What's new

Let us not forget, the game is about glory..

Shanks

Kinda not anymore....
May 11, 2005
31,159
18,914
I have to say, after losing a game in the fashion of throwing it away, it's hard to swallow and even harder to keep emotion out of communications.

In the world of social media, it's all to easy to see 'banter', which is actually abuse from other fans, and very far from actual banter.

Needless to say, we lost and it's becoming more and more unusual for us Spurs fans, but let us not forgot that the game is about glory.

We are trying to do things at our club, and this article really is a good read which puts things into perspective somewhat:

Sam Wallace: The game is about glory – credit to Andre Villas-Boas for remembering that

Talking Football. Also: Dumping Moyes would be a big risk for Everton; The Cunningham storywas not unalloyed joy

The game is about glory, as it proclaims on the livery of the stands at White Hart Lane. Or so they are told, at a club that has won three trophies in 32 years and last bagged a league championship in 1961.
In most quarters, the game is still as much about glory as when Danny Blanchflower, the captain of the 1961 Tottenham Hotspur team, first conceived of that elegant five-word sentence, part of a wider point about how the game should be played. But these days the game is about other stuff too, whether you like it or not.
The game is about money. The game is about growing your commercial income streams. The game is about keeping your wages-to-revenue ratio down. The game is about finishing in the Champions League places. The game is, in Spurs' case, about getting Haringey Council, Sainsbury's and the Mayor's office on board, along with the finance, to build a new stadium, in one of the most deprived parts of a city that is home to some of the richest people in the world.

Yes, the game is about glory but if you want glory these days, you have to plan for it, budget for it, obtain planning permission for it, build for it and even then you might still find yourselves 10 years behind Arsenal. Dragging Spurs into the 21st century has been no easy task but, while they are getting there, someone has been keeping his eye on at least one crucial aspect of that old five-word motto.

That is Andre Villas-Boas, who is still trying to win the Europa League when other managers might have concentrated their efforts on finishing in the top four. Bravo to that. His side's 3-2 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield yesterday was a setback but it was their first defeat in the league since the loss to Everton on 9 December. Competing on both fronts will not be easy, but it would be foolish to give up on the Europa League now.

Liverpool went out of it in the previous round last month, although it was not for want of trying. Brendan Rodgers picked a strong side that lost the first leg in Russia to Zenit St Petersburg and a good 3-1 win at home could not prevent them going out on away goals. But, for Liverpool, this competition is different.

Even putting aside their current mediocrity, Liverpool have won the Champions League and the Uefa Cup in the last 12 years. Spurs have won three European trophies in their 131-year history, none of them the European Cup, and they will reach the 30th anniversary of the last one, the 1984 Uefa Cup triumph, next year. What could be their excuse for not trying to win it?

The most obvious argument, the one that has seen the likes of Stoke City and Aston Villa, among others, field understrength teams in the competition in recent years, is the effect it might have on league form. Third place is within Spurs' grasp, as is a place in the Champions League next season for only the second time in their history.
If they finish the job against Internazionale in Milan on Thursday they will be through to the quarter-finals and from then on in the competition promises to play merry hell with their league fixtures.

The two legs of the Europa League quarter-finals are scheduled in the midweek periods before Spurs' league games against Everton and Chelsea, the latter of whom may yet still be in the competition. The semi-final first leg would fall on the week after Spurs play Manchester City at home. The final in Amsterdam is on 15 May, four days before the last league game of the season at home to Sunderland. If they won the damn thing they would hardly even be able to celebrate it.

But who cares? Sometimes you just have to ignore the cautiousness of modern sport and keep going. It has been suggested, in Villas-Boas's case, he wants to win the Europa League for personal reasons. It elevates him on the European stage, above the parochial league in which he works. It is the tournament that he won with Porto in 2011, the making of his reputation outside Portugal's domestic game, and it seems to mean a lot to him.
So what? At a club where the last European trophy was paraded while the miners were still on strike, it should not be a consideration why a manager wants to win one, just whether he can or not.

The Europa League is an absurdly bloated competition in its opening stages – it should be a straight knockout – and the intake of Champions League cast-offs after Christmas is an insult to the teams who have battled through from the early stages. In Spurs' case they have played nine games already. But now, in mid-March, it at last becomes interesting.

