Roy Keane On Spurs 'Softness'

[AberdeenYid]

Keane is a cunt, but he’s right. It’s why so many of us admired the fight we had during The Battle Of The Bridge. We’ve always been soft touches in my time of supporting us.

And if we had a Roy Keane snarling about in midfield, we wouldn’t have lazy fuck players jogging around the place and hiding from the ball like we do today.

 

[Herclueless]

It's just a popular media narrative that's easy to wheel out whenever we don't win. Why is it only ever Spurs that are accused of this softness? There are plenty of sides that have won equally few trophies since PL clubs became the popular plaything for the filthy rich, yet I seldom hear about Roy Keane going off on a rant about how 'ard or soft they are.

 

[NW1Spur]

Keane still lives in the 1990s. He's got nothing meaningful to contribute to any debate. He just says things to get attention. Sky Sports in general is borderline unwatchable.

 

[Kekerinho]

What Roy Keane fails to understand although himself has been a manager, albeit not a successful one is that what the club has done back in the 70s/80s/90s has nothing to do with what we do today. Otherwise we’d see Forest somewhere in Premier League not struggling to make top half in the Championship. We’d have never seen Leicester win the league a few years ago as they’ve never been successful in their whole history.

What happens today at Spurs is the result of terrible game management and tactics. We’ve lost 18 points from winning position because once we score, we sit back. Every Spurs fan knows and has seen this. When we haven’t done it (Leeds, Sheff Utd) we’ve won comfortably. Of course players not being interested as much as they should is having an impact on these results, but that’s also down to other factors than only attitude.

 

[Blanchflower]

I never buy into this theory that any team of professional footballers are "losers" - to get to where they are they have never really lost in their lives.

 

[Bazali]

Keane is a cunt, but he’s right. It’s why so many of us admired the fight we had during The Battle Of The Bridge. We’ve always been soft touches in my time of supporting us.

And if we had a Roy Keane snarling about in midfield, we wouldn’t have lazy fuck players jogging around the place and hiding from the ball like we do today.

Absolutely nailed it and that’s what has been wrong with this club for a long time

No leader on the field

Hugo isn’t it but I don’t want a keeper as skipper in any case
For me it has to be a midfielder but we haven’t got anyone who could adopt that mantle
Get a couple of seasons experience with Skippy and who knows

If it’s true that Jose doesn’t instruct us to sit back after scoring (which I don’t believe) then a captain on the field can influence the way we play as per the managers instructions

A lot of our side need an absolute rocket up their arse as they don’t seem to give a fuck !!

 

[Notabadsquad]

As a club we are painfully soft. It is so fcuking apparent it is untrue.

We had a wonderful period of change under Pochettino and he fell at the final hurdle who remembers Crisp for am appropriate analogy or Jimmy White?

Too many and sometimes me included believe it us just about quality- it isn't.

It's also about some hidden ingredient that we just do not seem able to get our hands on.

We need a manager and players who can find the mindset of winners. The day that occurs we may return to the days of Nicholson, a man who would be ashamed of the jelly like softness we are displaying at present.

The usual suspects will come out and bemoan Keane but look at the trophy cabinet, look at the games lost over the years (not just this season) from winning positions,. These things are more than just a set of unfortunate coincidences.

 

[Yid91]

Keane still lives in the 1990s. He's got nothing meaningful to contribute to any debate. He just says things to get attention. Sky Sports in general is borderline unwatchable.

He's there to be a WUM, whilst occasionally funny in the main it's boring and childish. Sky in general are a joke, no proper punditry at all. When Trent scored the winner on Saturday Carragher screamed are you watching Gary Neville? It really is school playground stuff.

 

[TonySoprano]

What did Keane win before he went to Utd? What did he win after he left? What did he win as a manager? What did he win with Ireland?

