The News of the World currently have this advertisement that I am sure a lot of us have seen. It basically says that men will have to talk to women if there was no Score, the News of the World?s football supplement. It is quite a clever marketing campaign but misses the point slightly. It is not really the supplement that men talk about, it is the subject matter, football. In Britain, football is the nation?s sport and you are reading this now because it is on the subject of football. For me personally, what makes it such a good sport and the reason why we spend collectively millions each year on it, is the entertainment value and the opinions people have on it. When I disagree with my boss on the subject, he always quotes back ?the game is all about opinions?. On this occasion, he is right and I cannot argue.

I work in quite a diverse office in terms of football support. As the office is based in Newcastle City Centre, the majority of supporters are those of the black and white variety. However, it is a multi cultural office. My boss is a Manchester United fan, the person sitting opposite me a Sunderland fan and there are a number of these dotted around the floors. Behind me, a friend and colleague that supports the Mighty Tottenham Hotspur (one of six in the office).

One of his team supports Bristol (not sure if it is the City or Rovers) and not too far away, a Gooner and part time Canvey Island fan. There are Liverpool fans in abundance and strangely, one of my former reports is a Reading fan, although that is his home town team. There is also a South African that changes his team as often as his women. This week, I think he is Newcastle but he fluctuates between Chelsea as well. Whoever beats Tottenham, he is also a fan the day after. It makes for an interesting and varied set of opinions on football.

For anyone that works the 9-5, Monday?s are the bain of your life. Getting up after the weekend is torture and if you do not enjoy your job, the commute to the office is like a life sentence. However, I quite enjoy Monday mornings. I live with a fianc?e that hates football and everything it stands for with a passion. Therefore, Monday morning is my chance to analyse the weekend?s action with numerous people around the office.

No work gets done until about 10am as everyone that has come in at 8:30am to claim the flexi time does their best Hansen/Lawrenson impressions. We do not have the slow mo replays but there is enough room to demonstrate. So I quite enjoy the Monday morning feeling, even if I do not agree with some of my peers? opinions.

I was a disappointed bunny last week after Spurs failed to defeat, or even draw with, a lacklustre Manchester United. Monday morning started with a debate with my boss about the virtues of the Spurs performance. I thought it was poor, he didn?t. Via email, I discussed with a Spurs supporting colleague. He thought it was poor, I thought it was poor. A chat with another Manchester United centred around Arsenal and the fact that no matter how poor a start Spurs had made, in our collective opinions, we hoped it would be better than the Gunners.

As the morning progressed, I exchanged views on Sunderland with the gentleman that sits opposite me. I was like a kid in a sweet job, so many things to choose. Bullard?s injury, Newcastle?s demise, Reading?s first appearance on Sky. The topics kept flowing as did the opinions. Part of the fun of this was differing opinions. Obviously my opinion was correct and I tried my best to convince everyone of this. Obviously their opinion was correct and they tried their best to convince me of this. Football debate, Magic.

If you are reading this, you may well be thinking it is a literary masterpiece, a waste of your time or that I should be sacked for spending so much of a Monday discussing football. These are all valid opinions and I respect each and every one. What disappoints me most are those that feel they have to threaten someone physically or mentality if they are not in agreement with the views. If you read this column on a regular basis, you would have noticed that my last entry, ?First Impressions Count at Tottenham? had to have its comments closed because of threats to me, my readers and those that responded to comments.

I do not mind people disagreeing with me. I liked one comment that started ?you idiot?. Although it did not get off to the best start, the guy had a point. Was I being overly pessimistic? Maybe I was, maybe I did not fully appreciate the difficult start to the season we had or maybe I expected too much. What I write is just an opinion, my thoughts at that time. You may agree or disagree but you cannot take my opinions away from me, they?re mine, get off!

There is an advert in the local Newcastle United club shop. It has ran for a couple of years. Previously it had Alan Shearer, Jean Alain Boumsong and Shay Given on it, the caption reads ?Everyone is a hero in Black and White?. While no-one in a Black and White shirt is my hero, the sentiment is correct. Football unites people, races, sexes (although not in my house). I have celebrated victories with people I am never likely to see again and on numerous occasions. My Mam told me never to speak to strangers, that goes out of the window at football matches.

We are all supporting Tottenham so how can those people be strangers? However, as football brings people together, it also drives them apart. This is the part my fianc?e does not like, the fighting, the arguing, the division in families. Someone supports a team you do not like so you hit them. Someone disagrees with you, you argue. You go to the game and the team lose, it?s all your wife/girlfriend/boyfriend?s fault. This is the ugly side of football, well to me anyway.

I picked up two papers today, the Metro and the Times. The Metro hammered Tottenham. In a nutshell, it was a poor performance and Slavia were on top most of the game. The Times focussed on it being a job well done, if a bit uninspiring. I thought it was a very professional performance and just wished that it was not on Channel 5 as the commentators are rubbish. I am sure there are more opinions out there and that is why I love football. I have been in my firms Edinburgh office today so I got a Scottish slant on the game. ?I was watching the other Prague beat Hearts?, ?I was more interested in Rangers v Molde?. It didn?t matter that they had not seen the game, we still chatted about prospects for the UEFA and the season.

A totally different slant to the norm because there is no rivalry as their teams play in a different league. There is another view from the guy sitting opposite me as we drive on the East Coast mainline via GNER. In broken English he points at the back page of the Times and says ?Tott-ing-ham, good no??. A quick nod in his direction saves me from engaging in a chat with him and makes him feel good because I agree. It is not that I do not want his opinion, it is because I most likely will not understand it!

Football is entertaining and so is the debate the inevitably follows. This is my opinion, one that I get from my own thoughts and interaction with others. State of the Game is my chance to get this to a wider audience and I sincerely hope you enjoy reading the column and the site as a whole. You do not have to agree with me, far from it, but please respect mine and the comments of those that lift their heads above the parapet to voice their opinions. We are all in this together as football fans, no matter what team we support, sex, race or religion.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 18th, 2006 at 8:08 am and is filed under Tottenham Hotspur. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.