Spurs would not be the first to combine a daunting league run-in with winning a European trophy, but winning the Champions League is different. A better class of opponent? Yes. But it also guarantees participation in the tournament the following autumn, as Spurs know only too well from Chelsea's success last season, and is much more lucrative. The Uefa prize-money alone for winning the Champions League is €10.5m (£9.1m), to the €5m for the Europa League winners.

The established Champions League clubs are better placed to handle the burden of extra games and travel and the bigger income over the years means that they have better squads. You could argue that winning the Europa League while also qualifying for the Champions League domestically is, relatively speaking, just as challenging.
But most of all, Villas-Boas and Spurs' pursuit of the Europa League says something profound about what they are about as a club. They want that Champions League place, but not at the expense of something precious that comes along all too rarely, even at a "big club", in tradition at least, like Spurs.

Spurs and their chairman, Daniel Levy, have achieved remarkable progress in recent years but this season the gamble on winning the Europa League, and the accompanying glory, is worth taking. The most eye-catching old pictures in the press room at White Hart Lane, the pictures that Villas-Boas walks past every home match-day, depict men holding trophies. That is what the game is about.

From here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...-villasboas-for-remembering-that-8528440.html

Now for me, this is always good to remember when reading levels of abuse. I don't mock other teams fans or performances, I don't laugh when we are winning, and I don't gloat in our success when others don't have any.

Each to their own, but I always do take into account many other things rather than just whats face up when it comes to Spurs. We are moving rapidly in the right direction and doing it the 'right' way.
 

dontcallme

SC Supporter
Mar 18, 2005
33,986
81,917
I read that this morning and it perked me up a bit. I really want to see us win the Europa League.

We need silverware and despite jokes about Arsenal's barren spell we haven't fared much better.

When talking about football nowadays there's way too much talk about money and the prestige and dominance of the CL has made too many fans see other silverware as 'Mickey Mouse.' It's a massive shame.

My favourite Spurs moment, in my lifetime, was seeing us win the FA Cup in 1991. The excitement of Gazza scoring in every round until the final was intense and seeing Mabbutt, my idol, lift the cup lives with me to this day.

I can barely remember us finishing 4th. It is good for the club as a whole and we can intellectualise where the money can take us but as a fan I want to be excited.

AVB taking the EL seriously really ups my estimations of the man.
 

THFC_67

SC Supporter
Mar 22, 2011
379
214
I'm glad AVB is taking the Europa league seriously and it's to his and the players credit that we are still well placed in the league and in a great position to make the quarter finals of the Europa league. If we want to progress as a club we need to get used to playing in big, important games twice in a week, if we can't handle competing in the Europa and still maintaining a strong league position then how can we expect to do it in the champs league, it's all about getting the mentality right at the club that it can be done.

I'd love for us to win the Europa league and I want us to finish in the top four as well, you have to aim high otherwise what's the point ?.
 

chinaman

Well-Known Member
Jul 19, 2003
17,974
12,423
AVB is right to try to cultivate a win every game attitude. You just can't tell players that one tourney is of no importance as it is very difficult to try to switch on and switch off in the middle of the season.
 

onthetwo

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2006
4,583
3,407
talking of glory, and former glories in particular, i found it sad to see Suarez and Sturridge diving around like salmon to try and win that game. Theres no glory in that kind of behaviour for what was once a great club.
 

vegassd

The ghost of Johnny Cash
Aug 5, 2006
3,356
3,330
I can barely remember us finishing 4th. It is good for the club as a whole and we can intellectualise where the money can take us but as a fan I want to be excited.

I can actually remember finishing 4th (the one against City) more than either our latest cup wins. It's partly because it's more recent, and partly because I was still a kid in '91, but it's also because it was the cumulation of so many more games, so much more media speculation and also that great run of results against Chelsea, Arsenal and then City.

I know that 4th place isn't a trophy, but in my mind it counts for just as much in our case (eg. a team on the rise) and maybe a little more. When Pompey won the FA cup it didn't mean they were the best team in the country. But when we came 4th it meant we were the 4th best.

For me, the league is the cake and the cups are the cherries on top, and it's more likely that success in the league will breed success in the cups rather than the other way around.
 

