgot to mention my other half is unfortunately a Goon too, but she's Canadian and picked them when she lived in London for 2 years so that doesn't count. Well not in my book anyway.
Johnny and Big Sky. Thanks for sharing.
Living in Australia I've not stepped foot on British soil (yet, and with AirAsia offering increasingly insane flights it's only a matter of time) so my choice of Spurs was rather remote.
I first chose Spurs in 1989 when I was at a friends house watching First Division highlights on the ABC (our version of the BBC). His old man is from Manchester and a United fan. It just so happened that United had played Spurs over the weekend, and being a contrarian I decided then and there that I would support Spurs.
Nothing really happened on the football front for me until the late 90's when I got a job with an email and an internet and I was able to properly follow the weekly results. Then in 1998 I was absolutely pumped to read that we'd signed Paolo Tramezzani. Little did I expect that a crappy Italian defender would turn out to be the perfect introduction to the emotional rollercoaster ride that is Tottenham Hotspur.
A ride I've been on quite a while now, and look forward to one day taking at the ground itself.
Sometime during the season which culminated in the FA cup final loss to Coventry, Own goal from Mabbutt to deny us and Clive Allen scoring 49 goals in the season. Remember him getting presented a giant cake with 50 on it anyway. Childhood hero, Living legend!
Cracking thread this.
I grew up in Buckinghamshire. The family had no interest in football. For reasons that are not entirely clear, I chose Spurs at the age of about 9. I think it was mostly because Jimmy Greaves was a big name in those days and because the first copy of Charles Buchan's Football Monthly I ever bought had a picture of him in it. I remember being gutted that he did not play in the 1966 World Cup Final. My support was reinforced by the 1967 Cup Final. I remember collecting newspaper cuttings of it and keeping them in a scrapbook for years. Anyway, before I go off at a complete tangent, I learnt much later in my teenage years that my grandfather, who I never knew and the family never talked about, was a keen Spurs fan and that I apparently had a number of distant relatives living in Tottenham, who I have still never traced, but I sometimes wonder if their descendants are in the crowd when I go. How spooky is that, Spooky?
Someone earlier in the day asked me about Mrs Spooky and her family. She hasn't got a clue tbh about football. Like a lot of women who only get excited about it if its a pen shout-out (she loved the CL final when Terry missed the pen) she's a bit useless with it all. Her family are passive West Ham fans. In fact, hardly Hammers fans as they're all women (dad not on the scene, he was actually a Millwall fan).
I remember our first date. It was on Saturday, when we got dicked 2-0 away to Bolton about 5/6 years back. She asked me how my day was and I mentioned the football and said Bolton beat us. She looked at me and said "Are they any good?"
I knew then, Saturday nights in watching MotD were never going to happen.
My father taught at a Nigerian University in the mid- late 70s and they had one of those one year break thingys they called sabbaticals - we were meant to be en route to San Diego with a couple of weeks late summer holiday in London. Met my cousin who played for the Spurs Youth team then. Watched Hoddle, Crooks, Ardilles, Villa et al. Hooked for life.
Returned to live in London in 1990. Season ticket holder last 10 years. My son is a gooner, so's my father and a good number of my friends including my business partner. But my daughter chose Spurs and come to games now and again. We now live in a small Hertfordshire village and it takes me about an hour door to door on match days. My father follows the Premier league avidly ( like many other Nigerians) and he never misses a chance to rib me whenever we have a poor result. You'd be surprised how fanatical the fans over there are - even though most 'support' d 'Sky Top 4'
TTID. COYS
In an odd "there but for the grace of God" twist, were it not for Claudio Reyna doing his cruciate early in the 2002-03 Season, I probably would have been a Sunderland supporter (shudder).
Like many American fans, I grew up playing soccer here in the states, but aside from the world cup, there wasn't much to watch--just "Soccer made in Germany" on PBS. Even though I played for the university while doing my BA in Dublin, I didn't really get into the premier league then.
