Sorry if I will get a bit waffly, but I am Italian
ochbye:
Yes, I am Italian (actually, since a few years ago, I am British as well) and I have moved here almost 18 years ago (I had never thought it would have happened, but I couldn’t say no to some opportunity that came up in my life)
I am 52, I support Torino, and since the late 70s I have become also a Spurs supporter… I may expand on this on another thread about foreign supporters (Ossie, Hoddle, Steve Archibald, the 1982 Le Coq Sportif centenary kit, the colours, the instinct I have always had about this club, even from far in a time when it was so precious to watch an English game) … It started as “Ok, definitely my club in England are Spurs”… but soon became much more than that…Why Spurs? Why not Forest or Liverpool or other clubs?
Because to me football is about poetry, intensity and emotion.. it’s about passion and beauty in different forms… it’s about “US and them”… it’s where my tribal instinct goes (it certainly doesn’t want to go into politics, religion or other shit like that)… In Spurs I have always seen all this , as I have always seen this in Torino (although before moving to UK I had lost a bit of passion on that, and it’s a lot to do with modern football, but not just… however, this is not the thread to talk about that). (Nothing to do with the fact that both teams have an animal farm on the badge
)
I don’t deny that one of the many reasons I accepted the proposals to move here was Spurs. I remember the first time I went to the Lane (the 0-2 defeat against Chelscum , when Mido got sent off)… I remember the heart thumping for the emotion… while I saw the stadium in reality fir the first time, when I got into the stands… For different reasons, I don’t go to more than 3-4 games every season, but every time I watch spurs (even on telly) I still got the heart thumping
The Bayern game was my first time at the new stadium, and I feel exactly that buzz, even more for the novelty (I must admit that when I saw the new Park Lane stand my jaw dropped… I have never seen anything with more intimidating potential
The game is shit these days, football is broken and there is a lot of gentrification and dilution of intensity … but I still love it , because I still connect with the way I feel it, to the point that I can almost ignore every modern part of it… The other thing that is happening is that I very rarely watch any other club playing (it has to be by chance while being in a pub)
I have often come to this forum to lurk, as there is an awful lot of good stuff. I love listening to the stories of people who have supported this club from much longer than me and much more closely ( I just name a few, sorry for all the others:
Nutter-Naylor
,
Mrs Perryman
,
Guido 🇺🇦
)
For some reason, now that we are in this shit moment I feel even closer to this forum… It’s a way to feel closer to what we are even when I cannot go to the Lane, and maybe it’s a way to throw some of my positive energy into it
What happened last year, in particular losing the CL final , hasn’t killed my passion at all… It was very painful to lose it for a day or two , of course, but I have always felt very relaxed about that game: to me that was a gift, one of hundreds that I got from this manager and squad… I was always relaxed and I always am, even in this shit moment, for two reasons:
- I just know that we are (very slowly and with some very painful spell) heading into winning everything, and we will do in our style
- I have never expected to achieve what we have achieved in this generation… I have always seen this as a step forward… and quite a wonderful one!
How do I feel about Spurs now? I feel that whatever happens it’s time to bite the bullet and go through a couple of years of painful rebuild … This has happened in the past and we have always moved forward from that… I am not discussing here what manager I want to be at the helm or other things; there are other threads about that
But yes, generally speaking the football circus is pretty shit these days, and it will probably become worse)
COYS!!!