Shut up, sit down, do as we tell you to
Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 12:27PM
Claude: "How's the renovation going?"
Oswald: "Great. The loft conversation is done, we're having the back garden landscaped"
Claude: "BBQ?"
Oswald: "Of course. Once it's completed we'll be having a house warming"
Claude: "You massive show off you"
Oswald: "I know. Keeps the wife happy. You still going to the Bahamas this summer?"
Claude: "Yes. Booked up. Two glorious weeks. Really looking forward to it"
Oswald: "We've decided on the Canary Islands"
Claude: "Again?"
Oswald: "Creature comforts"
Claude: "Is that the new...?"
Oswald: "Yes. It's a Blackberry"
Claude: "Looks lush"
Oswald: "That's because it is"
Claude: "I'm holding out for the next Galaxy"
Oswald: "What you got currently?"
Claude: "The current Galaxy. But the next one will be better"
Oswald: "Oh look. I think something has happened"
Claude: "Where? Oh yeah. They appear to be running back to the half-way line"
Rupert: "Excuse me. Yes, you two. Can you please keep the chitter chatter to a minimum. Tone it down a touch. I'm trying to critique the match here. Can you not see I'm writing some notes?"
Steward: "Chaps. If you persist with this behaviour I will have to escort you out of the ground. Read the warnings on the back of the seats. Use sign language if you're going to banter"
Claude/Oswald: "Sorry"
Claude: <So did someone score?>
Oswald: <Not sure. I've got an app on my phone. I'll have a look>
Valentine: <Excuse me, yes you two. Can you perhaps sign language a little less aggressively please. I'm feeling faint, you're making me dizzy with all your animated hand gestures. This is a football match you know>
Björk: Shhh!
The future of football. Shut up, sit down, do as we tell you to. That's not even the mantra of the powers that be. According to the powers that be, some fans are already making themselves comfortable in their seats, not wishing to participate in the games atmosphere but preferring to sit back and watch as though they are witnessing opera or ballet. Each to their own. No doubt it's your prerogative how you wish to soak it all in at a game. But if you want to watch in silence, do you have the right to define everyone else's experience to match your dainty bubble? Why is the minority so all consuming?
The club will never allow the drum back into White Hart Lane or the new stadium. For me, it's not even about the drum any more. It's about what the drum stood for. Freedom of expression. We continue to be marginalised by the club and according to Spurs, we appear to also be marginalised by some of our own. Other supporters have allegedly written to the club to say they oppose the drum and it's fake plastic beats and that it's an unnecessary distraction and they do not approve of the noise.
Football fans not approving of noise? Surely this is satire? Football fans complaining about other footballs fans and the manner in which they wish to demonstrate their love for the team. Must be satire.
You might think it's hypocritical that I'm saying its okay for 'us' to make noise and that we are imposing on those that do not wish to stand/sing/chant/scream/drum. But get this. Football might be this overly policed entertainment package that costs an arm and a leg to go to but the very essence of its existence remains tribal and we have a right to fight for that freedom of expression. If you don't like the noise, try the sofa. Last time I blogged about this someone told me that they no longer go to Spurs wishing to stand and sing and preferred to watch seated with their son/daughter. I'll let you work out the contradiction and hypocrisy in that statement.
If you wrote a letter to THFC complaining about the drum/noise, please get in touch. I've got my opinion, I've shared it. I'd like to give you a platform to share yours.
If anyone has positive stories about the drum to share, please email spursdrum @ gmail.com. He's compiling some to send to the club to counter the negative stories they have received. Doubtful the club will share their stories.
Reader Comments (89)
1st
Yeah, but where do you stand on thought of white hart lane ringing out to the tune of 1000 vuvuzelas? No fank you.
I was speaking to someone last year about her experience of going to Arsenal's new stadium. (nb she is not really into football but that's beside the point here). She went with work and sat in the exec boxes. It was a chilly night, so everyone was given a lovely comfy blanket to keep themselves warm, and mugs of cocoa were passed round. If this is not a nightmare vision of the future for football, I don't know what is.
