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Nearly Club? Only For Pessimists

thfcsteff

thfcsteff

George Hunt
Danny Rose gave an interview to 5 Live recently. I think we have all expressed our various opinions in his thread. He used the words 'nearly club' in reference to us. Here is the quote.
"...You might feel that Tottenham is a nearly-club, we nearly go close to winning the league, we nearly go close to winning the semi-final of the FA Cup..."
Personally, if someone such as Hazard or Wheelchair said that, I think we'd be apoplectic with rage. Anyway. Whatever Danny Rose thinks is up to him. What got me was seeing some folks here readily agree with him!

I believe only pessimists would even entertain that notion. How on earth a club that has continually improved their Premier League performance over the last three seasons can be considered a 'nearly' club is, frankly, unfathomable to me. I don't get it. We lost the semi-final. Is THAT people's problem? Why can't people instead see that we are a full calendar year ahead of our expected development, that we have one of the youngest sides in the country yet they have developed tremendous cohesion, that in 14 months we will move into a superb new stadium and that we are establishing ourselves as a bona fide CL club? How can those be the 'signs' of a 'nearly club'?

I think we need to show some perspective and some balls as a support base.
Thoughts?


Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
 
"...You might feel that Tottenham is a nearly-club, we nearly go close to winning the league, we nearly go close to winning the semi-final of the FA Cup..."

What did he say after that? Sounds to me like he's about to say - "... but we're to prove the naysayers wrong next season" or something. He's implying that other people see Spurs as a nearly club, in my opinion. But I haven't heard the whole thing.
 
I don't ever remember us being a nearly club

For 25 years we've been a nowhere club. A mid-table obscurity club. A win bugger all and season over by January club.

But now is the first time since the Burkinshaw/Pleat/Venable era that it feels like we a might-be club. We're looking awesome and like the best is definitely still to come. A United in the very early 90s stage.

But no, 'nearly' doesn't reflect my experience of Spurs at all. 'A long way from' is much more typical. Till now...
 
IIRC, Rose was talking about potential outlooks by different players at Spurs, how they may view the club. He was contrasting it with Harry Kane's approach.
 
Gutter Boy said:
I don't ever remember us being a nearly club

For 25 years we've been a nowhere club. A mid-table obscurity club. A win bugger all and season over by January club.

But now is the first time since the Burkinshaw/Pleat/Venable era that it feels like we a might-be club. We're looking awesome and like the best is definitely still to come. A United in the very early 90s stage.

But no, 'nearly' doesn't reflect my experience of Spurs at all. 'A long way from' is much more typical. Till now...
Click to expand...

Great post.
 
We are on a journey, hell yeah we all want to win stuff. On this trajectory, it's gonna come sooner rather later. Keeping this group, at least the core, is very important. We would, I feel, inevitably lose one or two along the way who are the top players, whether we win stuff or not - but hey, all clubs too. And it's Poch's job to manage that, and get us to win stuff.

Exciting times, we are playing so well, and we have got that belief and hunger. I feel it was important to finish on the high we did, as opposed to the self pitying slump of last season.

We are raring to go again; let's see what happens this summer with players, and how we adapt to playing at Wemberleee... that's probably our biggest concern right now
 
We split opinion because we don't win trophies.

Our form this calender year, both in the league and overall, has been nothing short of staggering, I can't remember the last time I saw such form combined with a style so pleasing on the eye whilst bearing the best defence in the country. It's like Bill Nich's attack and Brian Clough's defence of yester year in one team.

Sadly though that's all worthless if you've won nothing. The last thing I want to do is give our players some sought of gonading or name tag because they won nothing. But we are a nearly club, both in the sense that rival fans enjoy using for the sake of their amusement but also in the sense that we are nearly there.

League form 2017: P20 W16 D2 L2 F53 A13 GD +40

It's frustrating when you look at the past two seasons just gone, we could've achieved back to back titles but we didn't, nor did we win anything. But I wouldn't put that down to us being 'bottle jobs' or 'a nearly club', I put it down, in part, to being in Europe but mainly the fact this team still isn't the finished article, despite the impressive form and league finishes.