For years it was a cycle of being totally immersed in football during the world cup and then having to go cold turkey until the Euros. Happily, I was working for Germans, so skiving off to the pub to watch matches was virtually part of the job description (the mad bastards actually closed the bank at noon on the first day of the 1994 WC so we could all go watch the opening match.) After the 2002 World Cup (which I have to tell you was utterly mental in NYC, with the pubs open all night for the matches, getting increasingly sleep deprived as the group stages progressed, zombie walking through the work day, snatching a few hours sleep before spending the whole night watching matches) my cable company finally picked up Fox Sports World, so we had English, Scottish, German, Spanish, Italian etc. leagues. For a while, I was spending pretty much every non-working waking moment watching football. Realizing this was not healthy, I cut back to two leagues (Premier and Bundesliga) and 5 matches per week.
I was kind of sort of supporting Sunderland because the US captain Claudio Reyna had signed for them. I was not yet familiar with the phrase glory hunter but I knew it would be wrong to bandwagon jump on one of the top teams (also I wasn't aware of the top four monopoly on winning the league!) But as noted, Claudio tore up his knee and was going to be out for many months which eliminated any connection I felt for them.
So I just kept watching matches as a neutral. But by December, when I would check to see who were playing and if it were Tottenham, I would be pleased: Oh, good, this will be fun. Even in that era of mid table mediocrity, Spurs were fun to watch. I knew nothing about the history, the double, the first English team to win a major European trophy,etc. "Push and run", "the glory game", not a clue. I just knew I enjoyed watching them play, more so than any other team. Also, there was still the American connection with Kasey Keller and Stephen Carr, Robbie Keane and even, yes, Gary Doherty from the Irish team and Christian Ziege from the Germans and just this great combination of characters like Tarrico and Sheringham and Poyet and Davies.
So by the end of that season, without ever really making a conscious decision, I was irrevocably Spurs. Within two years, I had joined the supporters club and been to my first match at White Hart Lane. I try to get over at least every other year for a match. My weekends and increasingly these days my weeks are scheduled around when Spurs are playing. Next to religious views on my Facebook page it says Tottenham Hotspur. No doubt, the emotional and adrenal wear and tear has taken years off my life, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Big Sky, enjoyed your post very much.
Been a Premier League fan since I was a little kid in Nigeria but I never really supported any team before - always just watched teams that my favorite stars played for. Southampton (Le Tiss), Man U, Real Madrid (Beckham), yes - Arsenal (for Kanu), Newcastle (Martins) - followed Bolton for the couple years that they had the incredible Jay Jay...and then watched Portsmouth games after Harry bought Kanu on a free and somehow got him to score 8 PL goals by Christmas!!! Haha!! Miracle!!
Believe it or not, I officially became a Spurs fan the day I heard Harry was signed on as manager of the club. - My favorite manager for some time and I'm not ashamed to say it. I will never say I foresaw the immediate success, but I did believe he could push the club on (after bringing AC Milan to Fratton Park!! WHAT??!!). The more I learned abou the club the more I it gelled with me, what can I say? I even like that the club didn't win a bunch of trophies in the past. So one has to like football quite a bit to really get with this team. Minimize the glory/trophy hunters. Plus I live in Texas - San Antonio Spurs fan so it's double pleasure!!
Now I'm all in, committed to this one club and ready for whatever, top four or NOT!
Still envy you Londoners who can easily go to games though.Aaahhh I wish....!!!!
I started following Spurs after Italia 90, after watching a soccer highlight showing Lineker and Gasgoigne scoring and playing some fantastic football for Spurs. 2 decades. Time flies.
After playing in Tennessee as a kid, I got reinterested in football during the WC in 1994. In 1995 I was on a college student work program from the US, lived in Shepards Bush. Saw a QPR match, they were alright. A guy I worked with was a Spurs fan and he gave me shit goodheartedly for seeing QPR and living in the Bush. Happened to see a Spurs match on TV and got curious. Saw games against Ipswich and Coventry (the day Gordon Strachan ruled the field). Been a fan ever since, just not able to go to the Lane. Now there is a bunch of EPL "soccer" on TV in the States though!
Share the love people , so many different stories and from all over the world. Saving up money and vacation time to come to the shrine that is WHL ...
