My Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Dream

When my Tottenham Hotspur Season Ticket renewal e-mail arrived last May I felt that same curious twist of depression and guilt that has increasingly come to associate with the approach of every home match over the last couple of seasons. I have been a fervent Spurs fan since the age of four, so why had I come to feel so conflicted about attending home matches?

Until Bilbao, last season was challenging for a Tottenham fan, but I am well used to the regular off and on field dramas and controversies by now. And it was not about the fact that the team had briefly flirted with a relegation battle as I would not hesitate to follow my team into the lower divisions if it ever came to that.

There is no doubt some of the highest season ticket prices in Europe sting, but I have found the money before and I would do again.

The real reason was that I was just not sure that I could sit for another season in the flat, lifeless atmosphere of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

It absolutely breaks my heart to say it, but it is my belief that the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is now amongst the worst home atmospheres in the country. I know for many this will not be easy to hear, but the only way to achieve change is through a brutally honest assessment of where we are now.

However it is also my firm belief that the only ingredient needed to dramatically improve the atmosphere is a loyal, dedicated and passionate fanbase. And the scenes at the UEFA Cup trophy parade demonstrated to me that we have the potential to make the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium one of the best atmosphere’s in Britain, if not the world.

But first it is important to try and analyse how we got here.

It is not just the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

I first got my Tottenham season ticket about 20 years ago.

I specifically chose tickets low in the South Stand of White Hart Lane, partly because they were the cheapest, but more importantly because I wanted to be at the epicentre of the atmosphere in order to support my team as rowdily and energetically as possible.

In the 20 years that followed, at its very best, like so many of the old traditional grounds, White Hart Lane absolutely rocked with noise.

But my experience was that, whether it be the swashbuckling excitement of the marauding Harry Redknapp era, or when potentially pushing for a title with Poch, the atmospheres at White Hart Lane would too often just fizzle out, with even the Park Lane and Shelf Stand falling into extended periods of near silence.

How I came to dread the inevitable chants of ‘This is a library!’ and ‘Your support is F-ing sh*t!’ from the gleeful hordes packed into the away end.

Even worse, in the absence of consistent support, and often at the first signs of trouble, the nervous energy of the crowd would begin to fill the silence with negativity, criticism, and anger, often at our own players or team.

I wondered whether this was simply my silly romantic ideal of what it was like to follow a football team, colliding with the reality?

But one thing kept me believing that things could be different.

Pretty much every European away game, I would watch the atmosphere’s generated in stadium after stadium across continental and Eastern Europe with a mixture of envy and awe, as fans seemed to revel in creating a carnival of noise in support of their team.

The atmospheres often seemed to almost burst through the television screen, and I just loved witnessing the incessant noise, the flags, the flares (and that is to say nothing of my personal favourite, the spectacle of fan bases engaging in mass co-ordinated movement, even as simple as bouncing up and down together). It looked impressive enough when I saw away ends do it at Tottenham European home games (as a few thousand of away fans routinely out sang our whole stadium), let alone a whole stand doing the same in a European home stadium.

I was baffled.

Were Tottenham fans just less passionate about their team than the fans of Inter Milan, Athletico Madrid or Ajax? I just knew that was not true.

So why was there such a marked difference between the atmosphere I experienced at Spurs and those I saw on the continent?

An English problem

One thing that was clear was that this was not purely a Tottenham specific issue, but rather a problem affecting, to varying degrees, pretty much all top-flight English stadia.

As I tried to grapple with the reasons why, I wondered whether there were elements of the English character or English fan culture that simply lent itself to a different style of support.

But I did identify two factors that I felt potentially contributed to any ‘atmosphere gap’ between English and continental stadiums.

The first is that modern English atmospheres have been affected by what many would see as the understandable measures taken in response to the hooliganism of the 70s and 80s, and the Hillsborough tragedy of 1989, most notably all-seater stadiums.

But there was one factor that it seemed to me had potentially had a bigger influence than any other.

The Premier League

It would be difficult to argue that the Premier League has not in many ways been a phenomenal success, bringing many benefits for English fans. The Premiership is now considered by many to be the most entertaining and exciting league in the world and that prestige, as well as the enormous wealth it has generated, has now made it the chosen destination for some of the world’s most exciting football talent.

