Wembley wonders give Poch landmark victory

IN his new book, Mauricio Pochettino explains that he doesn’t like to celebrate too much on the touchline when things go right.

The Tottenham manager believes such things only breed complacency in his players.

So when the final whistle blew and Wembley shook from the ground up yet again, Pochettino turned to face Zinedine Zidane, offered a handshake and headed off down the tunnel with barely a smile.

Inside his head, though, there will have been a different story playing out. This was the performance — the result — that Pochettino has been waiting more than 18 months for.

Tottenham have reached some landmarks since they began their journey upwards with their Argentine coach. Third place in the Premier League in 2016, one place better and, just as importantly, well ahead of Arsenal a year later. But this will mean something else entirely to Pochettino.

In order for a team to move to the really highest level, it needs something like this to happen. It needs a landmark moment not so much for the rest of the world to take notice but to convince yourself and your players that you can do it, that you belong.

This is what Pochettino referred to when he spoke beforehand of the need for mental strength. ‘It’s the last step we need, a stronger mentality,’ he said.

Pochettino thinks very carefully about what he says in press conferences as he knows his players are listening. This time the message was clear. The Tottenham manager was telling his players that they lacked nothing in terms of ability, skill or fitness and all they had to do was show it.

As they headed off the field and down the tunnel behind him just after 9.35pm, the scoreline marked it out as a mission accomplished.

To understand the significance of this result, some context is probably required. This was the first time Real Madrid had lost a group game in the Champions League for five years. That was a run of 30 games.

Not only are the Spanish team the champions of Europe and Spain, they are also a team that even Barcelona feared at the start of the season. Barcelona defender Gerard Pique said back in August that there was a growing danger of feeling ‘inferior’.

So despite Real’s injuries and uncertain form in La Liga, this was a victory of epic proportions for Tottenham and how uplifting it was to see it delivered through the medium of aggressive, expansive, front-foot football so familiar to watchers of the Premier League.

Tottenham didn’t change to try to accommodate the best club side in Europe here. Instead, they presented the most natural version of themselves to Real and let them see if they could deal with it.

Over the course of the game, Real couldn’t deal with it at all and in players such as young midfielder Harry Winks and right back Kieran Trippier, Tottenham had weapons that will only serve them better the longer this season goes on.

Winks was a revelation again. He is 21 but looks younger and is still in the infancy of his Tottenham career.

Twelve months ago, Pochettino didn’t feel he was ready to start Premier League games. Winks began an EFL Cup game at Liverpool a year ago last week but that was sandwiched by league games that saw him thrown on in the dying moments, just for a taste.

Yet here he was, selected ahead of senior Tottenham players for the club’s most high-profile game of the season so far.

Having followed news of his selection for the game in Madrid two weeks ago by going for a sleep in his room — ‘I just wanted to chill,’ he said — here at Wembley Winks was alive and awake, knitting together the play between defence and attack and landing a lovely cross- field pass on to Trippier’s instep in the build-up to an opening goal that tipped the balance of power in the game irreversibly Tottenham’s way.

The real beauty of Winks is the certainty of just about everything he does. It is worth pointing out here that he has started only 20 games for Tottenham and two of those have come against one of the greatest club sides in the world.

Winks was not his team’s best player last night but he still received a standing ovation when he was substituted after Christian Eriksen’s sublime third goal. His education has been as intense as it could possibly be and his young brain has proved to be as absorbent as a sponge.

So another great night for Winks, a seismic one for Tottenham and, with Manchester City scoring four at the unbeaten leaders of Serie A, a pretty handy one for English football.