It's been on Twitter this, but an Arsenal fan was having a go at the away fans (Norwich I think?) and he was thrown out of the ground, had his ticket taken. He's been banned for 2 years. For basically shouting at away fans.
Absolutely ridiculous.
1000 vuvuzelas is hardly comparable to one drum.
Also, there are no photos of vuvuzelas in The Opus.
"I lika pee onna drum"
It's all so typically english - pander to the minority...
Across Europe they have drums, flares, horns, whistles...hell, some teams even have fans that spend the entire game with their back to the pitch so they can conducting the chanting/singing!
How many times do we read about the crowd being the 12th man and how the noise can influence the players? - are we to provide support via telepathy only in future? If we are not careful we will end up being like the emirates...
Im just being facetious really. for the record I am very much in the pro-drum camp.
The question is valid though, I guess there does need to be a line under what is good honest fan generated 'noise' and what is a earsore.
I think anything that lends itself to stadium wide participation(drums/chanting) should be encouraged.
thought I would get that one in there, I think you are right about the freedom to express your support for the club we all love, it does seem a bit strange someone complaining about the loud noise at a football match!?!?!?! FTW!? (makes very little sense) if you want a silent sterile atmosphere go to the emptycrates, or alternatively stay at home and watch it with your kids on TV as there are a cue of vocal supporters wishing to lose their voice, and often composure at times that would gladly take your seat! It's not like the singing population of the ground are wasting their time chanting, or sitting there trying to reprimand those who choose not to vocalise their support, here's a novel idea, drummers bring earplugs for the select few who don't like the sound and offer them a solution for the drum to beat like our hearts loud and proud for our club that we love so much, while they sit eating prawn sandwiches and quipping about their frankly drab life outside of the amazing club!
My partner is short. When everyone stands up, she can't see. If she stands on the seat and we score, she is in serious danger. I would like loads of noise and people sitting down. On this basis I understand why those with kids make objections. One answer is to bring back standing sections ......
TBH I hated the bloomin drum , but I did not and would not complain about it officially - felt bloody sorry for the lads and lasses close to it mind; irritating enough from the Park Lane lower. But that was/is a personal opinion and I do think it should be allowed back, but in the Paxton/West Stand corner to try and get some reaction/noise/atmosphere from the quiet seats
You all know why the drum has been banned, and it has nothing to do with noise. It is the chant at the end of the drum sequence. I don't doubt we all have opinions as to whether that chant is appropriate or not, but it is clearly the Club's position that it isn't. If the chant at the end of the drum-sequence were "Spurs!!!", rather than "Yids!!!", you know as well as I do that there would be no problem, and any complaints would be rejected.
If you are going to moan about the situation, at least pick on the right object to moan about.
The first game I went to was against Derby in 1998. I was 7 years old. We won (I think) but that's not the point.
I still remember that feeling of my breath being taken away by being immersed in White Hart Lane for the first time; looking around and seeing more people than I have ever seen before in one place. This was it. This was the home of my favourite club. The place I had read about and seen on TV. I was there.
I don't remember much about the game at all. But the one other thing I remember was hearing that drum. The beat reverberated around the stadium and I could feel the vibration of it in my chest. It brought everyone to sing in unison. It brought people up when we were down. It brought such an atmosphere to the ground it was almost emotional. I can recall these feelings so clearly because it meant that much. The drum made WHL a more fearful place for the opposing side and fans. We could rouse our support to drown out theirs. It is our home and without the fans, it is just bricks and mortar. The drum added to the sensational atmosphere and was one of the main reasons I fell in love with the club and can remember those feelings like it was yesterday.
Allow other first time fans to have that almost spiritual bonding with Tottenham Hotspur like I did 14 years ago. To be in the midst of an atmosphere beyond their wildest dreams.