However, many would argue that at top tier level, this success has in many ways been achieved at the detriment of the very soul of the English game.

Despite the warm words of owners and chairmen in match programmes, the growing commercialisation of the Premier League left fans feeling increasingly alienated from their clubs and the sport they love (I would suggest Tottenham are a prime example of this). At the same time the lucrative market in Premier League tickets led to chairmen and owners enforcing measures like compulsory seating policies, that prioritised viewing experience, further sucking the oxygen out of Premiership stadium atmospheres.

At the same time, as prices rose exponentially, supporters began to feel more and more exploited replacing passion and belonging with resentment and cynicism. It seems to me this led to fan behaviour also beginning to change, with increasingly alienated fans beginning to behave more like customers, expecting immediate success for the larger amount of money they were paying, and getting increasingly hostile, increasingly quickly, when it was not delivered.

Is there really a problem?

Maybe I am alone in my frustration. Maybe the vast majority of Tottenham Season Ticket Holders and fans more generally are pretty happy with the status quo.

But I just desperately think as football fans in the Premier League in England, and specifically at Tottenham, we need to reconnect to something basic and fundamental about following our team.

There are three main reasons why I would dearly love to see an improvement in the atmosphere on home match days:

1)  Pride in being a Tottenham Hotspur fan:

When I go to a game, of course first and foremost I want the team to win.

But for me it is much more than that.

Football is a deeply tribal support and every single time I go to watch my team play, I want it be an opportunity to show my passion and love for my team- my football club- my tribe.

I know that we Spurs fans feel exactly the same pride in the history and the traditions of Tottenham Hotspur as any team on the continent, but in Europe there just seems to be a culture of actively demonstrating this pride. Whereas the support at Tottenham at the moment is just too passive- and there really is no other way of describing sitting in silence for lengthy periods other than passive.

The celebration of Tottenham as a club at home matches should be regardless of anything that is happening off the pitch. This is nothing to do with for example whoever the current owner or chairman may be. For those 90 minutes, it is not their club. It is our club- the fan’s club.

But many will say, ‘Well the support is directly correlated to the performance of the team- you can hardly expect fans to sustain an atmosphere if the team are playing terribly or losing?’

And for me this is a crucial point.

Because for me, the celebration of Tottenham as a club, and in our membership of that fan base at home matches should also be pretty much regardless of anything that is happening on the pitch as well.

Firstly, despite the disappointment of even the worst of circumstances, do I feel the same pride in being a Tottenham fan? Yes.

Secondly, I am sure all fans will agree how dreadful it is watching the team go one, two, or even three nil down at home. For me the only thing that makes this abject misery worse is having to soak up the jubilation and abuse from the opposing fanbase, especially when playing a fierce rival.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

For me, these are exactly the times where I want to even more defiantly demonstrate my support for my club. Why can’t Tottenham be the fanbase, that, even when we go 1-0, or 2-0 down at home, will not be cowered into silence, and if anything, actively increase the intensity of our support. The only thing that I can imagine making losing, even to a bitter rival, at least that little bit more bearable is seeing opposition fans disappointment as our support maintains its level to the insistent beat of our drummers, drowning out their attempt to gloat and celebrate.

And if the team are playing badly, or suffering the adversity of going one or two or even three goals down, what is more likely to rouse the team for a fightback? The stadium falling into angry silence or the crowd remaining behind the team no matter what?

And this brings me on to my second point:

2) I want Tottenham to win:

A fantastic home support really can- and should- be a 12^th man on the pitch.

Cliches are cliches for a reason.

A crowd can be an almost magical life force that inspires a team to the belief and energy necessary to defeat even the most formidable opponent, to rescue even the most hopeless of causes.

And the harsh truth for me, is that the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has often felt like the exact opposite.

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that the players feel incredibly motivated seeing a magnificent stadium full of 50,000 odd fans every home game, all who love the club they play for, and knowing that those fans have often sacrificed a lot, financially and otherwise, to be there to support them.

But beyond that, after an initial 5-minute burst of noise, they simply cannot be inspired by virtual silence punctuated by the odd chant.

