I understand how those non-UK ?born Gooners may not harbour the same hatred for sperz as others, and after nearly 3 years in the US I?ll admit its easier to loathe more ?credible? rivals such as manure, but its easy to forget the history and intensity of the hatred and jealousy of those from the ?lane,? especially their nauseating ?fans.? Now, anyone who has been to shite hart lane on derby day has seen those who have been ?let out for the day? kicking anyone in red and white up and down the seven sisters road, and this rivalry of course goes back to when the Arse moved from south London, indeed some 80 years ago rival fans would attack each other on matchdays with lead piping and other such weaponry.(this is why I cannot take seriously any comparisons between US sports and our own rivalry, sorry.) This may have been initially due to ?norf?/?sarf of the river? divide, coupled with the fact that we originally bribed our way into the top division at the extent of the totts (never to return to the 2nd tier since), nevertheless we were never going to be safe bed-partners. Only a few years ago, a totts ?gang? attacked the Gunners Tavern several hours after a Highbury derby, putting all the windows out one-by-one and beating senseless any poor Gooner left outside the pub.
Of course, retribution is not uncommon, and obviously satisfying, but that is another story, and I?m sure older Gooners on this site have many tales to tell. However, being a tad less Neanderthal and far more imaginative than our neighbours, I like the subtler, shall we say more psychological retaliations. For instance, I remember maybe 10-12+ years ago a Gooner construction worker on the shite fart lane ?stadium? hoisted a large Arsenal flag atop their detestable mecca for all in north London to see ? aswell as the thousands nationwide who tuned into the now-defunct Saturday sport shows ?World of Sport? and ?Grandstand? who aired this glorious picture (guess the media haven?t always totally despised us!).
My own brother had the misfortune of a spurts-supporting boss who put him to work signposting at the spurts ?gift-shop? next to their ?stadium.? It goes without saying he took the opportunity to slip cards into the pockets of clothing merchandise on racks, reminding the potential buyers of the superiority of their neighbours.
Now, being in South Dakota and having no access to pay-per-view and no footie bars to watch the game I?m having to wait til Wednesday, hopefully avoiding the small amount of members of civilization here who may tell me the result before I get to watch the game at home on FoxSportsWorld, so hopefully everyone back in the real world will be nursing celebratory hangovers by the time I actually sit down with my ale to watch us give the scum a good twatting.
And with that, Good Luck and brotherly/sisterly love to all Gooners everywhere ? especially my brother Nath, Damo and Kev who will be traversing Rio de Janeiro hoping to find a bar to watch the match as they commence their world travels. CHEERS!!!
p.s Back to the other scum, be sure to log onto www.foxsportsworld.com and their comment of the week thing which is about manure & fergie thinking they get rough treatment from the FA ? obviously he?s too inebriated to remember 1991 and their pathetic treatment after they started the ?brawl? at old nafford; their sanctioned absence from the FA Cup in 2000, Cantona?s nothing-ban for kung-fu-kicking a Fan (however funny that was), and numerous other cotton-wool-wrapping treatments, the wankers.
12 Responses to “My old man said be a tottenham fan……”
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April 24th, 2004 at 9:39 am
Greatly enjoyed reading u’re posting. As a younger Arsenal US based fan, I do not really hold any strong malevolence towards Spurs, the way I do towards ManU, but u’re posting has shown me the history and the light, and put me right in the spirit!. Thanx.
April 24th, 2004 at 10:18 am
Thats a fantastic post…. giving loads of insight for us US Gooners…
Surely we’ve missed on alot of the older history, which is why we don’t have the hatred of the Totts!
cheers!
April 24th, 2004 at 10:32 am
> (this is why I cannot take seriously any comparisons between US sports and our own rivalry, sorry.)
Sorry, but I can bet a fair few Yankess and/or Red Sox fans might say differently.
Regardless, I fully understand and appreciate the history between the 2 sides. However, like most Americans here, my time of being able to follow the Premiership and Arsenal has pointed to the likes of Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea and, for a long while, Leeds as being rivals.
Just face it — there’s a certain segment of Arsenal fandom who, through no fault of their own, don’t care about Spurs and do care about Man U
— Geoff
April 24th, 2004 at 10:40 am
>p.s Back to the other scum, be sure to log onto http://www.foxsportsworld.com and their comment of the week thing which is about manure & fergie thinking they get rough treatment from the FA – obviously he’s too inebriated to remember 1991 and their pathetic treatment after they started the ‘brawl’ at old nafford; their sanctioned absence from the FA Cup in 2000, Cantona’s nothing-ban for kung-fu-kicking a Fan (however funny that was), and numerous other cotton-wool-wrapping treatments, the wankers.