It certainly made watching Ramon Vega and Nicola Berti a lot easier to bear anyway.
I take my eight-year-old son, when he can't see he stands on his seat. This season he's been to Arsen*l (h), Chelsea (h), Man Utd (h), Man City (h), Blackburn (h), Swansea (h), Fulham (h) and Wigan and Bolton away. His favourite games? Wigan and Bolton away. Why? Because he stood on his seat for the entire game, our fans didn't stop singing for the entire game and he now laughs when we talk about the fat bloke in front who obstructed his view of Rafa's goal. 'We scored, so I celebrated, never mind about missing the goal, I'll watch it on the highlights later. It was just great to be there hearing everyone singing for the whole match.' Gave me goosebumps when he said that, as did the countless renditions of glory, glory hallelujah. This is how I remember football when I was young, standing in the Paxton End terrace, missing parts of the game due to larger people in front, but loving the atmosphere and goal celebrations. That was football before the fair-weather, Premier League, prawn sandwich brigade joined us. Football as it should be. Obstructed views at Selhurst Park, banging your head on the ceiling while celebrating a goal in the terrace at Loftus Road, binoculars at Stamford Bridge. If you want to sit in silence: stay at home.
As I said to Mr Drum Banger when he first started to try and get it back it was never going to be allowed. No matter if you got every season ticket holder and every fan on the waiting list to personally hand write a letter to Daniel Levy requesting the drum be allowed back into the stadium it would never be allowed.
This is a Spurs thing. It's a football thing. It's a football was invented 20 years ago thing. It's a change in loyalty points thing. It's a we'll only follow a team if they're in the champions league thing.
Football as we know it, or knew it, is dead. I like to look at it like this. Football was once a sport than entertained. Now it's entertainment with a little bit of sport. How do you watch entertainment? Usually on your arse in a comfy chair. The odd ripple of applause and perhaps if you go to the Last Night of the Proms you'll have a sing song too. Give football another 20 years and unless things change dramatically it'll be seen as the archetypal middle class entertainment package that was once the monopoly of the west end theatres.
I have to admit that I'm not one of those who sing their hearts out at the Lane. I prefer to sit silently and focused on the match. I enjoy hearing other people sing though - wouldn't want to watch football without it. Can't really see the point of silencing the fans as there are two advantages:
1. The players always talk about the tremendous impact of the supporters. Both at Tottenham and especially here in Denmark.
2. Here in Denmark, visiting clubs often talk about the mental effect on them if the home support is very vocal and even hostile.
But then again, we don't have all-seater stadiums and we're allowed to bring drums, flags inside the stadiums and even make tifos.
Having suffered for years now the horrid awful 'band' at Wembley for England matches in a desperate attempt to 'drum' up some atmosphere I'd have to say I'm not interested in rattles, drums, french horns or any other artifical attempt to create an atmosphere. I've yet to meet an England fan who regularly goes to Wembley who doesn't want them to be chucked out on their ear. Vuvuzala's don't bear thinking about and were rightly banned.
If there is an attempt needed to improve the atmosphere at a game and where all those of a similiar train of thought can be carolled together it has to be the provision of standing terraces. They're beginning to bring them back in Germany and see no reason why we can't do the same, plus the season tickets for them are significantly cheaper. So if there is a 'drum' to beat here, it's for their return, not the return of the drum.
The average age of our season ticket holders and paying Spurs supporters in general continues to get older, it's now 45 and even with the new stadium (when more tickets will be open to a wider cost conscious customer base) it's projected to be 50 by 2017/18. Which perhaps goes someway to explaining why perhaps some Spurs fans have written letters of complaint about other fans behaviour.
