CRISIS, WHAT CRISIS
Spurs don’t have to spend like crazy in order to succeed, says Dier
NO STADIUM; no summer signings; pretty much the entire first XI playing all the way through the World Cup: by rights, Tottenham Hotspur should be in full crisis mode by now.
‘I think we’ve all matured, we’re not so young anymore,’ explains Eric Dier, reflecting on Monday’s 3-0 win at Old Trafford against Manchester United and anticipating a trip to Watford today.
‘We’ve experienced a lot together. We know each other very well. We go into games fully prepared to suffer if we have to and to win.’ Monday’s game made the point. ‘In the past, that was the kind of game where maybe we wouldn’t have seen it out or we might have suffered more in the first half. But we got the job done.’
From Dier, one of the most articulate footballers, there is deeper analysis on his club relating to the summer transfer window. And it goes against the grain of conventional thinking. Dier argues that three successive wins to start the season have not come in spite of a lack of transfer activity; rather, that the stability it provided has been integral.
‘When big teams are doing badly, people say they need to spend another £200million or £300m,’ he says. ‘I think it’s crazy. People are looking at the wrong things if they think they need to spend money to change it. It’s much more down to working with the players you’ve got; getting the best out of them; building something as a team, the culture you create at the training ground, the work you put in; the atmosphere and the relationship between the players.
‘There are 50 different factors. Of course, teams need to sign players for different reasons. I understand that, there is always something better out there. But for me, people use it as an excuse and it’s the easy option to say: “Oh yeah, we’ll just spend £100m on a player and everything will be OK”. It’s not the case. If you look to the past and clubs that have been relegated recently, lots of them have spent a lot of money.
‘They think that’s what is going to make them better, but it’s so far from reality. It’s all about the manager and the players creating the right environment, demanding everything from everyone every day, improving the players you have at your disposal and not looking elsewhere constantly.
‘Make yourself better and make the club better. You don’t understand if you think just spending money is going to resolve things. Far from it.’
It’s not an issue, he says, that has been discussed among the players. This isn’t a party line dictated by manager Mauricio Pochettino. ‘It’s just my personal opinion,’ says Dier. ‘I think we’re a good example because we’ve had to find different ways to achieve the same results as other teams. I think in the long run we will be in a lot better position for it.
‘People love to talk about the fact we have not signed anyone, but we have a fantastic squad. Why sign someone if they’re not going to improve that? We have a fantastic atmosphere, work hard and the manager has installed a culture so every player has it. If they don’t, they won’t be welcome here. It’s more important than any money you can spend.’
It’s an impressively-reasoned argument. Ensuring they started the season properly was also key, however. As Manchester City flew out of the blocks in 2017-18, Spurs faltered, failing to win any of their first three games at their temporary home Wembley.
‘It’s been something we’ve spoken about a lot in the past couple of weeks. In the three previous seasons we started slowly and I’ve always felt that’s hindered us a bit. You’re constantly playing catch up from there.’
This latest start is all the more impressive given the World Cup exploits of Dier and his team-mates. No team in the world was more involved than Spurs. He had his requisite three weeks of holiday — ‘Anything less, it would have been difficult to find the will to start again,’ he admits.
A national hero in England when he scored the penalty against Colombia which saw the country win their first shoot-out at a World Cup, he admits frustration at his lack of game time. ‘I tried to react to that in the best possible way,’ he says. ‘It’s not nice, not playing, but you have to try to be ready and to help the team in different ways. It was an experience I learned a lot from and had to deal with.
‘Just going so far as a team in a tournament, you are in a different area that you’ve never been in before. It’s a unique situation, and to experience it
once is special.’ The penalty against Colombia was probably the best moment an England national team has enjoyed for a generation. ‘Whenever I’m out and about, it’s the only thing people talk about!’ he says. ‘From the minute we met up for the World Cup, we were practising penalties. I had a feeling it might appear at some time. ‘I spoke to Harry Kane about it the day after. When you’re standing there, on the halfway line, you’re nervous. All kind of different things go through your mind. But once I walked up, standing there to take it, I was actually quite calm. Through having so much repetition of it, I was just in a really good space to take it. ‘The psychology changed when the player before me [Colombia’s Carlos Bacca] missed, so I knew I was taking it to win, not to stay in it. Taking it to win it, I was just excited. I was confident.’
Still, heroics aside, Dier is desperate to win something more than applause for a last 16 penalty shoot-out win.
Last year Spurs failed in key games, such as the FA Cup semifinal against United and against Juventus in the last 16 of the Champions League.
‘I think in order to succeed you have to suffer,’ says Dier. ‘We’ve suffered at times in the past three seasons, we’ve been through difficult periods, and this season we’re going to go through difficult periods too. But we have to know how to get through that, and I think we do. If we’re in the right mental space, I think anything is possible.’