Oh yeah. That’s actually an old topic now, they read comments last night’s edition of the FSW Report. Was meaning to talk about that. Man U need to, in the words of Ludacris, BLOW IT OUT THEY ASS.
They’ve gotten some of the MOST preferential treatment imaginable. They’re just bitter because their gladhanding of the FA can’t guarantee them the title this year.
— Geoff
April 24th, 2004 at 10:54 am
Read your post with interest,would just like to pull you on one thing, the gunners incident although true they did come back late that night missing the main Arsenal boys who were waiting for them, they did not smash every window(one was smashed) or smash every Arsenal fan outside,spurs are not that brave hence avoiding the main Arsenal boys…Anyway i came on here to let you have this link
http://www.satfootball.com/
you may know it already,but you can watch games live via your computer…worth a try.
i’ll be at the game and hopefully we’ll be champions tomorrow evening…
regards from England
April 25th, 2004 at 2:08 am
Good post. I wrote a similar piece many many months ago that was posted here giving all the details of the rivallry.
My favourite moment was during the 80s when Arsenal’s boys always took the piss down shite fart lane. David Pleat made front page news in The Sun cos he was caught kerb crawling in Luton. This front page was printed on thousands of T-Shirts and we proudly marched from Seven Sisters Road down to Tottenham high Road wearing thes and carrying blow-up dolls, sheep etc.
The seated area of the Park Lane had wooden seats and were easily smashed and used as kindling.
You’re almost right about the Gunners pub, but it’s a usual trick of the scum. They always fail to turn up for a meet as arranged but arrive when hardly anyone is left. The only people to be turned over when they came to the Gunners was the two bouncers on the door.
When they came down Blackstock Road two years ago, they got as far as two hundred yards from TBirds and then had to be put in police mini buses and escorted under a barrage of bricks and bottles to the ground.
Thankfully these “tear-ups” are rare. They’ve only recently became inflamed when news of a gooner being tipped from his wheelchair and kicked spread around Highbury.
They are plenty of boys going today without tickets, plotting up on their manor. It should be fun, for the right reasons obviously.
KEEP THE FAITH
April 25th, 2004 at 6:56 pm
and anybody reading this post will understand (or should understand) exactly why there is no, NO American sports rivalry that matches derby day…
April 26th, 2004 at 9:40 am
The thing about the doorman was that they had a whip round for him(done hes leg)we thought he’d been done by the scum but infact he was hurt by us trying to get out.
April 26th, 2004 at 4:12 pm
Yankees-Red Sox v Arsenal-Spurs? NO COMPARISION SON.
as a Gooner for the past decade whos lived in London, went to nearly 100 games, and have always supported the NY Yankees (seasons in the bleachers) and who have been on road trips w/ the other 70-75 Yankee bleacher creatures - I can flat out say you have it all wrong. there are random fights here and there for baseball, but nothing as organized and direct as English footie. go to London and see a few games, then you tell me if the Yanks-Red Sox ever have 2-3,000 fans in the other teams ground in their own section - they dont, never had, never will.
I have been in Copenhagen, Cardiff and other flashpoints across Europe following the Arsenal and if you want to tell me baseball has more violence you are an idiot.
However, please send Rick with his stupid comments down to White Hart Lane, with his gay Yank Gooner flag.. haha
April 26th, 2004 at 4:16 pm
great read son.. it amazes me how much the yanks think they know about football but dont..they compare it to their sports and its apples and oranges as far as fan travel/support/culture..
Ive seen both sides for 10 yrs, and its a major gap, but there are a few organized groups in America who follow the team and have firms, like NY Yankees Bleacher Creatures (75 plus ) who actualy go in numbers en masse to the games and once in a while get stuck in with home fans.. but its still on a diff level than most of the American sport fans..
up the Arsenal - CHAMPIONS!
April 26th, 2004 at 4:22 pm
lastly, any “gooner” who say they done care about tottenham, arent real gooners and know fu8k all - like half the idiots on this site..figures.
this is why yanks get no respect - when guys like rick say sell henry and blokes like that say who cares about totenham anymore - all facts as to why english think yanks are idiots
April 27th, 2004 at 2:35 am
> lastly, any “gooner” who say they done care about tottenham, arent real gooners and know fu8k all - like half the idiots on this site..figures.
“If ya mad that I’m on top, wish me gone
If ya mad I’m on the road, wish me home
If ya mad that I’m right, wish me wrong
But after three wishes, BLOW IT OUT YA ASS”
— Geoff