Fear and loathing at White Hart lane

Now for the less ambiguous approach.

There is a split in what people consider to be 'support'. The sense of entitlement and expectation appears to have bestowed some Tottenham's fans to demand it all now without any pragmatism or patience. There's a do or die attitude that has spread like cancer through the fanbase that seems to think it has to be top four or else we're doomed. A fatalistic attitude at best.

I've on many occasions advocated the necessity to qualify for the Champions League. Not just for all the possibilities of more wonderful expeditions and Glory Glory nights against some of the finest clubs in Europe but because it will aid in consolidating and improving stature and being able to lay foundations to compete for the league title - as attempting that at the moment is a faraway possibility due to the financial clout of other clubs around us and their seasonal consistency in finishing in one of those top four places. A sustained title challenge would be fantastic. We've not been in such a position since the 80s. It's not something associated with us so its good to remember that nothing is owed and everything should be earned.

If that means there is sacrifice or transition, as difficult as it would mean having to suffer a little indignity and bruised ego with opposing supporters, surely in the long run it's worth it? Because of the short-termism of Redknapp's tenure, restructure was unavoidable. The short term is important but can not be detrimental to the long term. If supporters are getting on Villas-Boas back already then that will not help matters at all. How can it possibly help? It's hardly comparable to George Graham taking the helm which went against everything we as a club aspire to through the fans. But then regardless of the person at the helm of coaching, you still want Spurs to win games and you still want to be part of that by being vocal and proud of the shirt. Anything less is just that. Keep it up and it will compound the negativity that the tabloid hacks feed off and you'll end up appeasing all the people outside of the club that want us to fail.

You want indignity, actual indignity? Do you remember the past at all well? Sure, we've moved on and yes we have to be hungry and focused for success to be able to continue our progression but would you prefer longevity to complement our new training ground or Chelsea's chop and change philosophy which to be fair isn't too dissimilar to our past either. People demanding immediate success, people believing it's okay to abuse or boo so soon into a new era as acceptable behaviour - sorry, I just can't see any side of your argument that makes sense to me. But I guess that's the beauty of football. Opinions and perceptions vary from one club to the next and from one fan at the same club to the next. Maybe this isn't about football itself and simply a reflection of each individuals outlook on life and challenges.

The club should breed success, whatever it takes, taking the good with the bad. But it seems the very desire for success is breeding fear and loathing. Failure should not be feared. It should be despised. But that hatred needs to be born out of rejuvenated spirit. You think that's going to happen with in-fighting?

Our form hasn't been great for a while. If you think Villas-Boas can suddenly handle an overhaul of players, training and tactics in a few weeks you're dreaming. If you think he shouldn't change a thing and keep it the same way then you're delusional. We've not been playing well for more than just three games in Season 2013.

Perhaps there's emotional confusion at play. The loss of Modric and van der Vaart is a massive blow regardless of the politics and replacements. The fact we did enough to qualify for the Champions League last season in terms of league placement but had the privilege mugged off us. These are bitter pills to swallow. There's no shame in being downbeat, but for the love of all things Lilywhite, pick yourselves up from the floor and man up. Players included.

If you're not feeling good about our current form, sitting at home or at the game or the pub just sing a chorus of 'Can't smile without you' and remember what it means to be a supporter of Tottenham. We got relegated in the late 1970s. If you don't know what the Spurs fans did at that game then browse away from this blog and do yourself the favour of finding out.

Follow @Spooky23 on Twitter.

Tantric

Once again, it's sounding like everything (the new manager and two very well documented targeted players) are done and dusted and that Spurs are waiting on their pre-arranged pencilled-in date to make it all public due to contractual obligations/new Spurs shirt/insert your own conspiracy theory here.

Every thing is set and Spurs are holding back, much like you would do with a beautiful woman. Hold back as much and as long as possible because the climax will be spine-tingling. Why finish up quickly? Tease and dictate and then detonate. What would Sting do? Then again, to be fair, following Spurs is less missionary and more Sadomasochism. But we don't complain. I don't complain. I never complain. I sometimes beg. We still talking about football?

As for all the rhetoric and conjecture? Most of it, especially anything relating to transfers and rumours, and the resulting ideology behind it resonates from one place.

Social media.

Long gone are the days when you only had a conversation at the pub before and after the game or at school/college/work on a Monday morning. Teletext Clubcall adverts whilst waiting for page two of the latest scores to appear. Not forgetting the original Titans of ITK and attention seeking, the tabloid back pages (especially on a Sunday). The latter dethroned by the Gods of the modern grapevines. All consuming knowledge with us royally drunk on consumption. It's like the Matrix with one hundred thousand Oracles sitting on a park bench. The rest are made up of Keanu Reeves, thousands of them, with sharp tongues running around a lot and kicking. Harry Redknapp will probably claim he had something to do with that.

