The Facere Awakens
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Orgasmic quotage from our master:
"It is a very important thing our supporters believe in the team and that we can achieve good things. This is the most important thing. It is the first step to winning some titles.
Our supporters are very happy with the team. They share our values. You can see every game at White Hart Lane or away they are unbelievable and back the team.
It is a very important thing our supporters believe in the team and that we can achieve good things. This is the most important thing. It is the first step to winning some titles.
We don't set limits on our possibilities. The important thing is we all believe in the way we took 18 months ago. We are very ambitious. The group is strong. There is enough quality. In football anything can happen."
There's a forceful aura that exists within every club. A sense of expectancy that acts like a gauge for what we consider to quantify success. This aura has complete influence with defining a clubs tradition and identity. That relationship, between the custodians (chairman, coach, players) and the true essence (the supporters) attempts to retain a balance of dark and light. We accept our limitations but equally so want to push for progression. The club and its goals have to therefore sync in with our own. It should be one and same thing, one feeding into the other. The equilibrium that everyone strives for is what allows owners to seek a legacy and keeps fans hoping and reaching for the stars.
The current Spurs team have conquered many of the fears that have so often weighed us down in recent decades. Even though Mauricio Pochettino says we're proud and believe, deep down we still doubt. Our lack of faith is at times disturbing thanks to the psychological scars engraved in our DNA. The self-deprecating admittance that we're going to 'Spurs it up' is a defensive mechanism, a crutch to prepare for seasoned disappointment and recovery. The reality isn't as definitive as Poch might be stating although I think he knows that and is trying to create revolutionary momentum. We need to rebel against our doubts that control with imperial might.
We need to break through and remove the psychological block that holds us back from potentially igniting. We need to change our mentality and drop the emotional baggage. Stretch out with our feelings. The hang-ups, the past...it will always anchor us to the same place. If football is anything it's about faith and about believing. Allow that belief to flow through you.
This isn't a deluded whimsical day dream disconnected from reality. I understand there's no guarantees but if we do Spurs it up it's more likely that we've suffered an unavoidable lesson. A conclusion of a chapter isn't the end. A new chapter will follow with redemption the over-powering narrative.
If the players believe then give them the support to cement as much of it as possible. If you look at Leicester and the sheer unexpectedness of their position - it's fuelling their fans. With no pressure from the stands, the team keep on going. They're loving it. They don't fear failure even if it's probably the likely outcome based on how cruel and punishing football can be for most. Why fear something that hasn't happened? For us, we fear, because we tend to get punished more than others because of the pressure we place in achieving our goals. We actually do throw ourselves into the emotional deep end but at the same half believe it won't go too well.
Here's the crux.
We get punished for it and it's punishing because that's how we choose to call it. Pretenders not contenders. That's the label we tag on ourselves which gives way for the infamous self-fulfilling prophecy.
Get high. I promise this makes sense.
You want a tangible example that I'm not crazy talking and there's more to this than romantic notions? Look at the past five to ten years and what we have accepted as failure and how it's changed. Do the same for success. It's gone from finishing above mid-table to European qualification to top four aspirations and now a little bit more than just 4th (I'm using the league as an example here because regardless of our desire to win silverware, the bread and butter of thirty eight games is the true measurement for just how good a team you are and can become. It also seems to be priority for coaches and players as witnessed by the often sacrificed passion for cup runs).
So how about taking away the fixation on failure and just look up rather than down? Not doing what we set out to do and not doing it because we weren't quite good enough is our instruction to go one better next time. It's not a stick to sting yourself with by self-hurting. This simplistic stance is easy enough to write and far more complex to deliver on the training pitch and in games. Including consuming it from the stands and sofas and social.
Yet this culture where we actually believe in building something with longevity hasn't existed at Tottenham for a long time. We've had instances, illusions, that we've placed faith in because of our weakness and desperation that 'this time it's the real thing'. We've never started from scratch, we've always attempted to prolong something we have or improve on a broken template and also attempt to replace lost gems stolen by continental thieves with cheaper knock-offs. Every mistake or lesson learnt makes the present day easier to decipher as something that has more substance than any given superficial past.
That culture of comfort, it's something we accepted because of what it birthed generationally. Our style and swagger gave us players of flair and cup finals that defined us, our heritage and history. Which is why we are who we are. It's why we understand the dream is usually impossible, and why it's utterly magnificent when we do achieve the occasional something. Yet you look back to where it all started in the 50s and 60s and those teams did have a solid spine in body and mind. Everything since aspired but perhaps didn't perspire enough. Our years of being 'cup kings' meant our less than dynamic league form was a balance we accepted.
This isn't about being happy-clappy or not critiquing and speaking your mind. No doubt more is needed than just believing but from the perspective of mindset it can slowly change the mentality of everyone associated with the club and replace the one we all fall back on. The right attitude isn't unavailable to everyone other than the usual select few that have dominated the upper echelons of the league. It's there for anyone that wants it enough. If we prepare for failure, or at least what we deem as failure, then we've already focused on the opposite of what we should be aiming for. Let go of the fear. Hate losing but don't be scared of the win and plenty of them.
"I think we need to arrive in the last ten games with the possibility to fight for the objectives. In the next nine, ten games we will maybe make the mark on how we finish on the table"
Change the mentality over the course of seasons. Focus on each season as part of that change. We're ambitious and hungry and yet calculated and composed. Not getting ahead of ourselves yet looking ahead to better ourselves. No wonder we keep waiting for the sun to set after another false dawn with darkness prevailing. This brave new world is paradoxical.
I know what you're thinking. You've got a very bad feeling about this. We're doomed. Don't. Just don't. Don't default to that crutch. So what if we give everything, 100% of everything, then it all goes Tots up. Are you comparable to them lot down the road, more concerned about how you look and what opposing fans will say about us? The moment we remove the sense of finality and the stranglehold it has over us, the more power and control we'll possess. Fear is control for those who are afraid.
It's not a trap.
The stronger the supporters are the stronger the team is, the stronger the team is the stronger the supporters are, the stronger our identity is. The expectancy goes from being a playful wish with an expire date to an all encompassing weapon with expansive growth.
So listen to Pochettino and learn the ways. This is no mind trick. We want to reclaim past glories but we should aim to create new ones with a new ethos.
We've yet to find the plans for the Death Star but one of these days soon we're gonna blow it the f**k up.