Spurs are so close to bringing back the glory days... but only if they are really brave and back Pochettino with millions
TOTTENHAM are at a crossroads. A new stadium, which will be the best in the country, is coming. One of the best teams in the Premier League has been assembled through smart signings and an excellent youth system and they have one of the world’s finest young managers. Everything is coming together. The stars are aligning.
You can only congratulate the owners, the majority shareholder Joe Lewis and chairman Daniel Levy. It’s been a long haul, 16 years since they took over the club. I was one of their first managers and over that time they have transformed the club, first with a new training ground and a thriving youth academy.
On the pitch, the past two seasons have put them on the threshold of greatness and I’m convinced they will surpass anything the club have done previously.
Yet now is not the time to consolidate during a season at Wembley before they move into the new stadium. Because that won’t be enough.
Now is the time to be bold. Tottenham need to make brave signings in the summer: target the best players and push on. The title may be beyond them this season, though they will keep fighting to the end. But it is not beyond them in the future.
The Champions League was desperately disappointing this season. But winning it is a legitimate target for this young Spurs team.
Into today’s north London derby, for once it’s not bragging rights that are at stake. Now it’s a means to an end. They’re going to finish above Arsenal for the first time in 22 years and yet, sweet though it is, Tottenham can have much bigger targets than out-stripping their rivals.
But all this is only possible if the owners make a leap into the unknown. The figures show that Chelsea have spent £261million net on players since 2012-13, Tottenham just £9m. Chelsea have spent £1.036billion in wages and Spurs have spent just £542m. To get so close to Chelsea and spend so much less is extraordinary. Yet, impressive though those figures are, look at the trophy count. Since 2012 Chelsea have won the Champions League, the Europa League, the Premier League, the FA Cup and the League Cup. They could yet win the Premier League and FA Cup Double this season. We all know what Tottenham have won since 2012 — their last trophy came in 2008.
This is a definitive moment for the club. They have only ever won the title twice in their history, in 1951 and 1961. Their greatest moment came 56 years ago when they won the Double in 1960-61. My team enjoyed some success in the 1980s, winning the FA Cup twice and the UEFA Cup. But silverware has hardly been a regular feature at Spurs in the past 25 years, when there have been just the two League Cup wins.
Despite that, the fan base is enormous. Spurs have sold out Wembley for the Champions League matches with 85,000. They got 80,000 for a Europa League game against Gent! Only Manchester United and perhaps Arsenal and Liverpool could match that. Put bluntly, Tottenham aren’t just a top-four club. They have the opportunity to become a superpower in the Premier League and in Europe.
But it will require a change in mentality. Tottenham can no longer be a selling club. If an £80million offer came in for Harry Kane they must say no. All the players are on long-term deals. They have to keep the core of this squad together.
Imagine if they had been in this position four years ago when Real Madrid came calling? Imagine if they had kept Gareth Bale. Put this team together with the Wales striker and you would have had a title-winning team already. He would have made the difference. Major trophies and long Champions League runs would have come by now.
Tottenham can aspire to compete with the best. The transfer market isn’t a supermarket, where you simply select your favourite player and bring him in. Clearly it’s complex persuading the best player to go to Spurs.
But if Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester City have their eyes on Kylian Mbappe, Monaco’s teenage sensation, then so should Tottenham. What a statement that would make if they could sign him.
Why not? He might cost £80million. But he’s 18 and in five years time there’s a
‘IF THEY HAD KEPT BALE THEY’D HAVE WON MAJOR TROPHIES’
reasonable chance he’ll be worth more than £100million. He’s on the cusp of a great career and at Tottenham he would get to play for a great manager with a proven record of playing and improving young players. He’d play every week, which he can’t be sure of at Barcelona or Real Madrid.
I’d look at Isco from Real Madrid as well. He might be at the biggest club in the world but he can’t be happy as the best player in their B team. He must want to get back to being the outstanding player he was at Malaga, playing every week.
Both players would fit perfectly into Tottenham’s system. If they play a back three, Mbappe could play in a front two with Kane. With a back four, he’d be perfect playing down the left channel with movement and pace which are just superb.
You could put Isco in the starting XI and a player as good as Christian Eriksen might end upon the bench. Though that might seems harsh, given how good Eriksen has been this season, that is precisely what Tottenham need: another dimension and a fresh edge to push the players on.
Of course the club can’t be reckless. They have a new stadium to pay for and then there is the Wembley factor to negotiate next season. We’ve already seen how Tottenham’s pressing tactics can be less effective there and how other teams raise their game.
It could be a tricky season. But with planning they can do it. They need the dimensions of the pitch to match White Hart Lane, so that they can press teams for space. At times Wembley can seem too spacious to play that way.
They also need to get the atmosphere right. In the Champions League games it was disjointed, with the loudest fans sitting away from like-minded people. So you had those who wanted stand up and sing next to families. They need to make sure there is a mass of fans all sitting together who want to sing so that Wembley becomes an intimidating place for opponents to come.
But while Tottenham are on the verge of taking the next step they’re not there yet. Take last Saturday’s FA Cup semi final. When they are in the positon to start the game with Kane, Alli and Eriksen on the bench and fresh to bring on in the last half hour then they’ll know they’ve made it. That’s what Chelsea could do, with Diego Costa, Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas.
Chelsea’s squad has depth and breadth. Tottenham might even have the best first XI. But they haven’t got the reserves to back that up.
It’s a tough call for the owners this summer but this is the time to go for it; to build for the next 10 years.
The glory years at Tottenham have been all too infrequent. There is a chance now to write a new chapter, more glorious than anything that has been gone before.