I didn't say I had any right to have my opinions admired or feted, if I put out an opinion and its disagreed with, I will support it until I am left with it, or forced to change it.
You put out a synopsis of the match that was a misrepresentation of the way the game went, and you criticised players for doing things that they didn't do.
YOU - not me, you did it, and I for one (I know I'm not alone) are tinkled off with people - who say they are supporters of the team, continually dragging it down, and slagging the players off, as if they didn't reach your lofty standards. I have no qualifications to recognise talent, or be able to analyse what happened in a game, other than 40 years of watching football played at the highest level, during which time I have witnessed the sublime and the ridiculous.
What I don't do is make up erroneous faults or errors about players, and try to pass them off as accurate analysis
Neither do I continually carp about the club, the manager the board or go on fanboy rampages or hate campaigns about the people who pull the shirt on, and go out to entertain me, and represent the club I love.
But you and your dopey brother in arms seem to think that you have the GHod given right to do so, without censure or approbation - well sorry, it doesn't work like that. If you post crap, expect to get some thrown back at you. You are the ones who are reacting poorly - and now you whine that you are getting no respect
Its because you have done nothing, or said nothing to deserve it.
Why not start a board where everyone ONLY bitches and whines, when they are not served Barcelona/Brazil style football every game? Then you and your ilk can wallow around in a sea of self satisfied bile and vitriolic moaning, and leave those of us who love the club and the team to get on with supporting the club - and showing the team and its players respect that they have actually earned - without being sniped at by some no mark turkey who has nothing better to do than pass on bricky comments about players who they are not fit to clean the boots of.
I seriously don't know what your problem is.
You seem like an educated man with good grasp of language, but at the same time you act like (but not saying you are) an Internet troll and a schoolyard bully, picking on members with few posts or who are "universally" regarded open targets and posting solely for reactions. Then you ally with a selected few, to gain some sort of misguided reputation. If that gives you a kick, well carry on for all I care, but refrain from giving me characteristics I don't have. ( < see what you made me do there)
Firstly, I didn't whine or call for your or anybody's respect, I simply replied to your demand of "showing respect to the board" by only posting what you consider worthy posts. I have never had any "lofty standards", even if I think everything has to be seen in relation to the level our players play at. I expect more from Emmanuel Adebayor, a seasoned professional on 225k/w than Johnny Johnson in the Conference. If we shouldn't, why not just buy said Johnny Johnson who would happily play for a fraction? Anybody can have a good or an off day, but I don't regard say Pavlyuchenko a 8+ if he scores on an assist provided from the hard work of teammates, if he doesn't put in a shift for the remainder of the game. That one exception in "lofty standards" is about effort, which anybody can put in regardless of skillset or experience.
To put me as some sort of leader of "hate campaigns" is so ridiculous that I'll just leave it at that. And yes, me and my "dopey brothers-in-arms" have a GHod-given (or more like government and gg-board-owner given) right to post an opinion on a football forum when behaving politely towards others, even if someone would happily see us denied that right. When you resort to making things up to berate me, I'll take it as a sign of someone drying up for arguments, trying to save face with rethorics.
I have neither critizised the sitting board nor the club in my puny 1000+ posts over 10 years, other than agreeing to questions about our strange stockpiling of players we don't need while leaving obvious holes unattended (the left winger debacle comes to mind). I am not in any way alone to do so, even by people with credentials far higher than mine. I have also wondered what the hell they were going on in our physioroom in the 90's, or what incredibly beautiful women who obviously had to work there. Ok, I also laughed a little at Glenn Hoddle scratching himself senseless, but I still would like him at our club in some position, even if I and everybody's grandmother understood why he had to go. I'm getting sentimental on my older days it seems. I have also at times questioned Harry's tactial astuteness, as has Claus Lundekvam and Rafael Van der Vaart, but I have several times pointed out that his obvious man-management skill more than weighs up for it, and maybe even is the way forward in modern football.
But as said, I don't have any credentials either, other than supporting Spurs for over 30 years. I'll happily admit that if Spurs didn't exist, I'd probably wouldn't follow football at all. I hate Norwegian football (other than lower divisions), and I despise the direction modern football has taken lately. The one thing I like though, is the opportunity to read this board (and SC) and see if my ilk have made the same (totally wrongful of course) observations that I have on the club that I love too. And let's not forget, sometimes also post some drivel, drag the club and board through the mud, asking why we are not Barcelona and starting a few hate campaigns here and there.
The way I see it, football itself is comfortably simple. 22 men battle for 90 minutes plus to put a pig's bladder in a fishnet the most times. And then there are some rules, which in most cases are prone to misjudgment by the officiating force depending on who's playing who. Absolutely everything else is about personal perception, feelings, preference and opinions. I'm astounded at the fact that a clever man like you look like you can't grasp that concept. How fun would it be to only discuss clear set facts? Poster 1: we won 1-0. Poster 2: Yes we did since the others didn't score. Poster 3: We love our club. Poster 4: ^ This. Repeat ad nauseaum. Joke of course, albeit a poor one, I know. And who is to say what is facts? While most of us would have Skrtel double red-carded for his lunge at Bale, most Liverpool fans probably saw nothing wrong with it, and the ref saw something in between. Don't they love their club or share their passion as much as we do, or are they just inferior beings to you (That is probably best left unanswered)? Some prefer a forward who bangs in 20 goals and do very little else, while others like a forward who scores 10 goals, have 10 assists and contributes much more providing entertainment. Some like Rangers while others like Celtic, and even if not very compatible, there isn't much wrong in either.
The reception of opinions on here has gotten very poster-dependant, it looks like it matter more who forwards an opinion than the actual content of it. One member can get slaughtered for voicing something which is lauded when repeated by someone else a few pages later. But that's fine with me, it's an open forum after all.
And why not follow your own advice and start a board where everybody agrees with you? Then you can kick your own members out for disagreeing with you and wallowing in self-satisfied bile. And while I'm still in physical shape to do so, I'm unfortunately too old to clean football players' boots, or to even consider it an honour.
Yours truly,
Mark Turkey