Spurs Searching for the Way Forward

A good friend dropped me a line the other day, out of the blue. He’d not seen me, I’d not been around much online. He said something like, watching Spurs is depressing right now and so many of the people he has spoken to over many years are struggling at the moment. He wondered how I was.

Over the years, I have learned through bitter experience to temper my expectations, but still, once the last shred of hope disappears, it’s time to give up and I’m not ready for that. That’s the essence of being a fan, regardless of which club you support. Fans will tolerate almost anything if they have something to believe in. I’m a fan. I watch the game, support the team, love the shirt, regardless. But faith has been elusive lately. Reach out to replenish fast-diminishing reserves, only to find it’s slipped through your fingers.

Peaks and troughs of emotion are familiar to every football fan, comforting even, although most are loathe to admit it, because it’s fundamental to being a supporter. Explaining this to the uninitiated provokes two reactions in my experience, first, blank uncomprehending, then a silent search for other character deficiencies. But we believers know, without pain there is no true joy. Or so we kid ourselves.

At Spurs though, this season is wringing out a whole variety of emotions, match by match, frequently minute by minute. Never in my memory have we been through so much, so often, so quickly and, I’m sad to say, so repetitively. Dazzling attacking football followed by crass defending. The ability to slice through any defence, the inability to accurately pass the ball 10 yards. The foundations of team building destroyed by a quake of injuries. Manchester United and Fraser Forster.

We gasp at the attacking brilliance and the potential it holds for a bright future. We despair at how easily Spurs can throw it all away in a microsecond. It makes us angry, so many take it out on individual players, the manager comes in for heavy criticism, as does the board. We take it out on each other, whinging on social media or knocking bits out of other fans. Yesterday, stewards piled in at the end of the game to separate battling Spurs fans in the South Stand. Other fans pontificating that if we’re not Levy Out, we’re part of the problem. I’ve been going for 55 years, really, I’m not.

Yesterday was my first game back at the Lane since Qarabag, my longest single absence since 1969. I missed games when the kids were young but never over such a long period. My new knee is fine. Turns out it sets off the stadium security sensors, so getting in was fun.

Being there is my way of relating to Spurs. There are many other ways equally as meaningful. In fact, as I’ve said before, there’s more considered analysis from people who see the game on TV. But this is my way, and it’s important to me as an individual. It’s about who I am.

There was a stark and sobering difference in mood between the two games. Qarabag was upbeat and optimistic. We won easily, plus the lower prices and greater availability of tickets meant there were many Spurs fans, including family groups, who are not regulars, for whom the game was a real occasion.  Yesterday, although the atmosphere wasn’t dire, disappointment and apathy were never far away. When Wolves equalised, there was little anger, just a collective shrug in the South Stand. Nobody joined the chant from the Levy Outers at the back. A forlorn lone black balloon drifted in the wind, as aimless as our defending.

It’s difficult to see the way forward through the fog of disappointment and the footballing contradictions that cloud our perceptions, so we watch the game and we’re not sure exactly what we’re seeing, let alone make sense of it. By this point, a season and a half of Ange, I thought we would be further on than we are and it’s hard to shake that feeling, even though some of the reasons are beyond his control.

Another confounding factor is my exposure to more punditry than I usually consume because I’ve watched the games on television. Despite my determined efforts to avoid it (rule one: on no account listen on any pre- and post-match chat on TNT, rule two: ignore Jamie Redknapp), the Spurs Narrative is impossible to ignore. Spurs high-line, Ange never changes tactics, Ange is an idiot because he does not always conform to the expectations and prejudices of proper Football Men.

The players are knackered and so are we. I can’t pretend the mists have cleared completely, but I’ve not posted for a while so let’s catch up. Some issues are structural, and therefore embedded, others are situational with a (hopefully) short-term impact and (hopefully) practical solutions.