Shanks

Kinda not anymore....
May 11, 2005
31,159
18,914
The reward for getting 4th, is greater than winning one of the domestic cups, so it's understandable why people resonate with targetting top 4, over a domestic cup (including fa cup in that these days too).
 

marion52

Well-Known Member
Dec 10, 2006
1,582
2,200
The fact is also IF we do get CL next season we will all want him to take that seriously so this season could be seen as a rehearsal for what might happen next season
 

Misfit

President of The Niles Crane Fanclub
May 7, 2006
21,014
34,214
Top 4 and the EL. I think we can do that and should be aiming to do it. Would be a cracking season.
 

parklane1

Well-Known Member
May 4, 2012
4,390
4,053
I will never understand the fans who say finishing among the runners up is a greater prize then actually winning something, it makes me sad.
 

dontcallme

SC Supporter
Mar 18, 2005
33,986
81,917
I will never understand the fans who say finishing among the runners up is a greater prize then actually winning something, it makes me sad.

I understand the thought process behind it.

Get CL place which gets more money than winning trophies by a long way and gives the chance to play Europe's top clubs.

But for me the excitement of actually winning something is far better. Winning the EL would live with me for a very long time.
 

parklane1

Well-Known Member
May 4, 2012
4,390
4,053
I understand the thought process behind it.

Get CL place which gets more money than winning trophies by a long way and gives the chance to play Europe's top clubs.

But for me the excitement of actually winning something is far better. Winning the EL would live with me for a very long time.

Of course money is importent but winning things is what its all about, i am old enough to say "My eyes have seen the glory of the cups at WHL" and i would like to see them again.
 

sweyid

Well-Known Member
Jun 25, 2011
2,963
3,854
Winning the EL - glorious.

CL next season - glorious.

Both = cumfest extravaganza.
 

SteveH

BSoDL candidate for SW London
Jul 21, 2003
8,642
9,313
I will never understand the fans who say finishing among the runners up is a greater prize then actually winning something, it makes me sad.

I'm the exact opposite - just call me sad.

If you want sad, watch the Millwall vs Blackburn reruns.

We need to bin the capitol/milk/coca cola cup - its about as important the sainsbury's paint trophy

And get the FA cup ties played midweek
 

parklane1

Well-Known Member
May 4, 2012
4,390
4,053
I'm the exact opposite - just call me sad.

If you want sad, watch the Millwall vs Blackburn reruns.

We need to bin the capitol/milk/coca cola cup - its about as important the sainsbury's paint trophy

And get the FA cup ties played midweek

Hello sad;)
 

Ironskullll

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2010
1,378
1,894
I'm the exact opposite - just call me sad.

If you want sad, watch the Millwall vs Blackburn reruns.

We need to bin the capitol/milk/coca cola cup - its about as important the sainsbury's paint trophy

And get the FA cup ties played midweek

I never really "got" the league cup as it was then called. It was dreamed up by a bloke called Alan Hardaker to help provide funds for teams lower down the football league, rather than for any actual competitive reason of its own. Contrast that with the FA Cup, a glorious competition - the oldest football competition in the world, and one which was set up for its own sake, for the sake of needed and wanted competition.

Lots of clubs including Spurs never even bothered entering it for the first few years until they decided to put the final at Wembley and made entry compulsory. The reason they did that was to enhance the prestige of a failing competition, not in response to its growth in popularity. Then they started to give UEFA cup places to the winners, for the same arse-about-face reason. So while most European countries didn't take their version of the FA Cup so seriously, all of a sudden we had two cups. And the irony became the fact that the UEFA Cup evolved into a better competition in many respects than the Cup Winners Cup, which only served to diminish the older competition. We already had the real cup, the FA Cup, so why did we ever need the League Cup? Even in 71, when we won it, and again in 73, good though it was, it felt a bit mickey mouse. Winning the FA Cup and the league meant winning "the double"; winning the league cup and the league was little different to winning the league.

Maybe the time is right to dump the league cup and to focus on the one and only domestic knock out trophy that has even mattered, ie the FA Cup. That might just be what is needed to return the FA Cup to its true glory and status.

In its way, the league cup is the Chelsea of football trophies - a contrived response to something altogether more glorious and worthy, rather than anything with intrinsic value. We wouldn't miss either of those two, but we would miss THE Cup.
 

Shanks

Kinda not anymore....
May 11, 2005
31,159
18,914
What if FA Cup winners got a Champions League spot, over 4th place?
 

Shanks

Kinda not anymore....
May 11, 2005
31,159
18,914
Never happen and nor should it - could end up with Millwall in the CL.......:troll:

If, by some miracle they did win the FA Cup, considering that all the top teams would really compete for it, then you could say that Milwall would be deserving of it.
 
Top