An Echo of Glory

I could preach to you about backing the team (again). I could tell you that the only way to succeed is if we believe we can as fans. I could tell you that the people that slag off players are twats etc. etc.

Truth is, it's not worth it.

You see, we will always have yids that like to abuse certain players. A lot of the time, they are just scapegoating them to ease their frustration. But most of the time, they are just being cunts.

Last night, I think I may have experienced every emotion a fan can have. Joy. Elation. Hope. Shock. Frustration. Dispair. But as ever, it all ends the same way: sadness.

Basel away, lads. Who would've thought it would turn out this way? 

He felt it more than any of us

Whatever I think, it's the players, though, that are much more important than anything we say.

They didn't just put in 100%. They put in that and more, more than any fan expected of them. The manager too. AVB wanted it more than anyone did; he believed in this competition. Just the image of him praising the players for their efforts with a tear in his eye brings tears to mine. Sad? Pathetic? Perhaps, but that's football.

Basel won't go on to win it, as much as I want them to for their equally impressive performance. It'll be the only club left who couldn't give a fuck what happened. A club that cares more about league positions than silverware. A club that- oh you know the rest. 

It makes me think though. The passion shown by players that many fans have discarded, deemed unfit and unworthy. Walker, Hudllestone, Sigurdsson, Dempsey! The promise of Carroll and Holtby. The leadership of Dawson, our rock in the team. It gives me hope. 

After Dempsey's equalizer, we all though we could do it.

Hope for what? Champions League? Yeah sure, why not? It is, as of recently, our main objective. But, guys, remember our ultimate objective, one that has been engraved into our history:

'The game is about glory. It is about doing things in style and with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.'

I don't like defeat. Defeat shows weakness, an inability to compete with a greater opponent. On that basis though, I don't think we were defeated, merely lost the tie. We were strong and firm when we easily could've rolled over and conceded. We caused them problems, creating just as many chances as they did for 120 minutes. 

Nevertheless, we're out. Gone till next year. The positive is, we were not outclassed.

Last 6 games. The final hurdle. City will be tough. The other games with be just as difficult  Whatever happens, promise me this guys:

Be proud of our players.

To finish this post off nicely, some words from the great Bill Nicholson, without whom, Tottenham Hotspur wouldn't be.

'It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low. And we of Spurs have set our sights very high, so high in fact that even failure will have in it an echo of glory.' 

It all ends in tears. But aren't you proud of them?