Like it or not, standards of behaviour at football grounds have risen because normal standards of behaviour aren't suspended at he entrance anymore and are now being enforced (perhaps too rigourously) by stewards. The demograhic for both season ticket holders and casual ticket buyers has changed for much of the Premier League, it's as much a middle class experience now as Rugby once ever was. Costs have to a large degree brought this about. What was once acceptable isn't anymore, for example time was that overtly racist comments were tolerated, they aren't anymore. So is it so unacceptable to not have to accept some obnoxious neanderthal Fffing and blinding at all and sundry?
Is this a good change?
That's for others to debate, all I'm attempting to do here is show 'why' it's changed and why it will continue to naturally evolve. Like it or not, Premier league football is a high end high stakes business now and for those reasons it's changed the structure and image of top class football in this country forever and perhaps just as importantly it's grown wiser and older just as it's paying clientel has.
There is an easy way to fix the ear sore caused by the drums and that is to have
A midi drum connected to the speaker system in the ground. Simple solution, no ear sore.
drwinston is correct sadly. I went to WHL throughout the 60' sand 70's and all sorts of stuff was banged, hit, rattled and blown. It's a sad sign of the times. Can you imagine the Pompey bloke without his bell!!
Only way to resolve this is to bring back standing. All seater stadiums are great for viewing comfort and crowd control but crap for generating atmosphere. That way Rupert and his mates can sit down in relative peace and quiet whilst the more vocal fans lose it on the terraces. That's the way it used to be, and the atmosphere was far better than the sterility you get now.
My 16 year old son saw a clip of the Kop on tv last night, and he couldn't believe how the crowd moved around so much. He would love to be in a crowd like that but sadly I don't think he'll ever get the chance at the Lane, because of the continuing policy by the clubs of making football a sterile experience.
By the way it's lunch at the cricket. Cucumber sandwich anyone?
Great piece. Lets extrapolate! What will the future hold? Virtual games between clubs so no players (investments) get hurt, no goal line incidents so technology not needed,no swearng at the ref, all the spectatiors with plastic smiles and low necklines, no garbage to clean up after the game, no security staff needed, no West ham supporters, and referees programmed only to give decsions that keep Fergie happy. Yes we are heading towards a sanitised sterile game designed to keep the owners happy and the masses in lobotomised torpor.
having an actual drum doesn't technically worry me either way, but the attitude of the club certainly does.
I sat in the silent West Upper for several year. When I was old enough to buy my own ST I moved to Park Lane Lower and my enjoyment of games is now so much higher.
I really can't comprehend why you would want to go to watch the team you love just to sit there and not actually SUPPORT them. If you do that, you are a SPECTATOR. Both supporters and spectators can be classed as 'fans' but only one of them can actually have a positive effect on the team while they play. The other will cheer when we score and moan at anything else that goes wrong for the rest of the game.
I'm not saying the whole of WHL has to be a marauding army or noisy bastards. I myself sometimes just dont physically feel up to screaming my lungs out for 90 mins against Sunderland at home, despite the fact I'd like to. But the club should be doing everything possible to generate atmosphere at the ground. Would these same spectators still want to go if absolutely everyone watched the game as they do?
The day we start getting thrown out for making too much noise is the day I give up going to watch Premier League games.
Bring back terracing and you get a better atmosphere instantly. Yyou could easily have Block 32 in the park lane as a terraced area. Games would still be all ticket so no overcrowding issues and potential disasters such as Hillsbrough.
I always thought the Taylor report, in the wake of Hillsbrough, made the recommendation that stadia should be all seater for safety reasons. I don't believe that it was ever made a law and that stadiums HAVE to be all seater (however I could be wrong!)
If all clubs tried to drup up support for this it could happen,so far it seems to be 2 or 3 clubs trying to force the issue, not enough to engineer change
John White - I mentioned the chanting of yids in the last article about the drum. That's the main reason, but still interested to know who these fans are that have written letters. Unless the letters are specific to the yid complaint?
