HOME FROM HOME
Pochettino vows to recreate passion of the Lane at Wembley
Lodging at Wembley need not be the ‘nightmare’ it was for Arsenal, insisted Mauricio Pochettino, as Tottenham stepped into the future beneath the arch, smashing records and busting myths.
Spurs have been busy doing what they can to make the national stadium feel like a home as they move in for their Champions League campaign, which starts tonight against Monaco.
Lamp-posts have been adorned with the cockerel crest and the ‘To dare is to do’ motto on deep blue bunting. Vintage footage from a glorious past, which always precedes games at White Hart Lane, will boom out before kick-off.
new surfing flags will be rolled out, the arch will shine a bright white and the large digital display visible to fans as they exit Wembley Park Underground Station will transmit a Tottenham welcome message for a crowd expected to top 85,000. This initial small step from the intimate surroundings of The-Lane-as-weknow-it promises to be a spectacular event. Spurs will be back at Wembley in all competitions next season, as their new stadium is completed.
With only a thousand away fans expected, Wembley will never have hosted such a partisan club match. Supporters have been asked to unite wearing white — and to turn up early because there will be searches at the turnstiles. As all this unfolds, Pochettino’s task is to keep young minds from the distractions and ensure this adventure does not damage the progress made last year.
‘There’s nothing to prove in the Champions League,’ said the Spurs boss. ‘The big challenge for us is to try to win the league — but we need to be realistic and try to keep our level. We need to be ambitious and focused and try to improve every season.
‘The Premier League is the toughest competition in the world. The Champions League is a competition with different clubs. it is just as tough to play against Stoke as it is to play at Monaco.’
Arsenal won only two of six games and failed to make it past the group stage when they hired Wembley for two European campaigns at the end of the last century. ‘it was a nightmare,’ recalled Arsene Wenger recently. ‘it was the wrong decision. We didn’t feel at home. We were used to Highbury, a tight pitch. it was a disadvantage for sure.’
For practice, Pochettino has converted two pitches at the training ground to the dimensions of the Wembley surface, five metres longer and two metres wider than the one at White Hart Lane.
At least his five England internationals will know their way around. one, Eric dier, signed a new fiveyear contract yesterday. danny Rose, who will miss this game with a hamstring injury, is close to following suit, and Harry Kane and Kyle Walker remain in talks.
Everyone will stick to the same pre-match routine. ‘We will arrive in our cars, three-and-a-half hours before the game,’ said Pochettino. ‘Maybe parking will be easier than at White Hart Lane, which is very difficult. We have some nice rooms to have meetings and it will be the same. We need to behave naturally and not try to look for an excuse. That’s never good.
‘We trust in ourselves. We believe in the way we play. We feel good at White Hart Lane because it’s our home and we need to feel good at Wembley.’
Pochettino’s team will settle into the home dressing room which may bring them a change of luck. They were in the away dressing room on their last visit, when beaten by Chelsea in the 2015 League Cup final. Tottenham’s trend of Wembley results is not encouraging, beaten four times since winning the League Cup with Juande Ramos at the helm eight years ago.
Meanwhile, their opponents will relish the stage and the chance to avenge a 4-1 defeat in the Europa League in december.
‘Every player in our team will have played in similar situations, in front of big crowds, said Monaco’s Joao Moutinho. ‘Most of the fans will be against us, we know that, but this is only extra motivation.
‘As players, we love the pressure and we know if we play at 100 per cent we can come away with a positive result. Why not a victory?’
by MATT BARLOW