What is Tottenham?
Well this is going to be a fun blog.
I was having a chat with Alan Fisher (the esteemed writer of Tottenham on my Mind) and he said something that made me laugh but should have me crying: “Big problem for us writers. Said it all before. Nothing new to say. We're just going round and round...”
It’s the same for all of us, regardless how you choose to vent. We are trapped in an echo chamber, repeating the same grievances we seem to be perpetually punished with by the club and its owners.
The single worst thing about Sunday’s non-event aside from yet another second half where we failed to register a shot on goal? As much as I hate losing to their fans, I feel pretty much nothing right now. I feel nothing after we lost. To West Ham. I was over it in minutes. This is the single worst thing imaginable; apathy.
That isn’t right.
But I guess this is what self-sabotage feels like after two years of weird stagnation (some would say 20 years of stagnation but I don’t agree with this - the lag this club had was birthed way way back under Irving Scholar. However the manner in which we haven’t looked to be more aggressive as a football club when we eventually caught up is on our current chairman).
Normally a derby defeat would have me feeling like crap for days but having had three of them so far this season (four if you include Crystal Palace), then is it any wonder that I’m so numb right now?
If Nuno's appointment was just a stop-gap, a stabiliser (lol) then this season is dead from the start.
Players will know this. The Harry Kane saga hasn't helped. I'd rather Ryan Mason than this. You know me, I'm a balanced level headed bloke but I'm about to snap into narcolepsy. Obviously Mason isn’t experienced enough (he persisted with Winks over Ndombele ffs) but here we are. Wanting a change even if the change has to result in the sacking of a manager with a two year contract and the Director of Football that ‘appointed’ him. Nuno’s short term offer pretty much tells us that he IS a stop-gap and is probably the reason the club won’t sack him. Because they are bridging the gap between now and when we can appoint the right person.
Who is the right person? I have not a clue what that manager looks like. Potter? Ten Hag? Poch? This particular discussion is one for another day because I have no faith in any of these candidates wanting to come to Spurs (even though money talks). Graham has already allegedly rejected us. Can I even blame him? As for Poch, it’s too soon right? And as much as many of us would want him back it once more sits firmly in the ‘Levy is being reactive again’ category of non-proactive energy. We keep doing this. We keep behaving passively and with complete delusion and over confidence. He’ll think it’s a stroke of genius whilst everyone else will point to that time we didn’t spent a single penny in two transfer windows.
We engineered our own demise.
We are Tottenham, we just exist to torment ourselves.
I know Jose Mourinho (the massive fraud) did the exact same thing (no courage, bravery, lack of fearless energy) with these same players but I don't buy it for a second that we can't slap teams around with the quality we have. Yet we once more look like a side that hasn't got a clue about daring. There is no need for this level of damage limitation, this overly cautious approach. But it’s not just the preparation and attitude that seems like a continuation from the past two seasons. It’s the fundamentals that don’t bind well. There is no zest and awareness. No brotherhood. No togetherness. It’s just a disjointed mess of individuals that can’t sync into a collective.
Yes, some players are stale and lack confidence. Others are bedding in. But where we need super glue, we’re stuck with reused Blu Tak that’s been picked off the wall and no longer sticks.
When you look at the Prem table and realise there’s only 3 or 4 really great teams then it becomes more frustrating that we aren’t attempting to go for it and giving it everything we can. In fact, if Nuno is a stop-gap, what does he have to fear exactly? Perhaps the reality here is that he has no capacity to play offensive football to the degree we require.
Yes, Nuno hasn't had a settled squad. But now he does have the makings of one and so you have to question preparation and motivation. He’s quite obviously well over his head. How long do we wait? Or is it a case we have no choice until the summer to make a change or beyond? The club have placed us in a position where we might need to replace an unofficial caretaker with another caretaker. Do you see how far the calamity can potentially carry us?
Or do we wait? Do we all dig deep (and bury our heads)? Do we display patience? Other clubs, the ruthless ones, would sack a club legend (Chelsea rather than Man Utd at the time of writing) to get things moving again. Yet we are dragging our feet to fit into the business model rather than fanatically obsess about the protection of the football itself.