Football is best watched in the pub now thanks to all the wankers who have gradually sucked most of the fun and excitement out of it whilst at the same time pricing out the more vocal fans (old or new) whose passion might wake the rest of the berks up. Unless it's a big game, it's got to the point now where most of the fans who want to sing don't bother as they know they are the minority and not many will join in.
It will only get worse the more successful the club gets.
Parklaner - Spurs won't be drumming up support for terracing any time soon, they've banned drums, remember? (*silent boom boom)
bring back the drum!!
Boycott till the drum is reinstated!
I blame the JumboTrons.
The idea that someone would complain about noise at a football ground is... well..... plainly disappointing. One of the only things I could cling to for the majority of my spurs supporting life was our unparalleled atmosphere. If these boring dullites get their way, we'll end up like those detestable morons 'down the road': a symphony of exhalation and groans.
I was at the QPR game a few weeks back, and I was fortunate/unfortunate enough to be sitting in the infamous Q block (home end), flanked by many a fervent supporter. Some might say that the majority were loud, aggressive, intimidating idiots with little interest in the footballing side of things. However, it's not like they were in a family pub on a Saturday afternoon, they were at a bloody football match fighting for survival in the premiership!!!! They had every right to be loud, aggressive, and intimidating!!! I would even argue that the atmosphere itself played a huge part in gaining three points that day. It was the first time since my childhood that I left a football ground with ringing.
Home fans should prize themselves on being able to intimidate the opposition. What else are fans there for but to support the team whose colours they wear? People often talk about home advantage, and yet this is something which will soon evaporate should the silent minority be heard. Almost every week I hear 'fans' complaining about the lack of effort displayed by some of our players, and yet still they don't cheer. Nothing but insults and goading is directed towards the field of play way - what is happening here??? For me, it is every fans duty to cheer on THEIR team - what else is a fan to do? Booing your own team is a complete and utter disgrace. Everyone is entitled to be disappointed with a lacklustre display, but to boo the team you apparently support is a farce. It is your duty to inspire and encourage; not to belittle and insult.
Only a few seasons ago you would not be able to hear the opposition celebrate for the volume of our defiance - COME ONE YOU SPURS!!! COME ON YOU SPURS!!! That used to make me proud. I'm sure the players felt the same.
What has happened?
I last went to WHL bout 5 years ago, used to go at least 4-5 times a year up to then, first game at the lane was 1988. The last time I went I swore never to go to football again and I never will. Spending over £100 on a day of football was bad enough but I had enough of the way the fans were treated and acted. Pay up, sit down, shut up but make sure you visit the club shop was the message I got. Having them try to flog everyone in the ground a spurs credit card to help support your team was joke enough but when I looked round and saw the amount of people decked out head to toe in spurs merch and with fresh bags full of stuff from the shop was the last strew. This self same people politely clapped and watch quietly, which is fine I never went in much for singing myself, but it was they way they huffed, sighed and tutted when anyone near them stood up, shouted, sung or basically showed any passion. Its sad but football been sterilised for the middle classes so much there no going back. On the subject of the drum personally I have to say I hated it as it really did limit the songs being sung organically by simply playing the same thing over and over again and demanding Dum dum dumdumdumdumdum YIDS. There so many good, funny and inspiring songs that the crowd have come up with and sung but the drum kind of kills all that in my view.
Been going to the lane for over 40 years now , and i surprise my self with agreing with so many comments about the drum and the match atmosphere, H&S is spoiling everybodies match days now! I sit in the lower shelf side block 19 and it amazes me how many time the stewards try to get the fans in the park lane to sit down, Bloody hell they paid there £40 -£50 for there seat surely there have a right to not use it and would prefure to stand . ( any numbers for anybody hurt while standing ) up & down all game , for gods sake we are up because we are playing great football on the edge of your seat stuff . Also on the shelf side we get 3 times as many stewards at the end of the game protecting the pitch than the prawn sandwich side why ?
