‘Guess this’ll actually be a pretty big game for them. Probably one of the biggest games of their season?’
It was an hour into the match at Molineux last Saturday and this was the first time the Wolves fans sitting behind me had given their opponents a moment’s thought. They had bigger problems. After a record winless run at the start of the season they had finally been relegated that Monday. This was one of three remaining Premier League home fixtures before they’d return to the Championship, so they were quiet but had come out in numbers.
I was in the home end with my Wolves-supporting boyfriend. But as a Tottenham fan I was there covertly. And as the players lined up before kick-off, I had tears in my eyes. We had to win. Fail to beat the league’s worst side and, really, that would be it.
One of the biggest games of our season? This was the biggest game in our history. Being undercover for a match like this was a particular kind of torture. But the reason I need to tell you about it is that it gave me something valuable: a dramatic shift in perspective. Wolves know a lot about relegation.
Until last week, they’d been in the Premier League for eight straight seasons that included a European run. Last time that grand old club fell out of the top 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 trying to draw a comparison between Spurs and Wolves – this column will never be about the relative importance of football clubs. Everyone’s club is the biggest in the world, that’s the whole point. In any case, the situation Tottenham find themselves in is unprecedented. That’s largely down to the scale of the club’s financial resources. To be the ninth wealthiest club in the world, with the best stadium in England, banking hundreds of millions more annually than Champions League semi-finalists Atletico Madrid, and to be in this state? That’s special.
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For every other club in the pyramid, the Spurs rubbernecking is fun. It’s all anyone wants to talk to me about, and it’s pretty much all I’m thinking 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 not only a choice: I’m sitting in for the wonderful Danny Kelly on Spurs podcast The View From The Lane, broadcasting for 2-3 hours a week about Spurs and nothing else. But I can’t really help it. In Wolverhampton I took advantage of my necessary silence to focus my mind on willing the ball into the back of the net and then, afterwards, keeping it out. The 1-0 win reward for my (nearly) invisible celebration when Joao Palhinha scored.
Points aside, the main thing I gained was witnessing Wolves fans’ complete indifference to Spurs. To be among men who neither knew nor cared that Xavi Simons would be our 37th injury this season. They booed him! They were so angry he wouldn’t get up! They have nothing to play for! It was wild to be inside that alternate state of mind. I left the West Midlands as sure as I’ve ever been that Spurs will be relegated, but with a brand new feeling of calm.
I learned that whatever happens it will be fine. It may be that your world has ended, but no one else notices – what you give your focus to becomes your world. Supporting Spurs may feel below the level of choice, but still – I’m there because they’re mine. I feel grateful to care so much, and that’s not going to change.
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