We at Spurs are never short of drama. Sometimes it’s of our own making, sometimes not, but more often it’s stimulated and exacerbated by the media.
September 4, 2018 10:33In the past that drama has given the manager and players a ready excuse not to perform. Something or someone to blame and explain away the ropey start. This manager, this group of players simply don’t play by that rule book! Something in the culture of the dressing room has really changed.
With nine players involved until the final weekend of the World Cup, there was no credible pre-season for the first team squad - no chance to build on tactics or fine tune things before the big kick-off. Media drama about how it would affect the side, who may or may not be fit to play, the risk of another slow start to the season all dominated the sports pages. Any moans from the manager or players? No. Quite the opposite. No problem they said. Turn it to a positive was the message: those returning players would still be in good physical condition not dulled by 8-10 weeks off.
With no new signings to ‘freshen things up’ Sky, the written media and the sad excuse for radio pundits at Talksport went in to meltdown. As if spunking a few tens of million on a bunch of mediocrity was a sure fire way to success. Sure we fans love the buzz of a new signing and no Spurs fan of a certain age will forget the day we woke up to read that we’d signed Ricky and Ossie.... or turning on the breakfast news to see Jurgen on Alan Sugar’s yacht in Monaco. But we know more than most that spending for the sake of spending is often a route to disaster.
Bottom line, it would have been easy for Poch to turn full moaning Mourhino (poor lamb only got to buy a £40m CM but wasn’t able to liberally sprinkle around cash this summer to replace expensive CB flops he himself signed last summer!). But that’s not his way. It’s no longer our way: No signings, no problem. Turn it to a positive. We have continuity, a united cohesive dressing room. Everyone knows the drill, knows their role. Move on.
And something else interesting came up in conversations after that thumping win at Old Trafford..... Maybe that season (and a bit!) at Wembley will turn out to be pivotal for us. The year away from the Lane was another ready-made excuse that the manager simply didn’t allow to manifest itself. And the result, it seems, is a group of players with a mentality that is no longer brittle and reliant on home advantage. The away record has steadily improved but the stand-out victories at Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford may well be seminal moments in the continued maturity of this group.
With this continued improvement comes heightened expectations and that will be felt no more keenly that in the Champions League where we once again will enjoy a ‘group of death’ (as portrayed by the media). The supporters however are relishing the chance to face Barca, Inter and PSV - after-all the joy of being in the Champions League is the buzz of those truly big games. For this Spurs group they also represent an accelerated right of passage. The results and performances in last year's competition clearly took many of the players to new levels. They now have a tough assignment but one which no matter the results, will help maintain that journey.
And so here we are, three wins from three. A real buzz about the club, a best-ever Premier League start and mouth watering European games ahead. Does it mean we will romp the league: no, it’s clearly still City’s to lose), does it mean we will get our hands on that first breakthrough trophy in the Pochettino era, No. But whatever way you look at it, the manager and group of players is systematically debunking myths and the media frenzy.
It’s going to be fascinating to see how the experiences of 2017/18 help the side play out 2018/19 in reality - and just how off base the pre-season media hyperbole and pundit pontification might have been.
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