Psychology, the club and the fans...

[diego_maradona]

I can empathise with the disappointment but those feeling it more have only brought it on themselves.

We had a brilliant run of form and results at the back end of last year BUT it was pretty obvious we were OVER achieving. Unfortunately some took that as our natural level of performance and expected the form to continue when it clearly could not. Those fans effectively created a self fulfilling prophecy of disappointment, probably exasperated by the fact they were gloating towards Arsenal and Chelsea fans because we had opened up a bit of a gap due to the kindness of the fixture list of all respective teams. Now they've been made to look a little foolish which only compounds their misery and their bitterness in the way the season is panning out.

But if we were overachieving before then we are certainly massively underachieving in recent weeks.

 

[Raziel]

I think the English (and media) read way too much into results

- You win, and this is a team of winners, they have spirit/mentality/etc.
- You lose, bunch of bottlers ...

Sport isn't that simple, fitness/injuries/form/fatique/luck (yes luck) all play a way bigger part imo for most teams during a season vs. it actually being a winning/bottler mentality.

Winning does breed confidence, but it's only one part of a much bigger story.

 

[VolSpur]

I think the English (and media) read way too much into results

- You win, and this is a team of winners, they have spirit/mentality/etc.
- You lose, bunch of bottlers ...

Sport isn't that simple, fitness/injuries/form/fatique/luck (yes luck) all play a way bigger part imo for most teams during a season vs. it actually being a winning/bottler mentality.

Winning does breed confidence, but it's only one part of a much bigger story.

this.

can remember countless times earlier on this season and even parts of last where we would come back in games and people kept talking about how much grit we had (with the very same players mind). now it seems we're a team full of weenies...

granted we haven't been at our tip-top, but truth is we've been quite unlucky in this poor spell with shots hitting posts, offsides calls, defoes leg not being long enough, etc, etc.

could easily've been 4-5 wins in the last 9 as opposed to just 1.

 

[1882]

The difference between HAVING a winning/never-say-die mentality, and US, was there for all to see last night...

as much as it pains me to draw comparisons, just (for a giggle, 'cos it'll never happen in my lifetime) put Spurs in Chelsea's position last night...

A goal down, first leg lead cancelled out... 1-1 agg.
Your Captain sent off... 10 men
A SECOND goal conceded, the game is no longer in you hands... 1-2

and stop the clock... now what would happen if this was Spurs...? I'll tell you, it would've finished 5 or 6-1 (by half-time... fudge knows what the final score would've been!!)

You just KNOW Spurs heads would've dropped... they'd have spent the remaining minutes of the first half looking at each other and feeling sorry for themselves, whilst probably allowing Barca to score another 3 to make sure...
...the notion of hitting back immediately with an away goal wouldn't even have entered our heads... let alone hold on to get a second one to kill it off... we're simply not 'designed' that way... and it's fudging annoying!

Now we face the prospect of watching Chelsea and their odious scum fans getting to enjoy a fudging Champions League Final, fudge 'em, their far right neo-nazi chimps can have a nice pilgrimage trip to Germany... I don't even want to consider the implications if they win it... 'cos you just KNOW our prissy little feel-sorry-for-themselves team will already have given up the chase by the final game of the season, and we'll be left with the nagging quandary of waiting to see if Saudi Sportswashing Machine overtake ArseAnal, and then hoping Chelsea can do to THEM what they may have been threatening to do to US, had we concentrated long enough to secure 4th by now...

Still, if that's what 20-odd years of Gas Chamber Hissing and Booing through a Minute's silence wins you, then I'm in... I can hiss AND Boo... but I wouldn't dream of doing something so low, 'cos I'm not a total racist scum ****, and would expect the full force of revenge and Karma to come crashing back down on us if anyone connected to Spurs actually DID behave that way!

...Or is THIS our payback for all the Sol Campbell chants???

 

[AdamB]

this.

can remember countless times earlier on this season and even parts of last where we would come back in games and people kept talking about how much grit we had (with the very same players mind). now it seems we're a team full of weenies...
granted we haven't been at our tip-top, but truth is we've been quite unlucky in this poor spell with shots hitting posts, offsides calls, defoes leg not being long enough, etc, etc.

could easily've been 4-5 wins in the last 9 as opposed to just 1.

In my mind a lot of the explanation of the bolded part is due to the team being fresh earlier in the season and now a bunch of players (Walker, Modric, Parker and BAE inparticular) look absolutely knackered. Those 4 have played a huge number of games this year without being rotated much and also had international commitments. Harry has had plenty of opportnity to play Rose in place of Benny, Sandro for Parker, Charlie (before being loaned out - a loan which Harry should have prevented) in place of Walker and, at a push, either Sandro or Krancjar for Modric (given Thudd's injury). How rather than rotate the squad, Harry has even played Modric in the Europa, Benny is pretty much every game bar the Europa away games and similar with Walker.

