At the end of the eighties
Manchester band James released a song called ‘Sit Down’ which later became an
anthem in student bars in the nineties, with more substance in the ‘pound-a-pint’
plastic glasses rather than a fairly flimsy song that is not representative of
their best work. It did though contain the line “if I hadn’t seen such riches,
I could live with being poor”, words that go some way to summing up why the
under-achievement of a Tottenham season that contained some scintillating
football at times, is such a big disappointment.
A more lasting memory from the
eighties rather than sing-along-guitar-based-pop was a Tottenham side that not
only played football with flair, but won things. It had stated ambitions to
challenge for the title. And it was proud of a history that we should all know,
and which includes these words from Bill Nicolson that are always worth
remembering in any end-of-season analysis:
“It’s better to fail aiming high
than to succeed aiming low. And we of Spurs have set our sights very high, so
high in fact that even failure will have in it an echo of Glory”.
Having seen a lot of football over
the last thirty years, I knew that going into January 2012, Tottenham had a
decent chance of winning the title. And I was pleased with some of the words at
the time from players, the coaching staff, the Manager and the Chairman, which also echoed
those ambitions.
Not only were we playing football
as good as any side in the country, we had shown signs of a strong winning
mentality, and just as importantly, none of our competitors had a significant
advantage over us, either in points or on paper. Manchester City had the
strongest squad, but with all the expectation on them, no track record of success
and a first-team set-up that looked like it could implode, we would have been
in with a chance at the death if we kept in striking distance. Manchester
United meanwhile were picking up points, but looked far from invincible in any
game they played, both in the League and in all other competitions, suffering
defeats that would have been shocks against past United sides of recent
seasons.
And at that point it was just
three-horse race. But I always expected us to be in the top three once we
completed our summer transfer business. Anyone who saw Chelsea’s struggles since
before Christmas 2010, looked at how Liverpool had spent their millions or
even observed Arsenal closely, would have smelt those shovelling shit from the bag
labelled “We'll be lucky to finish in the top four” a mile off.
We were worth our place in the
top three, aiming high and playing great football. Everything about the club was positive. So far, so good. In fact up until January there
were only a couple of regrets.
Not for the first time we didn’t
do our transfer business quickly enough in the summer. The unsettling of Luka
Modric was handled superbly by Daniel Levy, and there is nothing we could do
about the end of the window occurring after the season was under-way, with as
far as keeping Modric’s mind on the job. Levy’s comments out of his car window,
telling us how Modric had “understood” the situation, were as welcome as any
other interview from a vehicle with the engine running outside a Tottenham Car
Park.
The problem instead was with the
incoming players. As previous readers of this blog and my e-book of our
Champions League Campaign 2010-11 will know, I had been in favour of signing Scott
Parker for a long-time. (Back in the days when he was at Charlton originally,
to be precise). Why that wasn’t done before the start of the season was never made
clear, and the delay meant we were without him for two crucial games against
the Manchester clubs, both of which should be recognised as six-pointers,
because even following the defeat at City in January, would have meant the gap
was minimal had we perhaps even drawn at White Hart Lane in August. We started that
delayed first home game of the season well, Bale looking dangerous, but with
Crouch rather than Adebayor being on the end of chances in the penalty area. But
eventually City’s fluid attack found it easy to play behind our lightweight central partnership of Modric and Kranjcar, a midfield they already out-numbered anyway, and we lost by four goals, following a three goal defeat at Old
Trafford.
After the window was closed, and
our business done we were excellent in the League, and even the points we dropped
– draws at Newcastle and Swansea and at home to Chelsea as well as the loss to Stoke
where diabolical refereeing decided the game – all contained positive signs in
their own way. We should have been more clinical in the first half against
Chelsea and in the second half at St James Park, but we were well placed.
In the League Cup and the Europa
League the Manager rightly gave some squad players games, while still picking
teams that were, on paper, strong enough to win the games they needed to
comfortably. The crucial defeat in Europe, to PAOK Salonika at White Hart Lane,
highlighted performances that were either lacklustre or not good enough from
players including Corluka, Rose, Bassong and Kane, the first three of whom were
supposed to be able to step-in as replacements at anytime.
However, we produced so much good
football before the defeat at the Etihad in January, it would be wrong to not
also mention some of those highlights before moving on.