Nothing. He played for the richest club in the country under the best manager in their history so he has a shit ton of trophies. They would have won most of them without him. Without Ferguson and Utd he's as soft as he thinks Spurs are

 

[Larry David]

He’s not wrong about is being soft but he’s a fucking weapon

His stint as a manager was laughable, he’s stuck in the 90’s and has no intention of understanding that the game has changed

 

[NorseYid]

He's there to be a WUM, whilst occasionally funny in the main it's boring and childish. Sky in general are a joke, no proper punditry at all. When Trent scored the winner on Saturday Carragher screamed are you watching Gary Neville? It really is school playground stuff.

It's all about narratives. Storylines. Dramatic evolvement.

Clubs being reduced to protagonists and antagonists.

So little genuine sports coverage.

 

[Trotter]

"Mentally weak" is just a lazy buzzword, just like "Spursy" and other crap some people spout

We have numerous winners at the club, they have shown it at this club and previous ones.
Every final we have reached we have been up against much better invested in clubs.
Every final we have reached we have shown we have been mentally tough enough to get there.
To over-achieve relative in the league for numerous successive seasons showed we were not mentally weak.

What we are are the moment is under-coached, under-prepared, very low on confidence, tactics that don't suit the players, a manager that doesn't suit and has fallen out with some of the players, and no doubt some players no longer looking forward to coming in to work every day and being at the club.

We are currently in a spell of being very poorly run on the playing side of the club, from board downwards, and that is feeding through to what we see on the pitch.

 

[Henry Hotspur]

This polarising debate keeps cropping up again and again. And it does for good reason in my opinion. There is something in the DNA (if you like) or in the aura of the club.

‘Lads it’s Tottenham’ - allegedly a half time team talk by Fergie when 0-3 down to us. We all know how that ended. Even in our pomp in the 60’s Shankly referred to Spurs as the Drury Lane tap danncers, while we failed to win at Anfield since the sinking of the Titanic.

Keane, I think in his autobiography, talked about certain players having ‘Tottenham tendencies’ - I took this to mean, easy on the eye, imbued with natural talent and skill but would wilt when it came to the crunch.

I understand how unpalatable, even crazy the DNA thing must sound to some people who rail against such a notion. However, it isn’t just about signing certain players but also about decisions that are taken by chairmen, owners and managers.

For years our club was known as a ‘cup team’. In the eighties in particular, this was great fun but it also signalled something to our players, any potential signing, opponents, fans and pundits alike - that we could turn it on at certain times but could never sustain it. A self fulfilling prophecy. The characteristic has since morphed when we began the painful trend of arriving in Semi Finals and Finals and losing.

To those who point out - with some justification- that the same brittleness could be ascribed to Newcastle or Leeds i would beg to differ and instead look to our geographical context. The success of Woolwich and Chelsea hurts. Woolwich in particular, are currently worse than us but are FA Cup holders and have the potential to win the Europa. Not only that but their supporters can still smugly point to all the league titles plus other trophies they won in the modern era. Those Spurs fans that blithely say, ‘I don’t care what our neighbours do or don’t do’ are kidding themselves. We watched our club try to catch up only to fall on our collective faces time and again. It hurts but until we change many things , including the mentality , at our club we will continue to be the butt of others jibes and jokes, inc Mr Keane’s.

 

[Shotgunofmichalebrow]

"Mentally weak" is just a lazy buzzword, just like "Spursy" and other crap some people spout

We have numerous winners at the club, they have shown it at this club and previous ones.
Every final we have reached we have been up against much better invested in clubs.
Every final we have reached we have shown we have been mentally tough enough to get there.
To over-achieve relative in the league for numerous successive seasons showed we were not mentally weak.

What we are are the moment is under-coached, under-prepared, very low on confidence, tactics that don't suit the players, a manager that doesn't suit and has fallen out with some of the players, and no doubt some players no longer looking forward to coming in to work every day and being at the club.

We are currently in a spell of being very poorly run on the playing side of the club, from board downwards, and that is feeding through to what we see on the pitch.

You know what's funny and absolutely proves the bull shit. I'm old enough to recall Burkinshaws Spurs side that won two FA cups the Ueffa cup and challenge for the title. No one suddenly went like David Brent ooh their so hard now. Reducing winning and losing down to character not culture and technical ability is why this country is a footballing joke.