Spurs : A global club.
Jesus, romantic stories everywhere you look...mine's far simpler. Eleventh birthday, 'twas the year 1999. I'd just gotten into football a year ago, although living in India at the time, it was either cricket or bust for nine out of ten kids my age at the time. But I fancied myself as a maverick, an innovator, plugging a lone furrow. Plus I was utterly useless at swinging a bat at a hurtling projectile, with the result that I recieved a fractured jaw pretty quickly. But anyway, my first jersey ever was an italia '96 England jersey. But I wanted a club football one for that year's birthday. So my dad,who has no knowledge of football whatsoever and who's in London on a business trip, goes into the nearest store and picks up whatever he thinks will fit me. He'd actually spotted a red jersey which he thought I'd like, but just before he picked it up a lady with a tram came along and grabbed it. So he rifled through the rest, and bought me' a 'kind of shabby-looking white jersey', in his words. Lo and behold, it was the Spurs jersey of 99'. I loved that jersey, and wore it for weeks on end, honestly. Then I read in the paper that Spurs had won the League cup, and that's it, I was hooked. Moved to Dubai a couple of years later, was one of the first to subscribe to the Pl broadcasts when they came in, and today hope to visit the lane in the near future for the first time. Never followed another team, ever, except for my national team, and they're ranked 138th anyway. But, incidentally, I later asked me dear old dad what jersey he saw the woman take that day. His response, 'a one with a cannon crest on the side' chilled me to the bone for a while, I can assure you. Saved by the lord. And a hurried mother.
Agree with Belgian, Spurs are a worldwide club. And while those of us who live far from NL aren't too many in number, we more than make up for it with our passion, let me assure you. ;)
Long time reader but only commented on here a few times. I'm from Sussex but my family are from South London mostly. My dad is a Spurs man so it was an easy choice.
Took a while to really get into football as a young lad. My friends were all United but I didn't buckle. Just loved the skills of Dominguez and Ginola. Always had a soft spot for Steffen Freund though and the injury prone strike force of Armstrong and Iverson.
First game I saw at the Lane was vs. Ipswich in 2001, I was 15. They were bottom of the league but we still lost 2-1 with Teddy being sent off. Loved the experience though.
Other big memories include the Worthington Cup in '99 with Iverson's chip vs. Wimbledon in the semis and Nielsen's diving header in the final vs. Leicester. And of course Klinsman's 4 goals (vs. Wimbledon again) to save Gross' team from the drop. Justin Edinburgh. Gerry Francis. Ramon Vega. Moussa Saib lol.
Can't wait to see the lads line up at the San Siro! COYS!
This is the best Football blog thread I've read in years.
It's so interesting hearing everyone's path into Spurs. There seems to be plenty of us aournd the various corners of the world, as well as all you "locals", which makes it even more interesting to hear how you found Spurs.
Well done Spooky, and well done and thanks to everyone for sharing.
I used to love Mickey Hazard when I was a boy, as I also loved the Dukes of Hazzard, which was shown around the same time as Micky was playing for Spurs, it further reinforced my Tottenham obsession that his name was Hazard. Our very own Bo Duke!
All this will go into the book I'm never going to finish.
Who else is there to support? 1987 was when i became a Tottenham fan, Hoddle and Ossie i guess, the Cup Final was my first real memory (typical)...My Dad is a goon, my gran is a goon, my twin brother is a goon. Tottenham til i die.
COYS!
Almost forgot to add why in fact i became a Spurs fan , at first it was mainly to annoy my dad ...
First memory is going to Old Trafford with my dad and uncles for the 1989 (had to look it up) clash between Man U and Spurs , for them it was their first ever trip to the ground they love so much. They were in awe all day long , like little children at an amusement park. I was impressed by the ground but for some reason i found myself rooting for the adversary. And i did not know who Lineker and Gascoigne were at the time but after the marvelous goal from Lineker on a Gazza assit i was sold as a Spurs fan ...
My dad was furious but i stuck by Spurs ever since and he keeps on reminding me of the fact that we are underachieving dreamers without the glamour of Old Trafford ... But even he admits that Spurs have something special about them , a certain aura that makes you believe they deserve to be a great team , and that they have a fantastic crowd...