If every Tottenham fan passionately wants our team to win trophies, how can we justify not more actively supporting our team from minute one to ninety?

In the league, each home game, whether against a top six side or a team struggling against relegation, is the chance to achieve 3 points- the only way to win the league or qualify for the Champions League- and in the cup victory is the only way to progress to the next round- the only way to get to a cup final. Can we as Spurs fans, hand on heart, say that we are doing everything we can to help support the team do that with the atmosphere we are creating currently?

More positivity

I think one thing that will improve the atmosphere is trying to find a greater positivity amongst the fanbase. At the moment, to me we often feel like a disjointed and divided fanbase that has increasingly allowed our passion to be primarily funnelled into anger and negativity.

An example of the negativity that has crept in, is how we treat our own team, and our own players.

Yes, modern players are on multi-million-pound wages, but it is certainly not their fault- they are just young men who happen to be good at football. It is one thing if a player’s attitude is poor, but in all my years supporting Spurs I have rarely- if ever in fact- seen a player whose attitude stunk to the point that they just did not care.

There certainly will be players who don’t have the ability, or maybe the temperament, to play for Tottenham Hotspur, but in that case, it is the chairman and the managers responsibility to move them on, and if they don’t, it is to them that the anger should be directed.

As fans we have to take responsibility for what sort of fanbase we want to be. When a player joins Tottenham, they are joining the Tottenham family, and a massive part of that is us, the fans. I would want to be a member of the sort of family that looks after and supports their own, rather than one who at the first sign of trouble, for a short term release of tension, or to gather social media clicks, turn on their own and mercilessly denigrates or abuses them?

But there will be those who think  all of this talk of family is soft nonsense, that players are paid millions and if they do not perform they deserve any criticism- and even abuse- that they get.

But I first and foremost want Tottenham to win, and just with that objective in mind I just can't see how that approach can be anything other than counter-productive.

Whilst a player plays for Tottenham they are one of our own, and if the manager has decided that they are the players selected to represent the team, then I want that player to feel as tall, as confident, as supported as they can be.

Players are above all else human beings. And human beings- especially young players or new signings as they settle in/get used to the league- will go through ups and downs, struggle with confidence and have dips in form.

During tough times, if we as a fanbase can help drag that player out of their slump and help them back to being the best player they can be, that will only benefit the players and the team and therefore the club of Tottenham Hotspur. And crucially I believe the support given will also inspire a gratitude in the player, and an even greater affinity for, and loyalty to, both the club and the fans, helping to forge that togetherness that I believe is a crucial foundation of success.

As a fan, I love the stories of glories past at Tottenham, and they don’t come much more glorious than the home 1984 UEFA Cup Final win. One of the incidents that has become integral to that folklore is the Danny Thomas missed penalty in the shoot-out. The stakes could not have been much higher, with the miss leaving us staring at defeat in a European cup final. And yet, the Spurs fans serenaded a clearly devastated Thomas back to the halfway line with chants of ‘There’s only one Danny Thomas!’.

The Europa League triumph last season felt at times partly due to the feeling of togetherness that Ange Postecoglou fostered amongst the squad. But, in contrast to that night in 1984, at times, it felt that the world that he made his Tottenham team feel they were fighting against included the fans. Admittedly our league form last season, was the toughest of circumstances for fans to stick with a team in, and at times I don’t think Ange, and sometimes even maybe the team always helped in that respect.

But surely what everyone can agree is that the togetherness between fans, the manager, and the team after we had won the trophy, was nothing short of joyous to feel and behold. Football will always come with disappointments, but they are made so much more bearable by sticking together in the tough times, helping make the good times taste all the sweeter.

As Cuti Romero, our world cup winner, says on his social media after every win, but importantly also after every loss- 

‘Always together until the end.’

 

3) Bring the fun back to supporting Tottenham

I have a German friend, who I sometimes bring to games. As an avid football fan, she really enjoys the experience, but as we sat for long periods of silence in White Hart Lane, she would lament the absence of ‘fun’, recounting her memories of the energy and excitement generated by the crowd when attending Borussia Monchengladbach matches with her dad as a young girl.

