It was never ever going to be an easy ride this season and that would have been the case even without the Covid pandemic.
The reason is simple, Jose Mourinho and Daniel Levy.
Now, I will say straight up so there is no ambiguity that I fully support Mourinho, I believe he is a brilliant hire and will, if given the time, lead Tottenham to success.
I am also a supporter of Levy and what he is trying to do with the club and yes, I know that flies in the face of consensus on this site and in the wider Tottenham family.
Let’s start with Levy first and the way he runs the club and what he is looking to achieve in the long run.
Levy does own a part of ENIC, just under 30% in fact, Joe Lewis controls the remaining 70% and so naturally he treats it like a business and why not?
The idea that all he is interested in is the bottom line is far too simplistic because without success on the field of play the bottom line will not grow how he would want.
Of course, the Stadium will eventually bring in a ton of money for non-football related activities but it is in the football area that most money will be derived.
Sponsors will always pay extra to successful teams, there is more TV money, more prize money, bigger attendances and so on when a team wins silverware. When they don’t, their value diminishes, this is business 101.
Levy hired Mourinho because he wants silverware, whether that is to buff up the bottom line or not is irrelevant, what is relevant is that the cheap option was not taken because the Chairman wants glory and why any Tottenham fan would criticise that is beyond me.
In my opinion, what Levy is doing at Spurs should be applauded, he is building something that will stand the test of time and keep Spurs in the elite group of football clubs for decades to come.
Levy is an easy target because he is unfairly compared to other owners, Roman Abramovich for example, well, I hope you are sat down because this may come as a bit of a shocker but Spurs has never been run as a Russian Oligarchs toy project (or Gangster, whatever rocks your boat) and never will be.
Tottenham has always been a self-sustaining model and long may that continue.
Now, Mourinho.
As I have already stated above, I believe he is a brilliant hire and will bring us success but that does not mean he walks on water and is not immune to mistakes.
He is to blame for the defeat against Liverpool, he picked the team, he set up the tactics and strategy, he made the appaling substitutions, he did the half time team talk and so on, the buck stops at his door.
Yes, there were individual errors but the truth is that Spurs were always second best and even without those errors, would probably have lost regardless, why? Because Mourinho got it absolutely wrong.
Liverpool was there for the taking and Mourinho never took the opportunity presented to him, he reverted to type in a game that did not require his park the bus method, it needed ambition and courage, something the boss lacked.
Then to blame the players just compounded his mistakes.
Mourinho does have a very good squad available to him, I do not go with the narrative that Spurs is full of mediocrity, in my opinion, the Spurs squad is superior to that of West Ham and Leicester City etc and yet, Tottenham are below them in the standings, why? Who is to blame for that?
Mourinho will need his own players to implement his ideas and that will take time, however, to criticise the players that he currently has when it is him picking them lets him off the hook and that is simply not right.
Mourinho brought on Lamela against Liverpool, no one else, that was all the managers doing and so if it is the case that he does not play Vinicius or Bale or Alli because of what he sees in training then what is he seeing that puts Lamela and Moura in front of that trio?
It cannot be both ways, either Mourinho is getting it right with his selections or he is not, if he feels that Lamela can do a better job than Vinicius then so be it, that is on him and not Lamela when he does not deliver.
I fully expect my opinion to be dissected and belittled by some because that is what Tottenham has become today.
There are now separate factions within the fanbase, those that believe Mourinho can do no wrong and it is all the player’s fault, those that put the blame at Levy’s door and blame him for all the ills of the club, those that cannot stand the manager and feel he is toxic no matter what results he serves up and so on.
There is now very little consensus among the fans, there is the pro-Mourinho camp and the anti-Mourinho camp, those that feel that Levy is building something special in North London and those that believe he is detrimental and needs to be ousted and sadly, I do not see these differing camps coming together, even if the dust in the cabinet is hoovered up and silverware put in its place.
If we are not careful we will end up like that deluded lot down the road and that is not something we want as a fanbase.