Why I Am A Spurs Fan (v2.75)

[Hotspur1882]

You know, people often ask why I am a Spurs fan, usually moments after
they have pissed themselves laughing at the notion that there are
Spurs fans outside of North London.

Apart from the fact I was born and raised in Tottenham, these are the
reasons why I bleed lilywhite.

When anyone talks about legends of the game you can be sure that Spurs
players, past and present will always come up in the conversation.
Blanchflower, Greaves, Jennings, Ardilles, Hoddle, Mabbutt, Perryman,
Waddle, Lineker, Gascoigne, just to name but a very few that have
defined the term legend in their own era's. And they did so wearing
the colours of Spurs.

You can talk about your doubles and European glory; Spurs were the
first English club in the 20th century to achieve these things. And
they did so with passion and pride, blood and sweat, and the hopes and
dreams of not just Spurs fans, but a nation hoping beyond all hope
that a club from England could emerge as one of the greatest clubs in
Europe. We set the benchmark on what makes a team great; everyone else
has just been playing catch up.

The greatest manager the game has ever seen, Bill Nicholson. People
will stake that Alex Ferguson is probably the greatest club manager
ever. And it is those same people that would never even have heard of
him.

If there was a man that has been criminally underrated and
unrecognized for his contribution to football, it was Bill, aka, Mr.
Tottenham Hotspur.

He brought Arthur Rowe's "Push and Run" system to a whole new level
producing a not only a winning style of football but an entertaining
one never seen before. Holland and Ajax's "Total Football" of the
70's, Barcelona, AC Milan, the greatest teams of the late 20th century
and the Spurs of today all reflect Bill Nicholson's gift to the game;
total football and total entertainment.

And what of the Premiership today and all of it's stars? What club
paved the way for the Premiership to attract the names it does today?
Tottenham Hotspur FC.

The day and hour Tottenham signed Jurgen Klinsmann was the day every
top club and player in Europe stood up and took notice of English
football. It was the signing of Klinsmann's that put the Premiership
on the international map.

And today, much to my chagrin of course, two of the most expensive
players in the Premiership came in to their own at White Hart Lane and
left us at the start of this season. Berbatov of course, and Robbie
Keane. At least one of them seen the error of his ways.

But even before the days of the Premiership, it was Spurs that showed
the rest of the world that we could bring the greatest players to
England in the form of 1978 World Cup winners Ossie Ardilles and
Ricardo Villa. Never before had any English club had the audacity to
make such signings.

But Spurs were not afraid. We stood as a club to be counted among the
Ajax's and Real Madrid's as a place where no ambition was too big or
too great.

There is nothing that makes a club greater than its fans. We have
stood strong amidst the jeers and criticism of the past years (and
especially in the dark days of this season).

And I take pride in the fact that so many tried to ram our early
season predicament down our throats. The louder others shouted to
knock us down, the taller and prouder we stood. If there is any
greater testament to how big a club is, it is how hard people will
shout and cry about how badly you are doing. And boy, did they try
their hardest.

We have had to endure the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea make their way
to glory while we languished in mid-table mediocrity. But we have
stayed strong, our voices have stayed loud and proud through thick and
thin, win or lose, we have always let the opposition know that we are
Spurs and we will never be silenced.

Home or away we can be heard singing of the glory, glory days above
all others. Our hearts have remained pure, our faith has remained, we
will be Spurs until we die!

And so to the future, and you know what, who knows what it has in
store for us. Yesterday we looked at a daunting prospect of fighting
for our Premiership lives. Fight we did though. And we will always
fight until the last kick of the season.

So today, against every odd, we continue to fight, but now for a place
in Europe. And tomorrow ...... well, that is another story.

Could relegation have really happen to a club as great as ours? You
know what? If it happened, it happened. I only care that when we go
out and play 90 minutes we have given the best 90 minutes that we can
and that the opposition knows that they have just played the mighty
Tottenham Hotspur; a club that has given more to the history of the
game than any other.

And if that 90 minutes is spent in the Premiership, Championship, or
even non-league, I will still be cheering them on until the day I die.

So why am I a Spurs fan? Because Spurs done it all first, done it
greater than any other club since, and will continue to do so now and
in to the future no matter how bad the knocks we take.

Tottenham Hotspur is my club, my passion, my life, and that is why I
am a Spurs fan.