One of the matches I took her to was against West Ham. We were 2-1 down in the 88^th minute and the atmosphere was abysmal.

Then Harry Kane scored in the 89^th and 91^st minute to make it 3-2, and all hell broke loose. As we laughed and hugged and sang with the fans around us, she looked to me and said with a huge grin on her face ‘There is the fun!’.

Tottenham fans are currently paying some of the most expensive ticket prices in European football and what is following a football team about if not to enjoy it?  

I love seeing the friends I have made, but apart from that it has got to the point whereby I have grown to actively resent much about the match day experience. I hate sitting in silence (often even when winning), I hate squirming when we are being taunted about the atmosphere by opposition fans, I hate players waving their arms trying to gee up the crowd, I hate that often the only thing I can hear from the home fans are those supporters who think the best way to demonstrate how much they love their club is by yelling utterly demented abuse as loudly and often as they can.

Many Spurs fans would say that enjoying supporting a football team and Tottenham Hotspur is a contradiction in terms (humour has always been an essential part of the Spurs fans survival kit).

But it really needn’t be that way.

The happiest I ever see the fans is the absolute din created on the concourse after a win, as they sing together with thousands of complete strangers.

But why on earth should it be only then?

Of course, the experience will be all the sweeter when we win (which I believe will happen more often if the support markedly improves), but surely the the more general experience will be dramatically improved if we create that togetherness, that camaraderie, that noise, energy, excitement during the game regardless of result. The Tottenham fans all together.

I can almost guarantee that the matchday experience will be much more enjoyable, if we can create a home atmosphere that becomes more synonymous with pride, energy, passion, and unity.

And a home support that becomes synonymous with noise.

Lots and lots of noise.

Let’s try and create that much more consistently at our home ground.

Everyone together for one cause- our club, Tottenham Hotspur.

Enough of the excuses

If we are going to truly take ownership of our support as a fanbase it means refusing to find excuses and scapegoats for our poor atmosphere whilst other clubs under the same, or often even more challenging conditions do much better.

For example, even if there are a few thousand fans that have come from abroad, and even if many have come primarily to support one player in particular (who deserves, in my opinion, to be remembered as a legend of the club), that still leaves at least 40,000 plus fans who would consider themselves ‘proper’ Spurs fans.

Those fans visiting from abroad should first and foremost be made to feel welcome at our club, and then should leave having been blown away by the incredible, world class atmosphere that our fans have created rather than being scapegoated for the flat atmosphere they have in fact experienced.

 

It is possible in England

In England there have always been those, like the Pompey fans, that have stood out for their support.

As Thierry Henry said after Arsenal had won in the FA Cup 5-1, "Portsmouth is a remarkable place. I know of no other club where, despite 5-1 down in our FA Cup sixth round match two years ago, the home fans would have been supporting their team so vocally.".

In today’s Premiership, the Crystal Palace fans stand out for me as a fan base that have mounted a concerted effort to improve their atmosphere, as exemplified by their phenomenal support at Wembley for both the FA Cup semi-final and final last season.

Many fanbases in Scotland also create great atmospheres, and the Old Firm games when in full swing, I think have an atmosphere to genuinely rival any in the world.

And it seems to me that many home crowds like Newcastle, Villa, Forest, and Wolves have also identified the problem and begun to improve, with inconsistent success also being achieved at big hitters like Man United and Liverpool.

And it genuinely pains me to say it that even Arsenal have organised and improved over the last two seasons.

I fear that if Tottenham fans don’t do something urgently, we are at real risk of getting left behind.

Can it be done at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium?

There are those who are struggling to feel at home as we acclimatise to our new stadium. Others just see it as an anonymous, personality-free surrender to the multi-purpose business model of our current ownership or chairman, rather than a fitting spiritual home of our football club.

But for me, as drenched in our culture, memories and history as White Hart Lane undoubtedly was, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that we had to move on to stay competitive as a football club in the modern era.

And, whatever you think of Daniel Levy or ENIC, the truth is that in many ways they have delivered an absolutely magnificent stadium. And for ninety minutes every other week it is ours- it is our home. And for those ninety minutes, in that almost gladiatorial arena, we have the chance to write our own new glorious chapter in the story of our club and our fanbase.

