To dare is to do

Do you remember Tottenham fans trying to convince people that this system doesn't work, that these tactics don't work? I can't seem to hear them now. 

It happens because many a fan has no vision they don't look ahead in the way a player has to. They don't take into account a building stage, they think everything must be perfect right away, it's a fear of success.

You will usually find them in forums spouting their nonsense or on a certain anti-Spurs site of course. We haven't won anything yet, but do we look more likely to than we did two years ago? I think we do, we played Arsenal off the park on their own patch, although unbelievable these so-called Tottenham fans then wanted to make excuses for Arsenal. Now we have played West Ham off the park, a team we have struggled against recently. We also thrashed Manchester City.

What a wonderful performance yesterday. One of the best in Mauricio era. The team is looking better and better. So many positives. COYS

Success is a journey and about enjoying the journey. First you have to recognise we are travelling in the right direction, that we are building, we are improving, that we have a strategy. Even the foolish anti-Levy smattering have to admit we have a strategy and we are going in the right direction instead of clinging to their hopes of failure to boost their own egos.

Those of us with any years on the clock have seen success, we have also seen failure and felt the despair of relegation. We have lived through attractive football from true legends like Hoddle, enjoyed the delightful skill of a Waddle, Hazard or Alfie Conn, but we have seen the dreadful as well and I'll spare any blushes by not naming names.

Today we live in a money world, if you have it you win trophies you win trophies, if you don't you don't. You can just accept that or try and do something about ir. We are on the cusp of having money, we have more than most but not enough to compete realistically. In such circumstances, fleeting victories are only ever going to happen. Do we amble along waiting for those fleeting successes or do we devise a strategy to see if we can do something about it to give ourselves a greater chance of more regular success?

Obviously the latter is the way to go and the way we have gone. Recognising that and judging the club against that should be the way to go for fans. Think of drawing a line, understand where we want to be, where we have come from and where we are now.

If Tottenham were a car along that journey it is fair to say that we have been in the same place not making too much progress for five years. Ask yourself, though, if we were that car what state is the car in? Is it full of petrol, is it mechanically sound, has it had a service or is it chugging along almost out of fuel?

Are we not more likely to reach a destination if we have a fully fueled and serviced vehicle than one being patched up? Are we not more likely to get there if we have a map? 

The club is almost unrecognisable from the one of five years ago and chief among those changes is the change in mentality Mauricio Pochettino has introduced. I said when I first starting writing we had to change it and go down the youth route to compete, that the players had to change, the off-field staff had to change but that the hardest of all to change would be the supporters.

Conditioned by years of straight jacket thinking, now they are having to grasp the difference mentality makes, that it makes a player. Players either sulk and complain or they motivate themselves to improve individually. Create a group of individually motivated players, mould them into a team and you have a potent weapon. Weed out those without that winning mentality and you make the whole group stronger and happier.

We are coming to the transfer season once again and we will be linked with many a player. This time around fans need to start asking not only what the players skill level is but what is his mentality. Is he a complainer, that is OK if it is used to motivate, does he spend his time moaning at the ref (ala Soldado) or does he get up and get on with his game. Does he take responsibility for himself when he speaks the way Dembele did.

Our negative smattering complain about positivity yet positivity is essential to success, they are actively telling us they don't know how to be successful. Positivity has to be harnessed and used in the right way. There is little point a player spouting positivity if he doesn't believe it, it's rather transparent when they do. Channel it into improving yourself constantly and you will improve. 

Mauricio Pochettino has to be applauded, lauded for the mental change he has made at Tottenham. He has made a tremendously positive impact on this club, we now think like winners and when that happens the sky is the limit.

Some of our fans need to catch up, but then again there will always be Chiefs and Indians, leaders and followers. Dare to fly people, dare to fly because to dare is to do.


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