Just let the team get on and play and let us the supporters get behind the team the best way we can ! COYS
@ Yidal - like your style. Can we mix it with some recordings of a full-house stadium singing their hearts out?
It's not about the drum, it's about the word.
We don't need a drum (never had it when I used to stand back in the mid to late 80s and didn't need it).
What we need are safe standing sections.
If you want to sit with civilised people, why not pay for the privilege? Go West Upper and steer clear of Danny Kelly.
If you sit in the cheap seats, there's obviously going to be some horrible obscenity next to you spewing inane profanities. Don't be so stingy and let the oiks have their fun, I say.
If they don't let off steam there, they'll only start doing serious damage in the workplace, starting unions, striking and so forth.
Alternately, you could move to the Middle East, watch every game from the comfort of your sun-bathed palace on your luxury sofa. Enjoy 380 live prem league games on ADMC, all the cup games on Al Jazeera Sport - effectively a home and away season ticket. Tax free, rent free, top pay... and when Thursday comes it's already the weekend! Sorry, what were you all whining about again...? ;)
Get all fans to download a Drum app, turn up your phones and play the sound all at once = Drum back in WHL
@ deadly - Yeah course, can we get the recordings from the Inter game, that was fecking ace.
Cant we change the word Yid - to Geese in that chant...thats what I thought we sang when I was small!
Spurs fan for 40 years - Australian. Unfortunately only been to WHL once in my life (the highlight of my life). Think 1993, belted 1-3 by Sheff Wed. Just being at the holy ground and listening to the crowd brought a shiver down my spine (and my wife who could not care less about football but was so excited being part of it). The noise , the passion, this is the essence of football and something that the EPL in general is so revered around the world.
I understand the conundrum - kick off the low/middle class, fill the stadium with the prawn sandwich brigade, increase the ticket price (yup, if a beancounter I'd probably do it (devil's advocate), commercial health of the club.
but, if this actually happens, what is the brand degradation. Most people I know overseas turn the TV up for the crowd noise. It is integral to the experience.
I know in Australia, cricket used to be more fun with the crown banter. It has been somewhat diluted. But, the answer is to give a certain part of the stadium to the non (boring) vocal crowds and parents with children with no passion but deep pockets and other parts to the true supporters (this is what they do at the Sydney Cricket Ground to good effect).
I do not profess to know the ultimate solution, but I do know that the style of football we play and the vociferous support that sent a chill down my spine is why I have also remained a Spurs supporter, even though my life has probably been shortened by 10 years.
I might also comment that having played 40 years (and still going) of competitive football, even a small crowd of 50 people cheering you on gives you an almighty lift and will to win - so yes, crowd participation is unbelievably crucial.
As for the drum, I confess I do not understand the controversy - FFS 1 Drum - banned - is this really serious?!
cheers boys,
Dazspur.
PS: Spooky - I do not have much time to comment, but I do love your articles. Straight from the heart and eloquent. Thanks for being my first point of reference for all news Spurs over the season.
If Danny could learn more than one beat, there could be a good call for the drum to return.
We are encouraged to be vocal in our singing (hence the wall in the new stadium) apparently, so why not with a drum?
A drum is a percussion instrument usually used to provide a rhythm or to keep time. Surely, if we're encouraged to sing, a drum would be an invaluble tool to keep us all together and provde for a more harmonious sound?
As an American all I can say is get used to it because it's only going to get worse...alot worse
I can't see a problem really, sorry. It's not as if we've always had a drummer at the Lane, and thinking about it, are there any other clubs in England that have a drummer? For all of you that loved the drum, me included, just let it go, and be thankful that the club allowed it for as long as it did!!
When did we ever need a drum to lift the roof?
COYBM
Never been to the Lane but I'll say this, PAOK didn't need a drum to basically own the atmosphere when the came to play us at home. My view point was from a television thousands of miles away but their spirit was ballsy. Im guessing the stewards didn't bother them to sit down, so you get a situation where the away fans end up with an advantage if they are up for it while the home supporters are shackled down. Makes no sense.