To be winners you need not to dwell on the reasons why you can't be winners, but focus on the reasons why you can. The biggest problem is that we're nearly there but a lot people view what we need to be out of reach due to both internal (mentality and lack of funds) and external (mega budgets) factors. Thus, people think we're a nearly club because of the lack trophies but will stay so due to falling short in resources.

So, our form, or rather finishes to the season over the past 11 years suggest we are a nearly club but what Rose touched upon was what one individual may or may not think. From the rest of the interview I was left with the impression that the core players of the team, and even the squad as a whole, don't think that, nor does the manager or anyone else for that matter.

These guys focus on what they can do, where as a lot of fans worry about what they can't. There is a confidence in this team that I have never seen before in any other Spurs team of the past 22 years. They expect to win and in truth so do I, I looked out onto the St. Mary's pitch in December looking like Maximus after the battle of Gatwick, not because we had won 4-1 but because I expect those performances, and so do they.
 
thfcsteff said:
Danny Rose gave an interview to 5 Live recently. I think we have all expressed our various opinions in his thread. He used the words 'nearly club' in reference to us. Here is the quote.
"...You might feel that Tottenham is a nearly-club, we nearly go close to winning the league, we nearly go close to winning the semi-final of the FA Cup..."
Personally, if someone such as Hazard or Wheelchair said that, I think we'd be apoplectic with rage. Anyway. Whatever Danny Rose thinks is up to him. What got me was seeing some folks here readily agree with him!

I believe only pessimists would even entertain that notion. How on earth a club that has continually improved their Premier League performance over the last three seasons can be considered a 'nearly' club is, frankly, unfathomable to me. I don't get it. We lost the semi-final. Is THAT people's problem? Why can't people instead see that we are a full calendar year ahead of our expected development, that we have one of the youngest sides in the country yet they have developed tremendous cohesion, that in 14 months we will move into a superb new stadium and that we are establishing ourselves as a bona fide CL club? How can those be the 'signs' of a 'nearly club'?

I think we need to show some perspective and some balls as a support base.
Thoughts?


Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
Click to expand...


Well done in taking the quote out of context and sticking a nice clickbait thread title on it.
The type of thing every gets tinkled off with journos about.

Everyone is blowing this all out of proportion.
 
Like always people are reading far to much into it, he was speaking from another perspective and gave the "nearly club" as an example of how some might think and lets face it, we are always being called this by pundits and social media.
 
Modric THFC said:
Well done in taking the quote out of context and sticking a nice clickbait thread title on it.
The type of thing every gets tinkled off with journos about.

Everyone is blowing this all out of proportion.
Click to expand...

OK mate. Even though this reply would work much better in the Danny Rose thread. But while I'm here, you're naive if you think any player would do an interview of that nature without an agenda.

Do you think we are a 'nearly' club? That was what this thread was about.


Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
 
if we look at how many FA cup semi's we had lost consecutively is now getting beyond a joke. I think if we won the cup this year, perceptions of others and those of our own would change.

Everyone I speak to who support other clubs and our own say we have to start winning albeit a cup to start of with. Watching Man U then Arsenal win in the last week has reinforced to some that we are a nearly but not quite there club.
 
thfcsteff said:
OK mate. Even though this reply would work much better in the Danny Rose thread. But while I'm here, you're naive if you think any player would do an interview of that nature without an agenda.

Do you think we are a 'nearly' club? That was what this thread was about.


Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
Click to expand...

I don't think a player that was getting excited about us just finishing in the top four last season (source Lamela) sees us as a nearly club or is overly ambitious. He did the interview because he's mates with Jenas. And if he was to leave I'd be more concerned about the reason he gave before the nearly club one.
 
I'm listening to the Rose thing now, for the first time. I've heard the bit that Steff has quoted, but will listen to the rest of the interview.
Wrt to the question, totally agree with Gutterboy. For years we've had nothing to play for, we've made significant progress, but only in the last 2 seasons, have made some sort of challenge. This season was progress on last years, in terms of points and the strong finish.
if we'd been doing this year after year, there would be some justification for the label, but no chance at the moment can we be labelled a nearly club.
 
