Dig in your Spurs for the pre-season carousel

Article by Douglas Bence

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The four-year merry-go-round that is the World Cup makes this sports-mad nation slightly crazy, but it has the advantage of removing the spotlight from the endless tedium of Premier Division speculation.

Not just who will play for whom and how much will they cost, but can Manchester United bounce back, will Liverpool do it again, perhaps Wenger will spend money instead making Arsenal even richer, could José Mourinho’s magic be enough for Chelsea and will City flounder under the demands of the Financial Fair Play Rules?

There’s more, of course, there always is. Inevitably the same old non-stories go from one media outlet to the next without a hint of a check call or even a meaningful quote from an optimistic agent. All this without a hint of an apology for poking over the mouldy dregs at the bottom of the garbage.

There’s more. Can another side break into the top four on a regular basis? If so could that be Everton or even Tottenham, the perennial over-spenders and underachievers of the Premier League living in a past that no one under 60 remembers?

Although they have a wonderful collection of dedicated supporters, Spurs is not a club favoured by the media. If they have to write something about North London, journalists would prefer that was Arsenal, and if it’s Spurs, make it negative rather than positive.

While the White Hart Lane futures of Etienne Capoue, Nacer Chadli, Michael Dawson, Harry Kane, Jake Livermore, Roberto Soldado, Andros Townsend and others are as speculative as the weather forecast, it is clear from what new coach Mauricio Pochettino said in his first interview given in English last week, that whoever is going to be in the starting 11 come August, they will have to embrace both his football philosophy and training methods.

While Spurs’ performance on the pitch justifiably attracted a mass of invective last season, the way that the club has been managed as a business since Alan Sugar (sorry Lord Sugar) departed did not. While the boss of Amstrad regularly demonstrated how little he knew about football before he sold out to ENIC, he put in a proper management structure and since then the club has generally turned in a respectable profit.

With nobody obviously banging on the door to lure away Spurs’ raft of lazy misfits, whose attitude outweighs their skill, it is unclear how much Pochettino will have to spend. Naming the Argentinean as coach apparently split the Spurs board, but as they couldn’t get anyone else, Levy’s preference won the day. While he at least knows the Premiership, however, Pochettino’s appointment is a gamble.

It’s no secret that Spurs is up for sale, but only at a price. And to get the ticket as big as possible, it isn’t just a new stadium they need, but success on the pitch. Spurs fans have heard it all many times before, of course. They’re used to being let down by a club that never seems to believe in its ability to thrive at the top.

Pochettino inherits a big squad, which just as well because if what one hears about his training methods is true, last year’s bunch will all be knackered by Christmas, and that takes no account of away matches to obscure parts of Europe in the thick of winter for the dreaded EUFA Cup. And if Spurs are not in, or close to the top six come Boxing Day, Pochettino will be on his way like his predecessors. What was that about a merry-go-round?

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