Every thought is instantaneously shared. Which could quite easily be the outstanding reason to avoid social media altogether. Every piece of commentary, action, incident, goal, sound-bite is micro-analysed and dissected. Before you can blink there are memes, animated gifs, appreciation threads and usually plenty of obsessive 'let me get there first' shouting to claim fifteen seconds of notoriety before it fades into the next million repeats. Once upon a time, real life gave us mad jokes and iconic moments of our lives and now you spend your time talking about something 'epic' on the internet that happened on the internet.

There is no time for pausing.

At the best of times there is a lack of any true understanding of irony or sarcasm unless it comes accompanied with previous nods to comedy via caveat. Everyone is a critic and nobody can take criticism whilst some like to dish it out and block you before you can respond. Back pages of the tabloids? When was the last time anyone ever used the back page of a tabloid as the catalyst for major discussion? They only mirror what was said 24 hours earlier on someone's time-line. Tomorrow's news is what its always been, thoughtful commentary on what occurred a day earlier. Unless it's been made up to fuel the next day's hellmouth of debate online. Social media is today's news now and is mostly driven by our own desire to drown out other people's ego's with less thoughtful commentary.

It might look messy, it is messy, it's usually full of Messi. There's no denying it. If you follow the right amount of people, a mixture of fellow supporters, journalists, writers you'll have yourself a scenic majestic volcano of pulsating lava. Just don't stand too close or you'll burn. It's alive, constantly breathing out (hot air, lol). A glorified frenzied chat room with message board qualities. A community I guess. You can even meet people off Twitter and go down the pub with them. It's usually an anti-climax that. Mainly because at the best of times I can only muster two sentences worth of speak at any given time. Which ironically works out to about 140 characters.

But still, what would we do without it?

Possibly spend more time outside for a start. Conversing with the missus on the latest Eastenders story arc (Derek Branning and his Spurs robe? I reckon he was a Shelf Sider myself, pwoper norty) or perhaps allowing my daughter the luxury of an occasional walkabout when unlocking the airing cupboard for her twenty minutes of light. So much joy to behold, yet all lost whilst with me firmly seated in front of a pc/lap top/smart phone. Forever refreshing, desperate for that one last tweet before logging off. But oh no, I just thought of something really witty, I have to log on again. Oh ffs, my wi-fi is playing up, no dinner will have to wait a second, I've got something to share and God darn it the Internet has to know!

Placing the vanity driven Instagramed photos of people's dinner aside and a variety of other chat and forum-like discussions (usually arguments) I honestly can't think of a better medium than Twitter for information sharing. Like a beautiful wild fire that destroys but its flames mesmerise all that stare upon it. Yeah sure, you have to work your way through some of the smoke but I never feel like it's a wasted journey. Not just referring to transfer gossip here. But the amount of exquisitely crafted writing to be had is just fantastic. Not just fellow Tottenham bloggers, but across the board from all over the planet. It's a rich resource. It can also bring people together (oh cringe mate cringe). Sat online one late evening last year, the idea to finally record a podcast was birthed with a drunken exchange online with a like-minded individual. Some would say we've never been sober since.

My dinner. Because to understand me you need to understand what I eat.

We've all been discussing the imminent managerial appointment of Villas-Boas for weeks now, so much so that the definition of imminent is about to change to 'an event that is predicted to occur within a one hundred year period'. The signings of Vertonghen and Sigurdsson have also been well documented. The cull of Bond and Jordan, I thought had already been confirmed weeks back but only appeared to make the official site and the newspapers the other day. No word on Allen, I guess he survived.

Social media is making most news outlets fairly redundant for breaking news. They play catch-up or just repeat/rehash old news. One source copying from another and so on. News outlets end up reporting on something that might have originated from a genuine source or a dubious one yet by the time it's published nobody cares. Ouroboros.

Many take every word to be literal and yet in the next sentence argue against its legitimacy. Such is the luncay that it allows for the transparency of agendas to be made very obvious and in a positive way. This gives the power back to the people that in the past mostly did the reading and had no way to knock heads together (Teletext with a chat room would have been laugh a minute).

I'm simplifying things I know. Many journalists tweet a slice of news then write an article if relevant which is published online and then printed the next day. Others just go to print the next day based on something they've read online. Whilst Twitter itself is constantly regurgitating everything whether it's online or in print or on tv, forever feeding its over-populated nest. And somewhere Jim White strokes a white cat. So come this weekend or as much touted, the 1st of July, just pretend to be surprised/excited when we finally welcome the new THFC manager with a signing or two standing alongside him. We are the generation guilty of having far too much time on our hands and constantly wanting to know everything yesterday. Yet in amongst it exists diversity and originality. You just have to fight your way through to find it. Like so much in life, it's unnecessary and yet essential. Damned be the paradox.

There was an X-Files episode where someone ends up uploading their concious to the internet. I reckon most of us are already plugged in beyond escape. But you can get away from it every so often. The pub is never going to disappear. But guaranteed whilst you're enjoying your pint the bloke next to you will be photographing his and uploading it to share to his followers with the tag-line "I'm in the pub! Have we signed anyone yet?"