The win at home to Bolton in
early December delivered, for me, our goal of the season by Aaron Lennon, who
finished a sweeping move that was started by Kyle Walker, and finished
beautifully by Lennon himself, as once again he stretched an opposition with a
starting position from wide on the left, coming inside to score a significant goal.
Bale’s goal second goal at home
to Queens Park Rangers, from a central starting position that involved an
interchange of passes with Lennon (again from the left), was also full of
style, drawing comparisons with Barcelona from observers, although also bringing
back memories of Tottenham of old, when passing and movement underpinned many
of our greatest days.
And the flexibility in tactics
and fluidity of movement were often a key part of that our success in the first
half-of-the-season. Lennon, once again from the left, scored another wonderful
goal at Fulham, in a team performance that showed a combination of quality and
real mettle.
Arguably the best team
performance of the season came away at Norwich, when unlike in the great
display that followed at home to Newcastle in February, we didn’t get an early
goal, but continued to play football in our efforts to win the game. A
fluid front three of Bale, Adebayor and Van Der Vaart all had licence to roam and
Bale’s two goals in the second-half that evening, including a great run and
finish from deep, were a reminder of his constant ability to win matches.
Alongside Bale and Lennon, Rafa VanDer Vaart is our other genuine match-winner, with a consistent ability to turn
games. He showed it with the vital run he went on, scoring in consecutive games
in our unbeaten sequence, which included a couple of crackers away at Blackburn
and the opener in the North London Derby win. But as well as goals he offers
more, with a combination of technique, football intelligence and desire. When
we have struggled to break teams down, his ability to play between the lines,
such as in the second-half at home to Everton when he played at the front of the
diamond, has allowed him to change games in less obvious ways.
The versatility for the team to switch
between systems including 4-4-1-1, a diamond, 4-3-3, and three at the back, boded well
at the turn of the year, and even in the second-half fight-back at Manchester
City it was the movement of Bale and Lennon that caused City the most problems
as we piled on the pressure.
The decisive moment was of course
Defoe just failing to convert the chance that would surely have won the game
and killed City off from Bale’s cross in that game. Not only was it a
six-pointer that would have closed the gap, it would have been City’s first
home defeat in the League of the season, and caused serious doubts to side that
had only won one trophy in 25 years at that point, and who following their
pre-Christmas exit from the Champions League had been knocked out of both
domestic cup competitions that month. They had a long way to fall after their
early season promise, and Defoe scoring may have caused them to look down with
four months still remaining.
But instead that let-off, which
they capitialised on by going up the other end and nicking it, caused a psychological
blow for us from which we never recovered. We stumbled along in the FA Cup, and
produced one last sparkle in the League, against Newcastle, following a couple
of early goals in a Saturday early-kick-off at White Hart Lane that boosted the
well oiled crowd that after three days of incessant media coverage had almost convinced itself we had the Messiah running the show.
We unwisely took the same team in
to the North London Derby the following week, perhaps gambling in an effort to pressurise a
suspect Arsenal defence with two big strikers, and arguably our hand forced by
injuries. We had a good opening ten minutes, but were soon outnumbered by a
team who for all their faults, know how to keep possession; though we got the
second goal that always looked likely from a break, we were overrun, and rather
than ending Arsenal’s season, we gave them the biggest boost of all.
Tactical errors followed in other
games as well; we temporarily got away with 4-4-2 at home to Manchester United because they
played the same shape for the forty-five minutes. But a silly foul at the end of the
first half gifted them a set-piece, from which they scored, and they were able
to re-jig at half-time, as our injury depleted XI looked too weak to fight
back. At Everton Van Der Vaart was left on the bench while 4-4-2 failed again. His introduction later wasn’t enough to overturn a lead the home side already had, and were
happy to defend deep, and in numbers.
Van Der Vaart considers himself
an attacking midfielder, which is exactly what he is, and he is far more potent
a goal threat than Luka Modric when Spurs decide to play with a midfielder
behind two strikers, whereas Modric’s greatest strength is dictating the pace
of play centrally from deep. For all the fluidity of our play at times in the
first half of the season, too many times in the second half, players were not
deployed where they could be most effective. And Van Der Vaart is always more
effective on the pitch, than on the bench.
