Blogging about Tottenham is a challenge these days, as we live in exceptional times, were most of us have been banged up in our homes for about a year or so, in respect of something that still isn’t easy to fully comprehend. Lack of social interaction hasn’t helped. If we were talking about football down the pub, some of the less than intellectual would’ve been refined by gentle mocking, and if you persisted with the really daft theories, you could well end up with a pint in your lap. In the splendid isolation of the lockdown, many are making the same points every day, paying no heed to what anyone else is saying. It’s not just here, it’s everywhere. Expression has unsurprisingly become stunted. And so the same points are delivered again and again, frequently using the same selection of words.
What’s tragic, is that the level of critical thought being employed is evidently at an all-time low. It’s fair to say that very few made an emotional investment in our current gaffer. That suits me just fine by the way, I pretty much threw the towel in on that old toffee after Jol was fired. Villas- Boas’ demise taught me that nothing could counter the suffocation of the owners. Pochettino flirted heavily with me, but he too was clearly doomed. So when I see José being spat at by the Redknapps and the ‘I didn’t wunnim here in the first place’ brigade’, it’s not come entirely as a shock. A vocal percentage of the fanbase was unhappy when we went top of the table and secured our place in a cup final.
The argument about style over substance is something else we’ve covered at length. I never in my life left a football match after watching Spurs lose and said to anyone on the bus or the tube, ‘but it was a jolly entertaining contest’, had I done so, I think I may have needed reconstructive surgery. The solemnity of losing has never left me. Why ought it? So with all due respect, kindly whine about being entertained elsewhere.
Bar one or two additions (which have not been enough) the squad’s starting XI is essentially the same as the one that collapsed under Pochettino. Anyone trying to sell me that the last two seasons of that reign were energized and entertaining isn’t going to make a sale. So the argument that Mourinho should, despite this crystal clear evidence, still be able to get out a tune of a squad littered with deadbeats, makes no sense whatsoever. Good players don’t turn bad overnight. This lot has been on the turn for at least 3 seasons.
We went through all this on the podcast, but for the benefit of those that cannot be bothered to listen, Dier, Sanchez, Lamela, Rose, Doherty, Bale, Alli, Davies, Winks, et al. are either burnouts or simply unfit for purpose. Who among our second/third tier players would walk into any other top flight side? I’d argue none.
If we then look at the player that do provide hope, and add to that shorter list those that are out injured, then suddenly things look brighter, yet the cold reality is that the odds have been stacked against good overcoming mediocre all along. But many of you don’t want to hear all this, and believe that a new coach is the only answer.
I can understand those keeping firm to the line that Mourinho ought to be able, using better tactics or instruction to get a better tune out of his squad. That Dele and Bale are poised like coiled springs. That Vinicius should be given an extended run out. Why? Because it’s a lot easier than the alternative, which I have been describing to you in some detail, for a number of years.
In the final analysis, Mourinho has made mistakes, absolutely. Calling out Dele for the flick that caused the Portuguese so much ire would have undoubtedly made the rest of lads hesitant to deviate from the safe and simple. However, his biggest enemies are the ageing losers and injured players that he has wrapped around him. No? Then ask Pochettino what got him fired?