It will never happen at Tottenham.

There are plenty who will sneer about us as a fanbase and just say that none of this possible at Tottenham.

To that I simply say: Thursday 12^th May 2022

There have been other atmospheres that have shown the promise of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but nothing compares to the North London derby that warm early summer’s evening.

In November Antonio Conte had arrived and breathed new life into a seemingly doomed season after the brief and ill-fated tenure of Nuno. As the re-arranged North London derby approached, there was suddenly the previously unthinkable prospect of beating Arsenal to fourth position, and a place in the following seasons Champions League.

It wasn’t just because it was a North London Derby- I have seen North London Derby atmospheres fall completely flat extremely quickly.

There was just something magical in the air that night.

I certainly have never experienced an atmosphere quite like it.

As Gary Neville said afterwards:

‘That atmosphere, I have not seen in a stadium this country, this season. And I think this has been one of the highest standard (of atmosphere) Premier Leagues that I have seen, if not the highest, (so) that is a pretty high compliment.’

The noise emanated from all corners of the ground, and perhaps most importantly, it had been sustained- it had been unrelenting- that night Tottenham and their fans just would not be denied, and as Neville again noted, Arsenal were simply bullied into submission.

Spurs ran out 3-0 winners and after the game, Conte, the subject of a ‘will he, won’t he stay’ saga ever since arriving, could not help but believe he belonged at Tottenham, emphatically commenting he was:

‘100% and more’ committed to Tottenham Hotspur before stating:

‘I have to say thank you to our fans, because the atmosphere they created was amazing… with this atmosphere, my players are ready to give not only 120% but 200%.’

Had a corner finally been turned that night?

The next game was a less glamorous tie against Burnley and a 12.00 Sunday kick off, a time notorious for encouraging poor atmospheres. But the stakes were high, as after the North London Derby victory we were now within a point of Arsenal with two to play.

Before the game Conte, once again urged the fans to keep up the momentum, saying:

‘On Sunday, we have to win. I ask our fans to recreate (the derby) atmosphere. The fans scored one goal… It will be important on Sunday to stay together and create again this atmosphere.’

In the event the atmosphere was ok- certainly better than I had often experienced at many 12.00 Sunday kick offs.

But, in a drab encounter, the intensity of the support had reasonably quickly ebbed from the game.

As the end of the game approached, and with Tottenham 1-0 up, the crowd had all but fallen into silence. A clearly frustrated Conte emerged from the dugout, angrily waving his arms about, demanding the fans give more.

And the noise did momentarily go up, as it tends to on these occasions.

But what was the chant?

‘Antonio, Antonio, Antonio’ the crowd briefly boomed.

And it struck me it was as if Spurs fans were hoping for a saviour. Someone to come in and deliver them success, rather than taking responsibility for the role that they could- I would say should- have been playing in helping achieve the success that they undoubtedly craved so badly.

I felt the same way about the hysteria when Ange first came in.

But no one is going to ‘save’ us and nor should we be expecting them to.

Heroes will of course emerge, but we are the Tottenham fans- it is our club- and as fans we need to take responsibility for our support regardless of who the managers, players, owners are.

It is up to us to create an atmosphere that truly represents our club, and demonstrates our pride in Tottenham Hotspur, and make sure that we are doing all we can to ensure that we once again see the glory of the cups at White Hart Lane.

And I guarantee- if we do, we will have a hell of a lot more fun at the same time.

How?

This of course is the million-dollar question.

The wonderful celebrations during the Europa League parade, proved what I had always known, that we have the single most important factor necessary to make this work- a loyal, passionate and dedicated fanbase.

But the second most crucial part to making this change is some sort of organisation and coordination.

And this of course is the tricky part.

There have been those that have already been trying to achieve change, and I cannot express my respect and admiration enough for Twitter accounts like @SpursSongSheet, and @THFCFlags, that have been endeavouring to improve the home atmosphere. But as heroic as their efforts have been I think that they would admit that the challenge of getting their message out to enough fans on a consistent enough basis has so far proved too big.

