With the ongoing debate surrounding the use of the word "Yid" and other issues, are Spurs fans becoming the centre of media negativity?

For many years now Tottenham Hotspur FC has been an iconic part of British football, entering the history books on countless occasions. However, the club have very often - especially in the past twenty years - been involved in much media hate, resulting in abuse from opposition fans.

Since the club's rise back to the big time after the appointment of Harry Redknapp, the club have gained more attention resulting in more anti-Semitic and media abuse.

When Fabio Capello resigned from the post of England manager, many tipped Harry Redknapp to take over from the Italian. It is widely known that Roy Hodgson was, surprisingly, given the job instead of the former Spurs manager. Since the Croydon-born former Fulham boss took over, Spurs went into decline and went from title contenders to not even making the Champions League (largely due to Chelsea's success in the competition). Harry was sacked by Daniel Levy and Spurs after this due to Spurs' decline that season.

In June 2012, Andre Villas-Boas was appointed as Redknapp's replacement at Spurs but quickly had his doubters. After Spurs' shaky start to the season, gaining just two points from three fairly straightforward games, many journalists and 'experts' branded him a flop and claimed he wasn't suited to the English game. After his difficult time at Chelsea, Villas-Boas managed to turn things around at Spur, gaining many admirers. Before all the success, newspapers rumoured that the Portuguese man had been given three games to save his Spurs career. This occured at least three times during the season and every time, Villas-Boas proved the doubters entirely wrong.

In other scenarios, stories in recent months have included the likes of Jan Vertonghen, Andros Townsend and even Spurs fans. During Spurs' game at White Hart Lane against Chelsea in September, Fernando Torres was upset by Jan Vertonghen's challenge, turned around and scratched the Belgian defender. The FA deemed this to be unpunishable and the Spaniard was let off the hook.

During England's game against Poland at Wembley, manager Roy Hodgson told the players at half time to "feed the monkey". Of course, he was referring to Spurs winger, Andros Townsend who had been enjoying a terrific start with Spurs, a goalscoring England debut and a fine first half against the Polish outfit. Townsend and his father, Troy, confirmed they knew that Hodgson's intentions were not racist and did not wish for the matter to continue.

Unfortunately for Spurs, their fans are making as many headlines as the players. During Sunday's game at Aston Villa, a Spurs fan threw a flare onto the pitch and it unfortunately struck the referee's assistant who was officiating in front of the away stand. It has been said that the fan threw the flare as it was causing breathing difficulties among Spurs fans and he did not mean it to harm anybody. The man and another fan were released on bail and await further hearing. However, the media have come to their own conclusions and report that he shouldn't have thrown it and it could have killed someone. As true as this is, the man did not intentionally mean to harm the linesman. TalkSport's Adrian Durham, who has often shown a disliking for Tottenham, says the fan should be banned for life to teach him a lesson. As bad as the incident may have been, the press have taken it up another notch and have made a mountain out of a molehill.

Finally, the never-ending debate over the use of the "Y word". Since the 1950s, Spurs have been on the receiving end of racist abuse from opposition fans due to strong affiliations with Jewish people from around the North London area. Due to this, non-Jewish fans also adopted the term "Yid" in order to deflect the anti-Semitic abuse. Spurs fans since have referred to themselves as the "Yid army" and the players as "Yids". But once again, the matter has come to light after West Ham fans continued to chant anti-Semitic abuse Tottenham fans at the side's encounter at White Hart Lane. Fans of Chelsea and Arsenal have also taken to social networking sites and write about Hitler, World War Two and Auschwitz.

However, the FA and Met Police have chosen to act against Tottenham fans for their use of the word, despite its positive use and to totally ignore the racist, anti-Semitic way in which other fans use the term. The matter has been rumbling on for a very long time, however there has been no final say. Tottenham fans continue to use the word, despite thel warnings not to. I feel that this is the way to stand against the ludicrous decisions being made and will provide a standpoint until the FA decide to punish opposition fans for their negative use of the word.

Overall, I feel that Spurs are targeted by sections of the media who look for a negative twist to some stories. The club are moving in the right direction on the pitch and success, coupled with less drama, could see the end to this. I do not feel that there is a vendetta towards Spurs but from a fan's point of view, a dislike for this historic, traditional, glorious club is visible in some areas of the press.