Over the last 11 years, we have gone from Champions League wanabees to Champions League finalists, and flirted with winning the Premier League.
Some fans may view that decade or so of progress as redundant because it didn’t deliver a trophy, although I’m not one. While Jose Mourinho now has a major rebuilding job on his hands, it would be tough to argue Tottenham are not significantly better off across the board than we were in 2009.
Except in one key area, highlighted by yesterday’s matchday revisited on the club’s Twitter account; the 9-1 rout of Wigan from November that year.
Jermain Defoe famously bagged five that day after Peter Crouch had opened the scoring. Robbie Keane and Roman Pavlyuchenko were on the bench as Harry Redknapp boasted a depth of firepower not seen in these parts since.
We have been spoilt by the individual quality of Harry Kane over the past five seasons, but he has been asked to do the job of four men. The 2009 quartet combined for 49 goals. Kane is very good, but nobody is that good.
Very few things have irked me more about Spurs recently than looking at the team-sheet and seeing the absence of a striker on the bench. Every other club in the league has one in reserve and plenty have several. It is criminal.