Follow me on Twitter.

/\

I'm not being ironic there, seriously, follow me.

Not all presents are well received

Tweets of the Day from Twitter.

A day or so ago I read a Gooner's tweet that stated something along the lines of 'Spurs can't say anything to us until they finish above us for 16 years running'. The point being, they've achieved over a decades work of finishing in a Champions League spot therefore, the logic at play here is that we are not in the position to be critical of them until we match this. Such a feat might be unlikely for most now that the dominance of the Sky Sports Top Four has completely collapsed from the untouchable position it attained.

Personally, I couldn't care less for their consistency (they still haven't won as many European trophies as us). Talking about the past is fine, but it's just that (the past, been and gone) and it can not always define your future even though it can inspire. All summed up perfectly in response by @NorthernWrites:


But if you are only as good as your last game, what difference does the last 16 years make? We need one year at a time.

reviewing our performance on a generational basis if for mugs. People putting up 19 banners at United who were barely alive...

when LFC were taking the piss in Europe is the stuff of small time c****. How many United fans were loling in the aisles at Henry

and had to backtrack very quickly over Scholes. Football is about the present. Not all presents are well received.

difficult situation being a Spurs fan. Given the supposed woes of Arsenal, it's easy to want to smash "St Totteringhams" day...

down the throat of most gooners we know - politely of course. But then the scales are precariously balanced. On one had there is..

fear that everything could go tits up and we slip below them. On the other, well... can we really catch the Manc sides? Maybe?

Everybody has to fight for their right (whistles Beastie Boys) to be successful and you can only be judged on what is happening right this moment and not what happened last year, three years ago, five years ago, ten years ago...and so on. Same rules apply for Utd and Chelsea.

Everyone has work to do, everyone has to work for it.

Follow me on Twitter: @Spooky23

Follow

If you're on Twitter, follow these people. If you're not, then sign up for it and get following. Think of it as a news stream (if you follow choice mainstream football sites and broadsheet journalists) and a decent way to chat and knee-jerk with fellow Spurs fans.

Don't be shy.

essential spurs

  @adampowley @MartinCloake @SpursFuture @SimonJ68 @drwinston001 @EvilChirpy @thedarkpav  @Bentleysbird @charlottepeachy @oGrime @Will_Hoe @HotSpurLucy @DanLouw @daviddinkin

thfc / bloggers

@dompaczko @EwanRoberts @AllActionNoPlot @WFRFtheTruth @spursblogger @NorthernWrites   @OutsideMid @TomGoulding @THFC1882dotcom @JamesMawFFT @Reptile_16  @Spurs_Latest @gregtheoharis

enemy bloggers / fans

@R_o_M @stevenmcinerney @DanielNotaro @ChuBoi @yolkie_ @StrettyNews @DoronSalomon @Ohpebbles @anand_ramki @TheStokie @PhilBlundell

general football peeps

@differentleague @TheFalse_9 @ifanshare @false10 @SurrealFootball @Twisted_Blood @UFJamesT  

the fighting cock podcast team

@Flav_Bateman @Spooky23 @tehTrunk @RickyTFC @ChicagoDanTFC @TheloniousFilth 

@Alex_Prole @CaseTFC @jodmitchell 

@WindyCOYS @SibsTHFC

@lovetheshirt

Full listing here.

Tweeting Tottenham

If it feels like your permanently on-line at the moment, refreshing countless news feeds and message board threads in the hope of a breaking story or slice of information that will brighten up your day...you're wasting your time. You and I both know Spurs won't do any business until the final day of the transfer window and the only thing worth watching on that day is Sky Sports News in the hope that Jim White's head will finally explode on live tv.

That's not to say there is anything wrong with being permanently on-line. But there are better ways to spend it. No, not porn. Yes porn, but another is Twitter.

Don't be afraid, if you're not a user - sign up.

Might appear a little offbeat and irreverent to start of with, but if you follow the right type of people then what you end up with is basically a time-line of chat and information, a good mix of fellow THFC fans along with some top journalists (they exist) and esteemed bloggers (not just the Spurs ones) and statos. It's good craic.

So to get you started (of if you're on it already), make sure you're following this Spurs lot and a couple more:

@daviddinkin - Trust me on this, one THFC fan well worth a follow.

@tehTrunk - Creator of this lot. His facebook page is here.

@thedarkpav - Roman Pavlyuchenko's dark side.

@SpursSimon @Bentleysbird - Banter.

@MorrisKeston - Superfan.

@MartinCloake - Author.

@ThePOTL @EvilChirpy - Phantom of the Lane, allegedly. And post-surgery Chirpy.

@WindyCOYS @spursblogger @Studub @dompaczko @NorthernWrites - Bloggers.

@TLDORC @R_o_M - City. Utd.

You know what, far too many too mention. Full list here.