Other parts of the team such as CB and CF have been rotated or have had to change due to injuries however we have 4 of our outfielders looking like the living dead

 

[The Moonlit Knight]

But if we were overachieving before then we are certainly massively underachieving in recent weeks.

Definitely. Most teams will go through this in the course of a season, sometimes the blip (good form) lasts longer than others.

What Spurs need now is to win the last four and reverse the blip.

 

[The Moonlit Knight]

this.

can remember countless times earlier on this season and even parts of last where we would come back in games and people kept talking about how much grit we had (with the very same players mind). now it seems we're a team full of weenies...

granted we haven't been at our tip-top, but truth is we've been quite unlucky in this poor spell with shots hitting posts, offsides calls, defoes leg not being long enough, etc, etc.

could easily've been 4-5 wins in the last 9 as opposed to just 1.

It frustrates me that people can't see how fine the margins can be. If 4th is a success this year, then 5th can't be a total failure for example. It just doesn't compute.

But those fine margins can totally distort perception as people focus on the end result, rather than the performance. Take Chelsea vs Barca as a prime example. Chelsea's performance over the two legs is being hailed as one of their greatest ever. Barca score the four goals that hit the bar/post? And people are saying they rolled over.....despite giving EXACTLY the same performance as this great performance.

 

[yiddo2786]

this.

can remember countless times earlier on this season and even parts of last where we would come back in games and people kept talking about how much grit we had (with the very same players mind). now it seems we're a team full of weenies...

granted we haven't been at our tip-top, but truth is we've been quite unlucky in this poor spell with shots hitting posts, offsides calls, defoes leg not being long enough, etc, etc.

could easily've been 4-5 wins in the last 9 as opposed to just 1.

The players are, mostly, excellent. The problem lies with the attitude of the manager.

 

[indianspur]

It frustrates me that people can't see how fine the margins can be. If 4th is a success this year, then 5th can't be a total failure for example. It just doesn't compute.

in terms of position no, finishing 5th is a sign of a good season, a very good season. The problem of course is this damn Champions League, this is what has distorted football and expectations. Fans are just scared, the heated responses comes from fear, that if we finsih outside the top 4 it will mean that the likes of Modric and Bale will want to leave and Spurs will be back to square one of having to rebuild again.

money has most definitely ruined football

 

[Jurgen the German]

What strikes me about Arsenal is how much their players genuinely seem to love the club. OK a lot of them have moved on to other clubs, but even when Fabregas left, you could see how much he respect and admiration he had for Wenger and the club. It's probably because they have so much respect for what Wenger has done to help them in their careers.

How many of our players would say feel the same about Tottenham? King, Dawson, VDV? Defoe?

 

[1882]

What strikes me about Arsenal is how much their players genuinely seem to love the club. OK a lot of them have moved on to other clubs, but even when Fabregas left, you could see how much he respect and admiration he had for Wenger and the club. It's probably because they have so much respect for what Wenger has done to help them in their careers.

How many of our players would say feel the same about Tottenham? King, Dawson, VDV? Defoe?

I think the bitching anti-Spurs articles from the likes of Bentley, Dos Santos, Jenas, Gomes... HARRY once they leave will far outweigh any positives from ex-players...

I always thought it was 'cos Wenger promised not to touch their kids that all the ex-Gooners spouted such fudging sickening love-in gonads about ArseAnal... "Zey are in my heart... I vill alvays love zem" how else can one club have SUCH an influence on its' players unles it's manager has some kind of CULT leader hold over them?

All OUR players seem ready to dish the dirt the moment they leave the club... why the fudge is that do you think?

 

[The Moonlit Knight]

I think the bitching anti-Spurs articles from the likes of Bentley, Dos Santos, Jenas, Gomes... HARRY once they leave will far outweigh any positives from ex-players...

I always thought it was 'cos Wenger promised not to touch their kids that all the ex-Gooners spouted such fudging sickening love-in gonads about ArseAnal... "Zey are in my heart... I vill alvays love zem" how else can one club have SUCH an influence on its' players unles it's manager has some kind of CULT leader hold over them?

All OUR players seem ready to dish the dirt the moment they leave the club... why the fudge is that do you think?

Standard behaviour to be honest. Happens at practically every club. When the Manager is fired it's usually down to poor performance and results. During that period relationships will get strained and people will pull the blame game. The Manager is likely to vent his frustrations more on the players, thus upsetting egos. It's the same when a Manager doesn't play a player, the player takes it personally.

Fergie's motivation and man management skills are without question. But look at how many players, especially high profile ones, have slagged him off once they've left the club for example.