The walking dead

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The walking dead Spooky on 6th Feb 2015

Spooky makes a rare but very welcome appearance on the Front Page to round off the set of derby previews. Beautifully written as always, Spooky looks at the history and the reasons for the rivalry. Enjoy. COYS. No more eatin for them now. 5 min read The walking dead Just Keepers There was an article I read in The Spur fanzine many years ago that spoke about the rivalry between Spurs and Arsenal being the purest of all the derby games. The essence of this thought is that the clash is solely about football. No landlord disputes where one local club is birthed from another. No political undertones or employment grievances. No religion or social class wars to add complexities to something that should really play out with simplicity.

Tottenham Hotspur hate Arsenal because they are Arsenal and we hate them because history fuels us to do so. They hate us too. Although as I’m unable to place myself in the mind of a gooner (something not too dissimilar to losing your individuality and humanity and becoming part of a collective dystopian conciousness masquerading as utopia) I can only imagine their hatred is one of insecurity and self-loathing because everything they’ve ever done has happened without soul. The one they momentarily owned, they took off us.

You might suggest that there’s a geographical reason for the dislike – much like local towns or cites that sit near to each other. That’s always going to play a part but that connection that ignites true rivalry has to go beyond a couple of postcodes. West Ham United aren’t that far off from our patch but along with the likes of Chelsea they are both afterthoughts compared to the neighbours up the road with the ghastly red and white scarves and narcissistic statues.

"This is a football club that died and was resuscitated by the ills of bribery and corruption" I’ve been here before. I’ve written about ‘the history’ and many like to point out that something that happened in the last century should no longer be relevant. Along with the suggestion that modern day supporters should not be made accountable for chapters in a clubs past that have been practically lost in the depths of football folklore. Time does that. It devalues the importance of an event or incident simply because we do not have a connection to it. It belongs to a forgotten generation.

New generations of supporters will not care for these original building blocks because their club is how built on more recent memories.

Does that mean the folklore it’s null and void?

It doesn’t.

The folklore remains factual. They began life as Woolwich, playing next to sewage works in Plumstead. Yes, I’m referring to how they should have gone out of existence. Yes, I’m referring to their desperate attempt to merge with Fulham or settle anywhere they could. This is a football club that died and was resuscitated by the ills of bribery and corruption. The birth of the truly definitive franchise, an opportunity to make money because the legacy of its former self could never be reborn in its rightful home in South London.

This is why everything they achieve doesn't matter. Perfectly put.

/r/coys Thread Link - thefightingcock.co.uk