Spurs are victims of many years of mismanagement from a board unable and at times apparently unwilling, to define and implement a coherent, long-term footballing strategy leading to success on the pitch. More than mere changes of manager, the churn of playing styles and tactics and the associated transfer policies created long-term instability. Success or failure at any football club revolves around the relationship between three elements: the coach/manager, recruitment and finance. Since 2000, these have seldom aligned effectively. It’s the job of the chairman to make this happen, and he has failed. He speaks with pride about taking no notice of criticism, thus denying that some of this is constructive and that constructive criticism is the foundation of positive change. He speaks glibly of being the club custodian and of the club DNA, without either grasping what this means or understanding how to create, let alone implement, a strategy worthy of these laudable ambitions, indeed worthy of the club’s rich heritage.

Ange has inherited this burden. It’s not his fault but he can’t escape it. One League Cup in two decades. A misshapen squad, the legacy of JM and Conte, the quicksand in danger of sucking him down, as it has done for several of his predecessors.

Also, the disconnect between club and supporters has widened, again through the board’s neglect. If you build it, we will come, but it’s sodding expensive. Fans try to resolve the equation. High prices, no success. The stadium makes us rich and self-sufficient, no success. It makes the chairman rich, but there are no new senior concessions because to grant them would potentially undermine the club’s ability to challenge the best. Recently, some informal fan groups have stated how hard it is to work with the club and will not do so in the future because straightforward requests designed to improve the atmosphere have been stifled. These things may sound intangible but they build up, lowering the threshold of tolerance and in the end, it’s support for the team that the board’s actions impinge upon.   

Then there’s structure and Ange. Mythbusting – go. Spurs are infuriating but not inconsistent. Basically, we play well and score goals if teams let us play. Very different teams and styles, but in this sense, City and Saints, the same. If sides press high and cut down our time and space, at the moment we’re not good enough to find a way out every time.

Also, underlying inconsistency is a lack of experience, confidence and nouse to find a way forward. Sometimes we overcome problems like this, often we can’t. We don’t have that steel, that resilience. That’s actually normal for a developing team, which is what we are. It’s not hindsight in my case to say our transfer policy should have added some experienced players in key central positions, someone with mental strength who has been there and done that, who can show our young talent the way. Players with the leadership qualities we sorely lack.

Ange doesn’t change tactics – not so. Although he plays up to this image, yesterday’s game showed how he adapts. Our first half press was decent, although how the players summoned up the energy for it I don’t know. Biss and Bentancur kept the central midfield under control. Second half, we tired and dropped into a lower block. He brought on subs early to sustain energy levels as best we can, given the current workload. It meant for boring football but it was a pragmatic response to the state of the game, and hardly flat out attacking.

What I’ve grandly called a situational factor is the injury crisis. Ange’s fault through overwork? Hamstring injuries plague the PL, while Brentford have ten players injured but the media do not appear to be blaming Frank. However, hindsight here, but the decision to risk VDV and Romero for the CFC game appears to be a big mistake with lasting consequences.

I don’t know what else we can do at the moment. You can sense the desperation as I type, can’t you. Our squad is not ready to be effective across four competitions. We’ve not got to know Odobert yet but his injury plus Werner’s unreliability undermines one improvement planned for this season, the addition of players who can beat a man and therefore expose packed defences. Another stifled change is our pressing game, effective earlier this season but again undermined by tired legs. Our defence can be wide open but pressing is all about defending, and that option is not often available now.

So Ange turned to the low/mid block yesterday, but we’re not good at that. This is in part about coaching, in part because we don’t really have midfield players keen and able to prioritise defending. At the risk of sounding reactionary, I have asked in the past for at least one defensively minded midfielder to fill the gap that often appears in front of our vulnerable back four and to work that double pivot that strengthens the team. We’re not ready to match Ange’s ambitions without them.

So to draw breath. Having decried the board’s ability to plan for success, the past year has seen us create that strategy, with Lange in charge of football matters and recruitment. Going for younger players has exposed the faults in the squad but augers well for the future. Painful rebuilds really hurt.

I see no point in changing manager now. We don’t know how good he can be if he has half his squad injured. We have been too open in the past but he has responded, I don’t see what significant improvements he can make at the moment, although that may change in a couple of weeks as the transfer window unfolds.

As ever, though, Levy has the final word. Will he stay resolute if we lose to Liverpool and Arsenal? History suggests he’ll fold. We have a plan at long last. Let’s see if the board are wedded to it.