[Albion] Are we "Spursy"?

[Home and Away]

"Spursy" is a term, primarily associated with Tottenham Hotspur football club, describing their tendency to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, or to have success within reach but ultimately fail to capitalize on it. It's a way of highlighting their inconsistent performance and a reputation for letting opportunities slip away, often putting fans through a rollercoaster of emotions.

Are we?

 

[Uh_huh_him]

No we're not.

Just very slow and predictable

 

[jordanseagull]

We’re an incredibly soft team with no visible backbone when things get tough at times. The way they crumbled today under the pressure from the stands was quite telling.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

All football teams do this, every single one, maybe apart from the top three or four. It's a state of being as a football fan to watch your team f*** up. Spurs get singled out because they aspire to be top 3 or 4 , but end up acting like all the rest of us.

Get used to it

 

[Silver flying chariot]

Be careful with this - You'll get called a palace fan...

Last time I posted something similar with a thread called big game bottle jobs... after the villa game I was relentlessly flamed...

 

[Han Solo]

No. They have twice our wage budget and are bottom 5. Not sure we could fail that miserably even if we tried.

 

[Home and Away]

Be careful with this - You'll get called a palace fan...

Last time I posted something similar with a thread called big game bottle jobs... after the villa game I was relentlessly flamed...

I don't really get it... anybody who understands football can see that we are underperforming against (actually really) poor teams and we are extremely inconsistent. If you call it out you're called "knee jerk", etc. This forum should be the place exactly where these things should be openly discussed without fear being abused etc.

 

[birthofanorange]

No.
Next.

 

[Silver flying chariot]

I don't really get it... anybody who understands football can see that we are underperforming against (actually really) poor teams and we are extremely inconsistent. If you call it out you're called "knee jerk", etc. This forum should be the place exactly where these things should be openly discussed without fear being abused etc.

cause it should - I'm not blue and white blinkered and sadly that's not accepted on here generally. - This is a total wasted opportunity this season..teams have massively underperformed (spurs, West ham, Man Utd) and they will add to the complex next season - Fed up of being told " but look" where we have come from all the time. Club are interested in just making money now

 

[macbeth]

Absolutely. Been the way since ‘Smith must score’. Somehow bottling the championship title with three games to go another example. And then of course the recent game against forest, where we never looked like we knew HOW to win, same against United in the semis a couple of years ago. Today wasn’t spursy though. It was an unforgivable lack of fight and application. There’s a mentality issue at the club at the moment which goes beyond simply being bottlejobs.

 

[Motogull]

No, but we are as weak as warm piss and a bit naive. Being an opposition manager for a team below us is easy: "they don't like it up 'em" and "they will not change the way they play" so "rough 'em up and counter at speed".

 

[WhingForPresident]

My brother in law is Spurs, have been saying for years that we are brothers in arms in terms of Spursiness.

 

[Mellotron]

Yep - we have a soft underbelly.

SO many times a poor team will come to the Amex and look for the first 30 minutes like their confidence is on the floor, absolutely for the taking.

And we so rarely take.

I want us to have more ARROGANCE in these moments, to KNOW that we are much better than the visiting side and to show it by absolutely pummelling them.

 

[mothy]

Yes. Got 2nd in the championship having been way out in front.

If not spurs'y. Soft southerners

 

[Mike Small]

Losing leads in the manner that we have at home to Wolves, Saints, Leicester and Leicester away is unforgivable from a playing and coaching point of view.

We don’t have the mentality for it. When other teams sense it, we buckle. We’re soft and we don’t stand up to teams. People don’t take responsibility. Just look at their second equaliser.

When achieving something has been there for the taking: 83, 91 Play off final, Palace play off semi, Championship, United in the semis, even Forest in the second half of extra time, we can’t quite do it.

*I fully understand the position we are in is fantastic and not many clubs win things.

 

[banjo]

Can we call it Brighton & Hovesy

 

[Eeyore]

All football teams do this, every single one, maybe apart from the top three or four. It's a state of being as a football fan to watch your team f*** up. Spurs get singled out because they aspire to be top 3 or 4 , but end up acting like all the rest of us.

Get used to it

It's a bit like when folk say that the Albion always fail in the end. I remember that in 2017. Until I looked back and found that the last occasion they had entered a new year in the top three and failed to get promotion was 40 years previously. There have also been a plenty of occasions in recent times where they have won a match right at the end.

 

[BadFish]

Football eh?

Don't ya just love it.

 

[Dibdab]

We are pathetically soft bottlers if thats what we mean by Spursy. Every time the pressure is really on or we really have to turn up we fold. Its been going on for years. Folded in multiple Championship play offs, folded in cup semis, folded to win the championship, fold against most relagation battlers during the entire Prem stint, and now folding horribly when Europe was in our grasp again. Cant see it changing soon either if all we want to do is sign kids and ancient has beens to cheer lead in the changing room. Milner really got them going today clearly.

 

[Eeyore]

We are pathetically soft massive bottlers if thats what we mean by Spursy. Every time the pressure is really on or we really have to turn up we fold. Its been going on for years. Folded in multiple Championship play offs, folded in cup semis, folded to win the championship, fold against most relagation battlers during the entire Prem stint, and now folding horribly when Europe was in our grasp again. Cant see it changing soon either if all we want to do is sign kids and ancient has beens to cheer lead in the changing room. Milner really got them going today clearly.

Well, let's take a look at that:

2013: Beaten by Crystal Palace- Zaha making the difference in the end. I remember Albion coming out for the second half in that match and saying to my friend that the body language of the team didn't look right. Something was wrong that night

2014: Beaten by Derby County, a much better side. Albion were quite un-Spursy. Very average all season and sneaked into the play-offs with a last minute winner.

2016: Went from one end of the table to the other. Beaten in a play off semi-final by a Wednesday side who had rested players the previous week after Albion had narrowly missed out on the automatics. Four injuries in the first leg and ended up playing the last half hour with ten men.

2017: Promoted after a season that could have ended up taking a lot out of the team. Only missed the title after a last minute goalkeeping fumble.

2019: FA Cup semi-final. Losing 1-0 to Manchester City ? Folding ?

2023: Lost on penalties to Manchester United who finished in third that year.

Albion have re-cycled multiple squads, so the label of 'bottlers' would have to be transient across managers and squad changes. The reality shows that Albion are no different to any other teams- excepting that only Everton and Crystal Palace have been in the league longer than us beyond the big six.

Teams relegated since Albion joined the league:

Swansea City
Stoke City
West Brom (2)
Cardiff City
Fulham (2)
Huddersfield Town
Bournemouth
Watford (2)
Norwich City (2)
Sheffield United (2)
Burnley (2)
Leicester City
Leeds United
Southampton
Luton Town

Bottlers, Albion are not. Except, perhaps, to lofty expectations.