10 characters. All of them thick as ****.
I liked the one about them finishing third in a two horse race.
Yes, I liked that as well. At least the first couple of times I heard it....
The ones I know couldn't even bring themselves to discuss the possibility of winning the league for fear of jinxing it.
Apart from a very few weak moments, I never seriously thought they'd win it. I don't know why. On paper it was perfectly possible - even likely. But the fact that they're Spurs just kept coming back to me and I ruled the possibility out.
Oh I did get seriously worried about the league for a while, mainly because despite knowing how Spursy Spurs are, we had no idea whether Leicester would turn out to be Spursy as well when it came to the crunch. Thankfully they didn't.
But we really do make them what they are. They hold on to their "curse" as a badge of honour. Their longsufferingness defines them in their collective self-identity. They hate their board, their owner, their manager, their players, their fans - pretty much everything that's actually tangible about their club. Because only by being so hard put upon can they demonstrate their absolute devotion. I'm surprised the club shop don't stock a hair-shirt replica kit.
I was in the caff yesterday morning and there was a fella at the table next to me with a bright yellow football shirt. On the back up by the collar was a little motif with the words "Echos of Glory". An odd mission statement, I thought, and wondered what team it was. Later as he came back from the loo I saw the badge on the front of a chicken on a basketball.
That. Sums it all up.