Conscripted me! One Saturday morning it was. I was offered the Earth, happiness, fulfillment, and a bag of chips.......lead i was......by the hand to the promised land...... I think it's called GROOMING now!
Just a thought..... If you have got children...... think! I went underground 4 years ago....they think I work away weekends......and evenings during the week! When we fuck up... (West Ham away) I am unable to concentrate and find it hard to smile - my mood plummets into darkness...... I tell tell the children that I'm sad because a group of nasty people at work upset me... When quizzed on the meaning of my tattoo - i tell them i used to train chickens to balance on balls!
I will not do to them as was done to me - they deserve much more! If you're reading this dad........Technically you're breaching the restraining order!!!!!!
And I know it's you sending Spurs shirts through the post........ you need locking up!
Ah Spooky, all of you, I have a shiver down my spine and I'm not ashamed to say a tear in my eye, what memories, what nostalgia!! My 2 pennies for what they are worth.....
My first memory of football support was at about the age of 3 or 4, being at nursery I knew nothing obviously but can vividly remember being asked which football team i supported by two boys who i had befriended......I can still remember that queasy feeling of wanting so desperately to be their friend but not knowing what on earth they were talking about so at home i asked my mum. She had no allegiance but gave me some info about Ipswich's late 70's success and our local team Shrewsbury town. Needless to say I went for the glory boys of Ipswich, my favourite colour was blue and they had won a european trophy.....so what was i gonna do!
The point is from that point on I wanted to understand what all this "football" stuff that the big boys talked about was. I spoke to my dad about it and it turned out that his team was the Arse but him following results rather than supporting prevented him from pushing me in any direction. The more I learnt the more I wanted to see and eventually, I can only assume on football focus but maybe the news, I saw some football highlights....(now bear with me i was only five so i may have my teams and or chronology slightly out of synch!) of a certain Glenn Hoddle scoring the most sumptuous goal against Man Utd and that was me hooked, I wanted to be that man regardless of my Ipswich allegiances. When he repeated the feat against forest and then Bulgaria in the following weeks there was no doubt that this was the guy for me, he was my hero, a proper bona fide, i wannabe, i'm gonna name my kids Glenn, idol.
From there it was a short step to becoming a spur. I was lucky that my dads mate was a member of the Shropshire spurs and he took me to my first game at anfield and again that was definitely it, even tho i'm sure we lost! Away trips to all of the north west and midlands clubs followed.
I have to say tho that I was one of the lucky few who only had a short while to wait for silverware and every young boys dream, the magic of the FA Cup! We were truly blessed in the early eighties with villa's goal, ardiles, hoddle, archibald and crooks and of course stevie perryman who i never truly appreciated at the time (i wanted the goals and the glory!).
I moved to london at 15 and that was my first time to the lane, what an atmosphere, what a place.
I now live in devon and don't get there as much as i would like but have firmly impressed upon my 5 year old son the magic of spurs. Last season was a real breakthrough for me, every bugger i know is a gooner, my best mate and his family, the in laws and half his school mates and he was having a real wobble for glory, all the teams in red came on the radar and even Plymouth Argyle (local ish!). The fact that he had a spurs kit each year from birth didnt seem to matter to him, he just didnt quite get it. He knew he was a spurs fan but he didn't quite heart spurs.... and then came Gareth Bale.........i started to show my boy highlights of him on you tube and slowly the understanding dawned.........we tasted success against the bigger teams and he was able to give the bird to his devonian chavski, gooner and manc mates and now its there, he's almost 6 and he understands, he hearts spurs, he dreams spurs and everything he wants is spurs, when he plays he's gareth bale and i can't get him out of his new kit, red dot and all! So all that awaits him is his first trip to the lane, later this season I hope and then hopefully he will have a nostalgic tale or two to tell his fellow spurs one day....after all the similarities are there if i use my lillywhite tinted glasses! Maybe the glory is but a season or two away.....!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk4de6ttrjo&feature=related
i frickin love the interweb.......... THIS is why i'm a spurs fan
Wisky Tom, that was hilarious! I snorted coffee out of my nose reading your second post.