 

[Mr. Voldemort]

Hello to all, I've managed to get my hands on an internet PC for a few hours so have been catching up on all the news. I spotted this link and whilst I hate Roy Keane he does tell it as he sees it.

Listen To Roy Keane Talking About Spurs And Listen Well

Given that Roy Keane and I have both been watching Spurs play for the same number of years, all I can tell those that are struggling with his claim that Spurs have been soft for forty years, that he’s right – well – nearly right. We had something about us in the 1980s. Those were …

theboyhotspur.com

I loved the author's comments, particularly : As I’ve made the point before; professional sport only works one way. If that weren’t the case, golf courses would have no holes and racecourses wouldn’t have a finish line.

I fully understand Jamie's attempts to defend the club but he's clearly struggling against the harsh reality of titles and cup successes. So I'll ask the older members here, has this 'softness' gone on for 40 years ??

Great to be on the internet, I've been like a kid in a sweet shop .... take care all. Hopefully catch up with you all again soon.

 

[Herclueless]

To add, us giving up so many points from winning positions this season has fuck all to do with Spurs sides in the 80/90/00s being pretty rather than gritty, or some nonsense idea of a dna that runs through the club.

 

[Bazali]

Hello to all, I've managed to get my hands on an internet PC for a few hours so have been catching up on all the news. I spotted this link and whilst I hate Roy Keane he does tell it as he sees it.

Listen To Roy Keane Talking About Spurs And Listen Well

Given that Roy Keane and I have both been watching Spurs play for the same number of years, all I can tell those that are struggling with his claim that Spurs have been soft for forty years, that he’s right – well – nearly right. We had something about us in the 1980s. Those were …

theboyhotspur.com

I loved the author's comments, particularly : As I’ve made the point before; professional sport only works one way. If that weren’t the case, golf courses would have no holes and racecourses wouldn’t have a finish line.

I fully understand Jamie's attempts to defend the club but he's clearly struggling against the harsh reality of titles and cup successes. So I'll ask the older members here, has this 'softness' gone on for 40 years ??

Great to be on the internet, I've been like a kid in a sweet shop .... take care all. Hopefully catch up with you all again soon.

Good to hear from you
Hope all is well

 

[Merl]

It's just a popular media narrative that's easy to wheel out whenever we don't win. Why is it only ever Spurs that are accused of this softness? There are plenty of sides that have won equally few trophies since PL clubs became the popular plaything for the filthy rich, yet I seldom hear about Roy Keane going off on a rant about how 'ard or soft they are.

I'd agree with this - off the top of my head why do the likes Villa, Everton, Newcastle not get accused of being soft & bottlers?

Leeds? Sheffield Wednesday? Probably missing a few more as well.

All of these teams had enjoyed success in the past and all have won f*ck all for decades. I'd say that most of those also have a similar size fanbase to us as well.

 

[Tottenham Sean]

Hello to all, I've managed to get my hands on an internet PC for a few hours so have been catching up on all the news. I spotted this link and whilst I hate Roy Keane he does tell it as he sees it.

Listen To Roy Keane Talking About Spurs And Listen Well

Given that Roy Keane and I have both been watching Spurs play for the same number of years, all I can tell those that are struggling with his claim that Spurs have been soft for forty years, that he’s right – well – nearly right. We had something about us in the 1980s. Those were …

theboyhotspur.com

I loved the author's comments, particularly : As I’ve made the point before; professional sport only works one way. If that weren’t the case, golf courses would have no holes and racecourses wouldn’t have a finish line.

I fully understand Jamie's attempts to defend the club but he's clearly struggling against the harsh reality of titles and cup successes. So I'll ask the older members here, has this 'softness' gone on for 40 years ??

Great to be on the internet, I've been like a kid in a sweet shop .... take care all. Hopefully catch up with you all again soon.

Spurs having a soft underbelly is a criticism aimed at us ,with some justification since the late 80s.Pretty much since Maxie ,Stevie P and Robbo moved on.

 

[StripiestPilot]

We’ve lost 8 FA cup semis in a row over the last 25 years, so there is definitely something to the “soft Spurs” cliche.