It really ruined my game earlier in the season when someone objected me whistling not very loud mind you because I am shit at whistling. I am still to this day stuggling to understand what this woman was expecting when she came to watch Spurs vs Chelsea, and how what I was doing was worse than what we were singing at the racist chav.
Oh, and also.....terraces!!! Are you all for real, or have you forgotten? I stood in the shelf, and fcuk me, it weren't for the faint hearted! To stop fans from surging forward and turning humans into jam, they placed metal hooped poles that sat at adult abdominal hight and were concreted into the ground like giant paper clips. These fcuking things made more jam than Robinsons!!
Me no like chicken badge.
Me no like drum.
If drum come back me fuck off to chelski.
They have accordion.
Me like accordion.
Lane get accordion....me stay with chicken badge!
Jews harp anyone? Can you get your nut around that, 36,0000 tiny Jews harps all doynging away.........doyng, doyng......doyng, doyng, doyng, doyng 'yids' -
drums.......I shit'um!
The drum was most likely banned due to complaints from people offended by the word `yids`
As we all know, the drum didn`t start the word and it`s absence won`t stop it being chanted and the drum definitely encouraged it. To be fair to the club, if one single person complained that they were offended, then they didn`t really have any option but to ban the drum.
Unfortunately whilst the majority of prem clubs come close to selling out every game, we won`t see terracing return. It would mean cheaper tickets for standing, increased numbers and therefore increased police and stewards to pay for.
But what a shame. I for one would once again attend every game regardless of family commitments etc - a return to the days when fans were regarded as `selfish bastards` by our loved ones, who could never understand that we were in fact making huge personal sacrifices for the sake of the team!
What was so enchanting about getting to the ground an hour before kick off just to get a place in front of a crush barrier, being thrown about like a rag doll for 90 mins, leaving the ground without feet touching the ground (literally) covered in sweat, legs soaked in other people`s piss, with multiple rib fractures, deaf and hoarse?
Maybe it was just to see the oppositions envious glances up at the shelf, maybe it was more than that, but whatever it was it was FOOTBALL and the prawn sarnie brigade have been spawned by it`s demise.
Taking things at face value, the club have stated that a huge consideration in the planning of the new stadium is to encourage a good atmosphere, so maybe we should be encouraged by that.
The drum was irritating and in my opinion added nothing to the atmosphere. When WHL is rocking and the team is flying it is a fantastic place to watch football. There will be quiet moments in many games, as all grounnds but this depends on the performance of the team and the importance of the match. Also be careful what you wish for in terms of the prawn sandwich brigade. We need their money now to buy the sort of players everyone craves and pay their wages. They will be vital once we have the new stadium. Let's not be too socialist that we cut off our nose to spite our face. We need to think of the longterm, successful future of our club.
Arrrrrrgh!!! this is driving me mad, who do i want to win tomorrow night!? Do i really want to see the Spuddies in the Champions League again (who admittedly weren't too shabby at the last time of asking!) or do i want to see Ashley Cole with a Champions League winners medal!?
Could really do with a Bayern win and Spuds drawing Udinese in the qualifiers, they're not a bad outfit.
Enjoy the game lads, squeeky bum time!!
thruss - I`m certainly not a socialist - but in the days of massive terraces, the importance of the game made no difference to the party we had in the shelf. Plus, being Tottenham, being hurled at 25 yards downhill at 150 mph head long into a crush barrier with a couple of thousand landing on top of you - was often slightly less painful of what was happening on the pitch!
You`re right - the PSB are here to stay and provide much needed cash, but the point is in the `good old days` they did not exist at any ground, so there was a pretty even playing field. Nowadays they are mostly attracted to clubs who qualify for the CL - therefore the rich get richer and the poor...............if that sounds like socialism, then socialism is a positive thing in the confines of football.