Rose should know more than most about where we were and where we are now. I genuinely hope no one else playing for the first XI feels this way. I'd much rather listen to the likes of Dele and Kane saying next year we will win. They believe it's their right to be champions.
 
Hubris and pessimism, both are dangerous in their own way. I think time will tell. Right now, if the criteria is about winning things, then there can be no dispute, we are a nearly club. However the window of opportunity is still open and it just needs our club to realise this and grab the glittering prizes.
 
Gilzeantoscore said:
Hubris and pessimism, both are dangerous in their own way. I think time will tell. Right now, if the criteria is about winning things, then there can be no dispute, we are a nearly club. However the window of opportunity is still open and it just needs our club to realise this and grab the glittering prizes.
Click to expand...

That's only for those with Simple Minds.........


(I'll get my coat)
 
Getting quite bored of the 'Spurs need to win a trophy' stuff now. At first it was quite funny, and some of the memes with us as the 'Put the Pressure on' Champions were decent and it was nice to see fans of other clubs thinking we were important enough to get salty with.

But in all seriousness, it's getting a bit ridiculous now. The two trophies really worth their salt are the Premier League and the Champions League. The League Cup has most top teams using it as an excuse to blood youngsters. The Europa League is something that the top teams used to joke about as Thursday Nights, Channel 5 when it suited them, because they were beyond such nonsense. And the FA Cup, while more historic, is as much about luck of the draw or luck on the day as anything else.

Frankly we've been the best team in the league over the last two years. The only team in that time that's sustained a title challenge while competing in Europe. We got 86 points which would be enough to win it on multiple different years. We've improved every year and every player has improved since the new coaching staff were in. If any player honestly thinks we are a nearly club, they can sod off. It's actually pretty disrespectful.

Chelsea won the league in large part because they had a free run at it, with no injuries and no Europe because they were utterly terrible the year before. Man United were in the Europa because they were utterly terrible the year before and bored their way to the final while throwing their league matches - how the mighty have fallen. Arsenal saved their best performance of the season for the final and good on them, but they were a class below us all season and their cup run meant beating teams like Sutton and Lincoln. Besides, since when did it mean anything to be a 'cup team'?

We're building something here. We've been the only team competing both for the title and in Europe over the last 2 years. We've got the most points. We've scored the most and conceded the least. Why are we a nearly club exactly? We look like the club most likely to put together an actual title challenge, and at least this year coming all the other teams will be in Europe too. Let's see one of these other clubs put together a serious challenge for the Champions League, then they can laugh. Then they can look at us like we are a nearly club. They don't get to laugh when a terrible Villa and a terrible Palace can make it to the cup final. They don't get to laugh when the Europa League has always been seen as the consolation prize for any team with European aspirations.

And as I said, if any player of ours can't see all of this, and actually thinks of us as a nearly club, they can sod off. Or maybe not drop the points at home to Leceister or away to Bournemouth that set us back. Maybe get the 3 points at the Hawthorns when we fully deserved them but for terrible finishing. Maybe get a win at the home of a top 6 rival. Don't make excuses, because this club has given every player in the squad the opportunity to play the best football of their career. If they can't see that, and can't see the fact that the only reason teams like United and Chelsea have won things because they've had terrible seasons preceding this year, then they should get out. If we're a nearly club, what does that make Emirates Marketing Project? They've spent more money than we could ever dream of and have finished below us in the last two years. What about Liverpool? What about every team that took finishing in the Top 4 during the 00's as the badge of honour, as if it really meant something in and of itself. They are the nearly clubs. Not Spurs, who show up with a fraction of the budget and play more consistent, exciting football and allow every player in their squad to perform better than they ever have done, because of the structure and the coaching we give them.

Rival club fans can sod off, and I'm not saying any of our players do think it, but if they did, they shouldn't let the door hit them on the way out either. We've got a lot to be proud of.
 
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