writing the England world cup song!,you are right though, we need to get behind the team,no matter what if the crowd are anxious or nervous it transfer to the players and that does'nt help the play
Amazing over-reaction on this. If AVB and the players feel the team is under performing at home because the fans are overexpectant then surely it does no harm to say so. He is not insulting anyone.
I see what your saying Power, but by the same token isn't it the managers job to motivate and inspire his players. If there was more evidence of that the fans wouldn't have much to react about. Some might say 'why keep a dog and have to dark for yourself' All I'd add however is that there might have been a better way way for AVB to have expressed his feelings., thus avoiding fan reaction.
It could also be argued that there has been an over-reaction from AVB on this. He says it was a "tense atmosphere", well it was a tense game that is why Andre and in tense games, the crowd does tend to go quiet. Maybe I am going deaf in my old age, but I didn't hear any booing yesterday and no more moans and groans than is usual when a pass goes astray or a move breaks down. Personally I would prefer he channelled his energies into doing something about our poor scoring record of 9 league goals in 9 games, than making a tit of himself in criticising the fans.
Does anyone think it helps the team to be tense and quiet? If you don't think the players are trying then by all means make that clear but otherwise try to be the 12th man
It seems to me that our squad are very committed and enthusiastic and trying hard to gel together and get AVB'S system to work. I applaud him for trying to get the fans to help more
This is what the 1882 group are trying to do. By adopting block 35 of the east lower, they are trying to bring back the thought of being the 12th man by singing non-stop. The club is very open to the idea and stewards in that area of the ground have a relaxed approach to them standing throughout the game. Unfortunately, because of the way we sell our match tickets, it is difficult for this group to congregate for league games and so are restricted to Capital Cup and Europa games.
I know you said "one if the reason's" but he was long that before he criticized the Chelsea fans to be fair avb was beyond silly to make the comments, as you say you should never criticize the fans (even if the they deserve it) and you can be sure it will come back to bite him. which is good.... if you don't support spurs so crack on AVB... you go girl!
Palace have created a superb atmosphere, similar to German teams such as dortmund. These situations are rare in the UK. For all this talk of our fans lacking a certain passion, you can lay that claim to many clubs, so what SC said about the new breed of fan is correct, yet most premier league clubs suffer from these fans zapping the atmosphere. Which is why as mentioned Avb comments will create a bigger divide between him and the fans if he's daft enough to repeat, he can get away with slipping up once as come next weekend it's back to normal......... Which is a crap dull performance..... From Everton, hopefully!
I'm waiting for the day when someone calls up Talkballs and berates fellow fans for cheering the team on through the game when they should be sat with their arms folded and tutting at various intervals. Thing is, it would likely be a Spurs fan to do this - there's always been the element in our home support that sits there, masochistically sitting there in the hope that something to go wrong so they can get on the players' backs for the remainder of the game. It's not enough that there's the lightning rod of fan dissatisfaction on the pitch (the likes of Jenas, Dempsey and Chadli being obvious examples), they want the team as a whole to give them a reason to kick off. There is a kernel of truth in what AVB said, namely that we need help from the crowd, but should he really have said it? Not really, leave that to a faceless press release from the club's press department instead, it;s less of a PR disaster waiting to happen.
Even at Sutton,they only get about 500,but they always get behind the team and sing and chant,for the whole game
Been to a couple palace games as a lot of my mates support them, and the atmosphere is probably the best I've seen.
AVB is lucky to manage a Premier League team. In La Liga there's little atmosphere at games unless it's a derby or Madrid/Barca are in town. I'm inclined to agree with PNP in that it's a ticketing price issue. There is almost a direct correlation between increase in ticket pricing and atmosphere. I don't know how things work at Spurs but at Chelsea we seem to have long-term Season Ticket Holders dropping out and becoming members thus picking and choosing their games. This is why we tend to consistently get a better atmosphere against Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City/Man Utd and KO round CL nights. Spurs won't have a problem getting an atmosphere against Arsenal, United, Liverpool or City (games that will generate interest from the offset). Those are games where passions run high and in a sadistic way you can enjoy the nerves and tension that comes with it. Against the likes of Hull it's different, there's more expectation and a sigh of relief when you win rather than actually being able to enjoy the game. Against the likes of Hull it's up to AVB and the players to show the initiative, those are the games that you give back to the fans.
More partisan support though. No Premier League club is like that bar Sunderland/Newcastle and Cardiff/Swansea on derby day.
Whether AVB was right or wrong to have a pop at the fans, my attitude to it is "meh, so what!" But, I will add two points. Firstly, I can fully understand why AVB will have become frustrated with the home supports apparent lack of support. He might not the team playing the prettiest football we've seen, but he's definitely made us competitive for a top 4 finish. What do fans want? (he may be asking himself) Top quality entertainment, or the chance of CL footy? He'll have reasoned that we simply cannot have both. And he's between a rock and a hard place, because if he gives the fans what we want (like Jol and Redknap did), he'll more than likely get the sack (just as they did), because it's clear to me that Levy wants a manager who can deliver the pay days that come with CL footy. No manager ever gets sacked for winning dull, but plenty get sacked for losing pretty. Secondly, and on the other hand, I can fully understand why some fans feel aggrieved by AVB's comments, when they are paying good money to watch dull football.
The correlation between ticket prices and atmosphere could not have been clearer when I went to the Swansea opener and then to Tbilisi three days later. Despite the stadium only being 4/5 full, the Tbilisi crowd outsang and outcheered the Swansea crowd decisively--and without the aid of alcohol. The definition of faint praise: while you all may consider the atmosphere at WHL poor, even the Swansea crowd was louder and more interesting (not to mention musical) than almost any American sports crowd I've been part of. Though I'd expect Swansea to be considerably better than most games, between it being the first home game of the season, and a relatively decisive (if 1-0) win, with lots of good moments, especially from Paulinho. It seems to me there's general agreement AVB should have said nothing (though what he did say suffered the usual media spin), while fans would do well to provide something closer to a wall of noise if they want to help the team. And the team, like all teams, could use some help.
No not me,i stay in the background now,i shall be there on Saturday though,cheering them on,Sutton and Spurs winning is a perfect weekend for me, coys
It's difficult to compare premier league fans to fans in lower tiers or in Germany/ other countries. There's one huge difference, we pay a hell of a lot more to watch our clubs. Like it or not, money will dictate the atmosphere, if you're spending a good few bob on a ticket, you want your moneys worth, simple as that, regardless of how much you love your club and supporting them through thick and thin, you want something for your money's worth and while atmosphere's have been pretty shoddy at Spurs, attendances haven't. I've seen some people say things like "it doesn't matter how much you pay you should still support" etc, with all respect these are probably the people that don't get down the Lane as much others or have too much money so it's easy to say that when you're not forking out a lot of your wages each season. Lower league tickets cost much less the further you go down and so you can go there feeling easy about spending your money not expecting too much so to speak and so the general atmosphere is more relaxed, you can afford more beers too when you're paying less on a ticket so that'll always help! I read that you can buy a season ticket at Borussia Dortmund in certain areas for about a £120! I pay that amount for about 3-4 Spurs games so no wonder Dortmund fans are always buzzing about the place.