Some clubs, like Palace and Arsenal, have gone down the route of improving their atmospheres via some version of the ‘Ultras’ model that is popular on the continent. This has the advantage of a relatively small number of motivated fans being able to affect a very big change, and it is very difficult to argue against its effectiveness in both cases. But these initiatives require cooperation from the owners, and we pretty much know that our current ownership wouldn’t touch such an idea with a barge pole. But in any case, I would love this to be a much more communal effort for the Spurs fans, with fans coming together as a community, organising and taking responsibility as a collective for improving the atmosphere.

It feels like any solution would almost certainly have to utilise the connectivity and reach of the internet, with for instance, maybe the creation of a basic fan-led website which would become an accepted go-to hub for chants/ community/ organisation etc… (potentially also bringing on board accounts like THFC Flags and Spurs Song Sheet etc…).

But in all honesty, I got to the point whereby I couldn’t not write this blog, but that is as far as I have got. But my hope is that it might strike enough of a chord with enough people to inspire some sort of fan led movement for change, which might involve the creation of such a site (any passionate computer programmers out there?).

Suggestions for the atmosphere:

Two general truths about any atmosphere.

1)  The primary feature of any great atmosphere is the singing.

It is as simple as that- No singing, no atmosphere.

2)  A great atmosphere has to be sustained.

A superb atmosphere for sporadic 5-minute bursts is not a good atmosphere.

Practical Steps to improve the atmosphere at Tottenham.

1)  We need new chants.

Oh boy do we need new chants.

The ones we have now of course very much deserve to stay embedded as part of our history and heritage.

But they need to be built upon. One of the most obvious reasons that the atmosphere dies, is that, for me, the current repertoire feels tired and we also just simply run out of chants.

The reality is the only songs that are reliably sung at home are ‘Oh, when the Spurs’, ‘Tottenham from the Lane’ and ‘Come on you Spurs’.

There are others that are sporadically sung but are not quite as universally known or popular like ‘Being a Yid’, ‘Glory, Glory Tottenham Hotspur…’ and ‘We don’t care what the other teams say…’. We also now don’t even tend to sing the ones common to each club, like ‘By far the greatest team…’ which I have to say I personally am not that upset about- but it goes without saying that if it is a choice between chanting something I’m not fond of, or nothing at all, then I would choose the former every single time. 

One of the many things that Palace have done well, is find a load of chants like ‘We support the Palace’, that are what I would call ‘rolling’ chants, in that they have a pace and rhythm that naturally lends itself to energy and to repetition. At Spurs, ‘Tottenham from the Lane' is the closest that we have, and to my great frustration seems to be sung less and less, and is usually only sung once.

We need to beg, borrow, buy, or steal new chants. Almost all chants are lifted from somewhere else and then clubs make them their own. This would be one example of how the website could work, with fans suggesting new chants on the website from, for example, other clubs throughout Europe, or maybe the lower leagues in this country (or indeed they could create their own). For example I’ve always thought that a Yids thunderclap would be phenomenal. There could then be polls of which chant fans wanted to try next home match. Some would stick some would not, but we would slowly get some more chants (and hopefully some rolling ones) going and, in co-ordination with the drummers, begin to build a much more consistent energy and atmosphere in the stadium.

I would suggest start simple- like for instance a common rolling chants like ‘The Great Escape’. But honestly, old or new, pretty much any chant being sung by the whole South Stand and Shelf Side excites me, let alone then hopefully the whole stadium.

2)  More chants for the players

This one is a particular bug bear of mine, and I think it is something that Tottenham have been traditionally bad at.

Yes, there have been some players who have had superb chants, like Dele, Eriksson, Van Der Vaart etc...

But there have been plenty that have not. I couldn’t believe it when I first started going to Spurs and long-time fan favourites like Aaron Lennon and Michael Dawson were stuck with ‘There’s only one…’

Heung Min Son? One of the best goal scorers in our club's history, immediately loved the club, stayed loyal at his peak, and at times lit up our stadium with his performances? He had one chant, one that only made sense when he scores, and I swear I hardly ever heard the South Stand sing it in unison even then.

Cuti Romero? World Cup Winner whilst a Spurs player, arguably one of the best defenders in the Premiership.