I started playing football when I was 5 - I remember my first training session I was in a Spurs kit, the 1991 Cup Final one. I don't have any recollection of when it was bought, I just remember playing in it. That was teamed with a pair of Paul Gascoigne Puma boots (still have them in the house somewhere). I don't ever remember 'choosing' Tottenham as my club, its was just the way of life in my family. My brother is also a lifelong Spurs fan and my dad and his sister were both Spurs fans (they were brought up in Bethnal Green).
I found out later in life (after my dad died) that he actually had a trial for Spurs back in his heyday - he was quite a decent player, his school team when undefeated in 5 years and they played at Fratton Park. Not sure if he got asked back for further trials, but he didn't want to take it any further as he was deaf in one ear and thought this would hinder him at that level.
Wow can't believe how world wide these fans are really top stuff!
I'm originally from Chingford which was/is quite a Spurs area, though I am sure there are more Goons now. My Dads side is Edmonton though they weren't really football fans but default Spurs. I have the 81 kit from when I was 7 so it must of been then I firmly chose my club, I can vaguely remember playing football in the street after the 81 cup final.
I begged my Dad to take me and we finally went in 87 to the league cup quarter final at West Ham and then 2nd leg at the Lane, 1-1 and the 5-0 Clive Allen hat-trick. I was hooked! Can remember being mesmerised by the songs and the swaying of the Shelf, let alone the football.
It's been a great roller coaster ever since, the highs of the 91 semi-final, the lows of the George Graham era. But the Lane has been a constant and it still brings the same emotions going now, you just gotta love the place.
It means so much for us to be back up there with the big boys, long may it continue..
never had an interest in club football/soccer until i started playing with tottenham on fifa '06. decided to follow them in real life and now here i am. being in the states, it's hard to get into the sport but once i did, i was hooked. it's nice too because here, all my friends are either Chelsea/ManU/Arsenal/Liverpool fans (and one Fulham fan...used to take business trips to that part of London).
this past summer i went to my first ever live football/soccer game. thankfully it featured us as we played in the New York preseason event. it was only fitting that my first ever game featured Spurs.
It's interesting to see some of the younger fans posts who have been supporting Spurs from the mid to late nineties, early noughties. As someone who followed from the late Hoddle-Gazza-Waddle era onwards, they really were the lost years for me. When we signed players like Andy Booth !!
It's funny cos Rysharp mentioned a game that sticks in my memory, vs. Ipswich in 2001. They were bottom of the league but we still lost 2-1 with Teddy being sent off. I went to that game and I remember thinking where have my Spurs gone? Yet Rysharp loved it !
But fair play to the younger lads who stuck by Spurs in that era, they must of had a hard time in school and from their mates, cos we were cack. Coupled with the Goons doing really well I wonder how much support we lost out on at the time? Though we did always manage to sprinkle a Ginola or Sheringham over a shower of shite.
Still, we survived and our support seems to be as passionate and huge as ever, I am 27000 on the season ticket waiting list after all..!
I'm not from Singapore, but grew up there - seems to be a Spurs breeding ground though I don't remeber it that way - all my mates at school supported Liverpool.
I had a set of football Top Trumps containing Hoddle and Ray Clemence and I think that had something to do with it... Also my mother liked Hoddle not sure why!?
Your daughter's name is Lily. I get it.
That Hoddle goal is fantasy football.
1969 one of the older kids at boarding school down in Brighton took us to see westhambut as a 12 year old recognizes shit immediately. Next time about a month later another one took us to WHL and from that day hardly missed any games specially went tomall away games till 1980 when I moved to LA. Cannot fathom caring for two teams , live and breath Tottenham. Still go back once every couple years and go see them. On the subject of most hated , it's the team we play next, whoever that may be. One of my Best memory even tho we lost to a 92nd minute goal by that cunt Liam brady, there were at least 55 thousand spurs fans out of 60 thousand at highbury, conquered the ground and pushed the garbage in to the ground from the north bank.