‘Guess this’ll actually be a reasonably large game for them. Probably certainly one of the largest games of their season?’
It was an hour into the match at Molineux last Saturday and this was the primary time the Wolves fans sitting behind me had given their opponents a moment’s thought. They’d greater problems. After a record winless run firstly of the season that they had finally been relegated that Monday. This was certainly one of three remaining Premier League home fixtures before they’d return to the Championship, in order that they were quiet but had come out in numbers.
I used to be in the house end with my Wolves-supporting boyfriend. But as a Tottenham fan I used to be there covertly. And because the players lined up before kick-off, I had tears in my eyes. We needed to win. Fail to beat the league’s worst side and, really, that may be it.
One in every of the largest games of our season? This was the largest game in our history. Being undercover for a match like this was a selected form of torture. But the rationale I want to let you know about it’s that it gave me something precious: a dramatic shift in perspective. Wolves know rather a lot about relegation.
Until last week, they’d been within the Premier League for eight straight seasons that included a European run. Last time that grand old club fell out of the highest flight, they’d done the double drop to League One. Now they were off to the Championship again, feeling okay about it and hoping to enjoy watching their team win for a change.
I’m not attempting to draw a comparison between Spurs and Wolves – this column won’t ever be concerning the relative importance of football clubs. Everyone’s club is the largest on the earth, that’s the entire point. In any case, the situation Tottenham find themselves in is unprecedented. That’s largely all the way down to the size of the club’s financial resources. To be the ninth wealthiest club on the earth, with the most effective stadium in England, banking a whole bunch of thousands and thousands more annually than Champions League semi-finalists Atletico Madrid, and to be on this state? That’s special.
For each other club within the pyramid, the Spurs rubbernecking is fun. It’s all anyone desires to confer with me about, and it’s just about all I’m serious about.
Tottenham’s remaining fixtures
Aston Villa (A) – May 3
Leeds United (H) – May 11
Chelsea (A) – May 19
Everton (H) – May 24
This is just not only a alternative: I’m sitting in for the wonderful Danny Kelly on Spurs podcast The View From The Lane, broadcasting for 2-3 hours every week about Spurs and nothing else. But I can’t really help it. In Wolverhampton I took advantage of my crucial silence to focus my mind on willing the ball into the back of the web after which, afterwards, keeping it out. The 1-0 win reward for my (nearly) invisible celebration when Joao Palhinha scored.
Points aside, the fundamental thing I gained was witnessing Wolves fans’ complete indifference to Spurs. To be amongst men who neither knew nor cared that Xavi Simons could be our thirty seventh injury this season. They booed him! They were so offended he wouldn’t rise up! They don’t have anything to play for! It was wild to be inside that alternate frame of mind. I left the West Midlands as sure as I’ve ever been that Spurs will probably be relegated, but with a brand recent feeling of calm.
I learned that whatever happens it’s going to be superb. It could be that your world has ended, but nobody else notices – what you give your focus to becomes your world. Supporting Spurs may feel below the extent of alternative, but still – I’m there because they’re mine. I feel grateful to care a lot, and that’s not going to alter.
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