The Moonlit Knight
Banned
Do you have any controversial views regarding Spurs, players past and present, managerial staff etc, that you feel totally fly in the face of the opinion of the vast majority of your Spurs brethren?
I have two significant ones and one not so controversial (but at the time I certainly felt I was against the tide!).
1) Gazza. I can't stand him. Great player no doubt, but I just don't get the hero worship or sympathy he gets from the football world in general, let alone Spurs fans. Genuine (or self inflicted) mental problems or not I always thought he was a clown, but he was never harmless. The two tackles in the FA Cup Final were a disgrace in that era, let alone compared to now. Had Vinnie Jones (or if you think now someone like Joey Barton) commited those tackles people would have been calling for half a season ban. But because it was good old hyped up Gazza he didn't even get booked, despite clearly going into those tackles with the intention of hurting his opponent. It's ironic that the nasty tackle on Charles actually ended up ruining his own career.
Then during his injury rehab he goes out and gets smashed (regularly) in a club, falls down and does his cruciate again just as he was on the road to recovery. The net result is costing Spurs millions just when we needed it most. During this era he also headbutts a stranger in a club after an altercation. The amount of times I heard people automatically jumping to Gazza's defence on that one, claiming he was "probably" provoked. I don't know if he was, or wasn't but this is a story I do know. The family of an old mate of mine run a fish n' chip shop and Gazza was at a health farm not far away (so naturally on a health retreat goes and gets fish and chips!). The queue is long, so Gazza decides he is too important to queue and barges to the front joking that because he is Gazza he needs to go first. When other people in the queue complain he gets abusive towards them. Nice.
Add to that he beat the brick out of his missus and thought that throwing eggs at complete strangers as he is driving past them in his car (read his autobiography for details on that hilarious event) and I don't care what other people say. He clearly wasn't just some unfortunate cheeky chappy with mental problems. He is a complete dingdong at best, and a nasty piece of work at worst.
2) Klinsmann. The complete mercenary and yet hero worshipped by so many. He has only ever had his own interests at heart. Which would be fine if he didn't give it the big one about how much he loved Spurs etc. He fudged us over at the end of 1995 by walking away (which prompted Popescu and Barmby to jack it in too, I often wonder how much better the 90's may have been at Klinsmann not done that). Let us not forget that before signing him his career had gone south and he flopped significantly in Italy and was in the doldrums playing football in France. He came to us and the hype surrounding the new Premier League re-sparked his ailing career and his reward is to walk away.
Of course at the time it was because he was fulfilling a dream by joining FC Bayern. He then fell out with them and ended up at Sampdoria where lack of playing time was making it look certain he was going to miss out on WC98. So in come Spurs, and he joins again claiming he is coming home etc etc BS BS. He talks about commiting to Spurs for two or three seasons but once the season is over and he gets his WC call up he has a change of heart citing that he doesn't get on with Gross (and apparently was a big instigator in a player revolt against him) and then retires and fudges off to America. Which was probably his plan before he joined us.
For me Klinsmann was a great player, but I'll never regard him as a Spurs legend because I don't think he gave a brick about the club. And when Francis took over in October 2004 IMO Teddy outshone him for the rest of the season anyway.
3) Robbie Keane. Not so controversial this one because over the years I have spoken to more than a few Spurs fans who felt the same but I just didn't rate the guy. His debut season of 2002/03 he looked good, with the exception his finishing was generally appalling. The amount of one on ones he missed that year was criminal. He always looked so much better playing off the shoulder of the last man IMO, but he has these illusions he could be a "number 10" style player. I thought he was really poor at it. I always felt Keane was one of those players that when he had the right partner they'd make him look so much better than he is, probably because the defenders are more worried about his partner and give him more room to play in. When Liverpool signed him (especially for the money they did) I pretty much laughed until I cried and was delighted he'd finally gone. I pretty much knew he'd flop. What I didn't count on is that we'd buy him back #-o
Any of you have any?
I have two significant ones and one not so controversial (but at the time I certainly felt I was against the tide!).
1) Gazza. I can't stand him. Great player no doubt, but I just don't get the hero worship or sympathy he gets from the football world in general, let alone Spurs fans. Genuine (or self inflicted) mental problems or not I always thought he was a clown, but he was never harmless. The two tackles in the FA Cup Final were a disgrace in that era, let alone compared to now. Had Vinnie Jones (or if you think now someone like Joey Barton) commited those tackles people would have been calling for half a season ban. But because it was good old hyped up Gazza he didn't even get booked, despite clearly going into those tackles with the intention of hurting his opponent. It's ironic that the nasty tackle on Charles actually ended up ruining his own career.
Then during his injury rehab he goes out and gets smashed (regularly) in a club, falls down and does his cruciate again just as he was on the road to recovery. The net result is costing Spurs millions just when we needed it most. During this era he also headbutts a stranger in a club after an altercation. The amount of times I heard people automatically jumping to Gazza's defence on that one, claiming he was "probably" provoked. I don't know if he was, or wasn't but this is a story I do know. The family of an old mate of mine run a fish n' chip shop and Gazza was at a health farm not far away (so naturally on a health retreat goes and gets fish and chips!). The queue is long, so Gazza decides he is too important to queue and barges to the front joking that because he is Gazza he needs to go first. When other people in the queue complain he gets abusive towards them. Nice.
Add to that he beat the brick out of his missus and thought that throwing eggs at complete strangers as he is driving past them in his car (read his autobiography for details on that hilarious event) and I don't care what other people say. He clearly wasn't just some unfortunate cheeky chappy with mental problems. He is a complete dingdong at best, and a nasty piece of work at worst.
2) Klinsmann. The complete mercenary and yet hero worshipped by so many. He has only ever had his own interests at heart. Which would be fine if he didn't give it the big one about how much he loved Spurs etc. He fudged us over at the end of 1995 by walking away (which prompted Popescu and Barmby to jack it in too, I often wonder how much better the 90's may have been at Klinsmann not done that). Let us not forget that before signing him his career had gone south and he flopped significantly in Italy and was in the doldrums playing football in France. He came to us and the hype surrounding the new Premier League re-sparked his ailing career and his reward is to walk away.
Of course at the time it was because he was fulfilling a dream by joining FC Bayern. He then fell out with them and ended up at Sampdoria where lack of playing time was making it look certain he was going to miss out on WC98. So in come Spurs, and he joins again claiming he is coming home etc etc BS BS. He talks about commiting to Spurs for two or three seasons but once the season is over and he gets his WC call up he has a change of heart citing that he doesn't get on with Gross (and apparently was a big instigator in a player revolt against him) and then retires and fudges off to America. Which was probably his plan before he joined us.
For me Klinsmann was a great player, but I'll never regard him as a Spurs legend because I don't think he gave a brick about the club. And when Francis took over in October 2004 IMO Teddy outshone him for the rest of the season anyway.
3) Robbie Keane. Not so controversial this one because over the years I have spoken to more than a few Spurs fans who felt the same but I just didn't rate the guy. His debut season of 2002/03 he looked good, with the exception his finishing was generally appalling. The amount of one on ones he missed that year was criminal. He always looked so much better playing off the shoulder of the last man IMO, but he has these illusions he could be a "number 10" style player. I thought he was really poor at it. I always felt Keane was one of those players that when he had the right partner they'd make him look so much better than he is, probably because the defenders are more worried about his partner and give him more room to play in. When Liverpool signed him (especially for the money they did) I pretty much laughed until I cried and was delighted he'd finally gone. I pretty much knew he'd flop. What I didn't count on is that we'd buy him back #-o
Any of you have any?
