The jury was in some while ago, Conte-ball is Mourinho-ball, just minus your prejudices. But that’s okay because when we’re winning, and pretty much everyone else is pointing out how bad to watch the football is, you can still criticise, and it just gets lost in the mix. Nobody could ever realise you’re being inconsistent.
Looking at Tottenham’s numbers, after having wasted another hour and half of my life watching this particular brand of top-flight football, it’s pretty obvious that this squad is struggling to approach games in a sufficiently assertive manner.
Conte’s boys failed to demonstrate anything approaching the required levels of flair one might hope to see from any Champions League side, let alone a Tottenham one. To me, Conte looks to have overtrained them; they don’t get going until they catch their second wind and that’s been the case all season.
We looked tired and were largely pressed out of it by an effective, but unexceptional Sporting Lisbon – if we’re honest with ourselves. Is Supporting going to make the last 8 of the Champions League? With all the goodwill in the world, that feels ambitious.
Tottenham looks to all intents and purposes only marginally improved from the mob that stank out the Europa Conference League.
We know that there are some fine players at Spurs, but that’s been the same ‘go-to’ default position for far too many years now.
What we’re looking at, after not just one game but all the games so far this season, is a different shade of stagnation from the last guy. Spurs are way deep in the hole. I referred to Spurs’ transfer deficit as a £119million hole in the boat. Here we established that Levy’s net spend was £118million.
The new regime has won over many of the fans. Paratici is cooking and Conte’s name is readily sung. But the reality is within the gaffer’s words, telling us it’s now two or three windows to get where we need to be. At this point, our elder players will be approaching their pensions.
This club has underspent on quality which will provide an immediate benefit, and overspent on junk that can’t even be loaned out without the wages being heavily subsidised.
I called Pochettino a patsy, and now I’m calling Conte one, which is easy to do when you’re not in their position, being paid over a million each month.
There are voices bleating we should have sent on Spence and Bissouma, the inspiration is suffocating.