The game against West Ham was a pretty awful derby. We know how dangerous they are from set-pieces and yet we defended the conceded goal like the Sandman was singing lullabies to everyone in a white shirt. There was no real thunder, the atmosphere was a little tentative at times. There was a complete lack of conviction and desire. Play for the shirt? Is this even a thing anymore?
It's about competing. In every transition on the pitch. In every big moment in the game. Across all games. Synergy. Remember that? It has to be a constant exercise in urgency - in the boardroom too. But it never is. There is no hunger because within the castle their bellies are bloated and outside, the great unwashed starve.
We need to believe that the club has the same ambition the fans have but again we know this not to be the case. The Trust are attempting dialogue. The fans are protesting outside the stadium. The club are fully aware of the disconnect as they scramble to push PR propaganda in our faces via webcam interviews and cringeworthy social media content. The players (no doubt orchestrated by upper management) are not speaking from the heart. They’re just protecting the brand. No identity and in some moments, no soul either.
Am I knee-jerking? Am if exaggerating? I don’t think so. I’m quite calm and composed. I’m not smashing the keyboard when I’m typing this out. The fact is, the club are just casually walking in the park, going for a stroll. They’re not fussed, they probably don’t even know there’s that much of a problem beyond their own target to appoint a longer term coach. They can't see how it hurts us in the present. It’s a willing sacrifice they take and have done so many times in our recent past. Probably because they’re misguided believing we’ll be thankful when they make the change. Meanwhile, we have to listen to ‘Tottenham DNA’ and scratch our chins, perplexed at how exactly Nuno fits into this.
We are already lagging behind City/Chelsea with the money they spend on wages and the foundation they built towards over a short period of time. You have to be doing everything, everything you can to close the gap. Everything. Ruthlessly, like your life depends on it.
The real culture of comfort is with the clubs owners. ENIC. But this isn't only because of what hasn't happened in the past 2/3 years (to fix things). It's made worse because of what we had with Poch. As stated, the issue is the club have always been reactive and not proactive.
We are always lucky to have what we have rather than always thinking about how to improve, evolve and protect momentum. Poch set a benchmark because the team and the fanbase were united. That's what we want, that's the foundation. There is no guarantee in football even if you do things right. But if you’re pushing in the right direction, you’ll have the support of those that follow Spurs home and away.
See? Alan was right. It’s just a repeat of the same blogs, the same discussions we’ve had time and time again. We can’t escape it. Prisoners of our own device, right?
If we work as a club to push in the right direction, then there's little we can moan about. Especially as the competition we would face is still levels above us. The money is the difference maker. Even so, they (the rich clubs that spend riches) can dip in form occasionally and that's when we strike. The thing is, we ain't striking. We can barely throw a punch. We’ve turned up for a fight with our fists protected by bubble wrap.
Think of it this way. We didn’t consolidate when we positively had to. It was on a plate for us. And if we did, and we won something. We probably still wouldn’t seek that consolidation to further build on it. The mentality of this club doesn’t align with the perceived philosophy that the fans want and, as an example, Poch had.
Yep. It’s the very same discussion over and over again.
What is staggering is that I don't think it's that difficult to get things right at Spurs and yet we somehow make it look impossible.
Poch was never expected to achieve what he did (in terms of what we believed we could do at that moment in time) and that's the real crux of it all. Even Poch was sort of accidental. A cheap option, comes in to better the players we had, on a budget (of sorts). We overachieved until we turned that into an underachievement. We went from pretenders to contenders and then lost it all again.
We'll know as a fanbase when we have things right because we'll feel that buzz again. The only buzz we are feeling right now is rival fans sending us text messages stating LOL.
So onwards we march waiting for a club announcement to lighten the mood.
COYS because it’s the choice we made. It’s the one we have to live with. Take the good with the bad but we can no longer be accepting of the club choosing to curate the mediocre. In the mean time, we ask ourselves; What is Tottenham? A portfolio or football club? It’s a question that barely needs answering right now.
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