Not even a basic chant.

I disagree with those that say a player must ‘earn a chant’. For me we should find a chant from the very first moment a player- whether a youth player or new signing- crosses that touchline to play for Spurs. I want each player to feel ten feet tall when playing for Spurs, and player after player have said how much it means to them to have their name sung from the stands.

A massive shout goes to @SpursSongSheet, who has tried desperately to change this, but one observation I would make is that some of the chants suggested there can potentially feel too ambitious to catch on quickly.

My suggestion again would be keep it simple. As soon as a player starts, we find a basic generic chant that we can blast out.

E.g.

Cuti Romero- Seven Nation Army

Pape Matte Sarr- The old Stephen Carr song?

Etc.

Then more complex chants will emerge, whether they ‘earn’ it, or whether it is suggested on the website, or some wag starts one at an away game that catches on.

Here are just some examples of the chants off @SpursSongSheet that (in my opinion criminally) never took off, (and there have been dozens of others over the seasons).

Sonny:

‘You are my Sonshine, My only Sonshine, You make me happy, home and away,

And when its pouring, You keep on scoring,

Don’t take my Sonny away.’

If Sonny leaves, we can still sing this, as United do for Solskjaer.

Cuti:

To the tune of Fernando:

‘Winning headers in the air all night, He’s dynamite, Romero.

Sliding tackles like he’s Ledley King, Make the Tottenham sing- Romero'

Could be slightly simplified to:

To the tune of Volare:

‘Romero! Woooahh! Romero! Wooaahh!

Ta-ckles like Ledley King,

He makes the Tottenham sing!’

Pedro Porro:

To the tune of ‘The Entertainer’ (I think)

‘Porro, Porro, Porro, Came from Lisbon to Tottenham High Road,

When he runs down the wing, You’ll hear the Tottenham boys sing,

Pedro Porro is one of our own!’

Mickey VDV- (Yes, I know we have one, but why not have two, especially for such a fan favourite?)

To the tune of Black Betty

‘Wooah Big Mickey, Van Der Ven

‘Wooah Big Mickey, Van Der Ven.

He’s tall and fast, Van Der Ven,

You won’t get past, Van Der Ven’

(And I think the Madders one to the tune of the darts gives it that personal touch, but that’s just me).

Let’s get our players names sung loudly and proudly- It gets us singing, they love it, it improves the bond between fans and players- What is there not to like?

3)  A new pre-kick off song  

This one is slightly more controversial.

The playing of a song pre-kick off, and especially accompanied by the trumpet, has been an excellent innovation.

‘Oh when the Spurs’ is a song that will forever be synonymous with our club, but a pre-kick off song should, for me, be uniquely ‘ours’.

We could try and write a new anthem, but for me, we already have ‘Glory Glory Hallelujah (as opposed to just singing ‘Glory Glory Tottenham Hotspur, which of course would feature in the song as well).’ a song that has a uniquely Tottenham story behind it. (Look it up if you don’t know it).

We could adapt it or just keep it really short and sweet, but I think we could find a version of it that could be superb sang with the trumpet by the whole stadium before kick-off, starting slow and building to a crescendo.

We could always try to somehow work the lyrics to ‘Mcnamara’s Band’ in there as they just seem perfect to be sung at the beginning of the game (I know it is played when the players come out second half):

‘When the whistle blows, the Cockerel crows, and now we’re in the game.

It’s up to you you Lilywhites, to play the Tottenham way.’

If it stays at ‘Oh when the Spurs’ then so be it. Again, if the website became popular enough, we could run a poll to see what the fans wanted.

Then once we get the singing going, we work on new things like co-ordinated scarf waving at points of the match, (even maybe in my wildest dreams graduate to some simple co-ordinated movement), and all of this would all of course continue to build on the superb work already being done with flags and tifos by @THFCFlags.

That is my Tottenham Hotspur Stadium dream.

Is it possible?

Can we take the first steps on a journey to eventually creating a truly world class atmosphere in our new stadium?

Our Club Motto says we can.

‘To Dare is to Do’

It’s not just for the players; it’s for us fans.

The game is about glory.

COYS.