Things out of our control also didn’t
go our way. Adebayor’s goals that had previously been wrongly ruled out against
Stoke, Wolves, Chelsea and Manchester United started to grate more, the worse
our latter performances and results became. Even the lost day of training ahead
of the midweek home game against Stoke, as the players understandably had to cope
after seeing a fellow professional stop breathing in front of them, could be
considered a factor when looking into the minute detail of where points
were dropped in the season.
The ghost goal in the FA CupSemi-Final, a crucial decision that affected the game was typical of the season’s
disappointments, and a growing sense of injustice, which continued to the last day, when Arsenal benefited from
Martin Fulop’s shocking display to stop us going third, and then beyond, when
the most negative of displays was still enough for Chelsea to stop us getting
even a Champions League qualifier.
But for all of that, it should
never have come down to little elements of luck. Even with the last two league
games left, we knew two wins against inferior opposition would secure a top three
finish, which was all we had left to fight for, and the least we should have
expected this season. Yet, bizarrely, Scott Parker, apparently struggling with
an achilles injury, was brought on for the injured Van Der Vaart instead of Dos
Santos, Defoe or Saha, when we needed a goal at the death at Villa Park. The previous
week, the insistence to keep the injured Lennon on against Blackburn for an
extra ten minutes, despite having a goal-lead and knowing his importance in the
coming games, was also worrying. And finally, sending out the injured Kyle
Walker for the second-half on the last day, again despite being in the lead and
having two alternate options at right-back, was a final sign of erratic
decision making from the Manager.
It has been a hard season for
Redknapp. He had a heart operation, then the culmination of a Court Case which has
been a cloud hanging over him for years. The day that ended he was immediately
under pressure again, as the England job became vacant ahead of time. He was
always going to be a contender, and it was long expected 2011-12 would be his
last as Tottenham Manager, but the very public distraction as he was touted for the Office he has
always openly courted didn’t help him or the players, as results started to
slide.
At the time we were riding high and he could have committed to Tottenham in the knowledge if he was offered the
England job he could have done it on a one-off basis with public backing for
the summer - without the hassle of qualifying, with no worry of blame,
fulfilling his ambition while challenging for a major international tournament with nothing to
lose. And as I wrote at the time, he could then have returned to work with
better players at his club, and the knowledge they were as likely to win the
Champions League at Wembley in 2013, as England were to win the 2014 World Cup
in Brazil. Chelsea’s win has emphasised how achievable that would have been, as
they won the Cup on foreign soil with an inferior team to ours. But Redknapp
didn’t commit, and after over three and a half years in charge, is also solely
responsible for us not guaranteeing qualification next season.
For the players, as the results got worse, and the
season neared to the end, the uncertainty of Redknapp’s position, and their
own situations, helped no one. While the long-standing doubts over Redknapp’s future,
which were there before February, have no doubt been a factor in the lack of
activity in the transfer market in the last two windows.
It is clear where we need to
improve in the squad. Watching Ledley King struggle this season has been
painful, and a centre-back is imperative. A left-back that can challenge
Ekotto is also essential, as is cover for Walker, and strong back-up players
who can come-in to the team and turn games, like Krancjar used to be able to do in the past.
And for all Adebayor’s contributions, for the money reportedly involved in the
deal, it is likely there could be a better options available – ideally someone
who has a good first touch and can consistently time his runs, as well as being
always motivated and clinical in front of goal.
The Club has made good transfers in Redknapp's reign without much involvement of the Manager, notably Van Der Vaart, Sandro
and Pienaar, the last of whom is now only fully appreciated under a different
Manager (which is maybe how Dos Santos will finally be viewed positively). But the limbo, now recognised by all, is
not helpful. It is a loose end must be tied one way or the other.
It is why “just one
more year” won’t work in this circumstance. This is not Pep Guardiola on a
rolling-contract at Barcelona, with a footballing philosophy behind it, and an orderly succession in place from the backroom staff. If the decision is to wait for
Guardiola himself, who may well fancy a job in London after a year’s break and
who, reports suggest, will consider clubs not involved in the Champions League, it is understandable, though from the outside it looks like a massive gamble, unless he signs a pre-agreement.
Either way, something should be happening behind the scenes and I will expand on long-term solutions in my next Spurs blog,
coming soon.
MG
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| My e-book on Tottenham Hotspur's return to the European Cup in 2010-11 is available on Amazon and Smashwords. |
