The Tottenham Way, what exactly is it? Beale81 puts on his Columbo raincoat and investigates whether there is such a thing.
The Tottenham way
I can tell the new season is almost upon us as my Facebook page is suddenly flooded with pictures of our squad training and my Twitter feed is beginning to fill with snippets of transfer gossip and the usual Spurs/Woolwich tit for tat. However amongst all of the preseason nonsense, one theme has stuck out, it is the call for a return to the “Tottenham way”.
My first reaction was to ask myself, what exactly is the Tottenham way? As I contemplated this, I began to see more tweets featuring the demand for a return to the Tottenham way, yet no one was willing to expand on exactly what this ‘way’ was.
Let’s imagine that the Tottenham way they want is the style of play used to secure the first division title in the season of 1950-51. The classic ‘Push and run’, pioneered by Arthur Rowe and the inspiration for Bill Nicholson’s successful era, which saw Tottenham do the impossible and secure the double.
[linequote]The classic ‘Push and run’, pioneered by Arthur Rowe and the inspiration for Bill Nicholson’s successful era, which saw Tottenham do the impossible and secure the double.[/linequote]
Fast forward about 55 years and we see that ‘Push and run’ was being employed extremely successfully by Barcelona and subsequently the Spanish national team, albeit under its Spanish alter ego, ‘tika-taka’.
Another quick jump in time brings you to the end of the 2013-14 season. Barcelona fail to win La Liga and are dumped out of the Champions League. Spain are embarrassed and outplayed at the World Cup and go home to face an inquisition on their footballing style. Bayern Munich, in their first season under Pep Guardiola, do the German double but struggle in the Champions League playing a Bavarian style of tika-taka that couldn’t match the speed and counter attack of Real Madrid.
Is this the Tottenham way we want to see being played this season? An outdated and now seemingly easy to counter style which has brought an era of Spanish dominance to an end.
Maybe the Tottenham way is out and out attack, as deployed by Ossie Ardiles in the 1993-94 and beginning of the 1994-95 season. Five attacking players and carnage at the back. I remember being at the opening game of the 94-95 season, when Jurgen Klinsmann scored his first goal and created the infamous diving celebration. It was genuine end-to-end stuff and upon walking out of the stadium I will never forget two older supporters discussing the game and remarking that as enjoyable as it was to watch it wouldn’t win us anything. How right they were.
[linequote]Look to the future and not the glory days. Football, like its players, moves quickly these days[/linequote]
What about the droll and dross delivered by Gerry Francis, George Graham, Christian Gross and Glenn Hoddle? Would that suffice? If you haven’t got my point yet. I will spell it out clearly here. There is no Tottenham way! There hasn’t been one for years. Deal with it.
What we actually need is not a way but several systems which are adaptable to our current squad, easy to implement and can change the momentum of a game to our advantage, rather than sticking rigidly to a system that plays into the oppositions hands.
AVB suffered from it. Playing the high line, trying to press the opposition and building patiently waiting to create gaps at the back. It became repetitive and frustrating and more importantly, for the other teams, it became easy to read.
Harry Redknapp, who undoubtedly brought better times to Spurs, was also guilty of the same thing. Flowing attacking football which brought us goals but saw us unable to defend a lead or simply unable to break down teams that shut down our main attacking threats. Coupled with his inability to make an effective substitution, Redknapp’s time was always going to run out.
I believe that we have a squad of players that are capable of playing a variety of systems and a manager that can implement them, given time.
So, can we please drop this call for the return of the ‘Tottenham way’?
Look to the future and not back to the glory days. Football, like its players, moves quickly these days. If we are always looking backwards we will never be able to keep ahead of the game.
All views and opinions expressed in this article are the views and opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of The Fighting Cock. We offer a platform for fans to commit their views to text and voice their thoughts. Football is a passionate game and as long as the views stay within the parameters of what is acceptable, we encourage people to write, get involved and share their thoughts on the mighty Tottenham Hotspur.
7 Comments
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14/07/2014 @ 6:14 pm
The Tottenham Way is football played in an attacking sense and I couldn’t disagree more with there being no Tottenham way.
Harry Redknapp did employ various systems while in charge AC Milan away for example. I also don’t remember Hoddle having a boring team or constantly playing one system in fact there are few managers with more tactical nous than Hoddle.
AVB was a clown and proven EPL failure when Levy employed him.
14/07/2014 @ 6:49 pm
I completely disagree. The foundations of Tottenham Hotspur’s footballing philosophy have been in place since the 1920’s and refined and improved over the years by Arthur Rowe, Bill Nicholson and Danny Blanchflower and continued in off and on periods ever since. In its simplest terms the Spurs way is that The game is about glory. the requirements for that are twofold: first and foremost it’s about entertaining the fans about “going out and beating the other lot not waiting for them to die of boredom” and playing football for footballs sake. Secondly it relies on superb results, success and electric European nights. It means that we are not the club which will park the bus and settle for a result but the team which is the envy of the league with flair pace and exhiliration around every gulf edged corner.
COYS
14/07/2014 @ 7:07 pm
I think the author needs to do more research on the ‘Tottenham way’ before committing to an article and thereby announcing his lack of knowledge on the subject. But then, if you’re going to suggest push’n’run is the same as tiki-taka, you’re never going to convince anyone you have any knowledge on the subject.
The Tottenham way is an ethos, a philosophy to play and win with style, it’s not a system or formation… Do you really think Spurs fans asking for a return to the Tottenham way are asking for the return of a 1950’s style of play under Pochettino?
14/07/2014 @ 10:33 pm
Tiki-taka is a purely techinal game focusing on possession for the sake of limiting the opposition’s opportunities infront of goal, with short passes/two touch football tiring them as they chase the ball, in doing so gaps appear in the opposition’s defence. When you lose the ball you have the “5 second rule” whereby everyone (from the striker the last defender) in the team pressing to point of a scramble resembling that of the one in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when the golden ticket is found. You see many things such as split centre backs, dangerously high line, players hunting for pockets of space abeit minute or large and waiting for any gaps or mistakes to appear. That is not the Tottenham Way, because tiki taka literally bores the opposition to death.
The Tottenham Way is simply all out attack, one recent example of this is Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund side 2010 – present. Aka, no one goes side to sideor backwards, only forwards with fearless runs and passing.
14/07/2014 @ 11:35 pm
Great article and really valid comments. For anyone who really wants to understand tiki taka (and La Furia – another style of Spanish football) read ‘La Roja: A journey through Spanish football’ by Jimmy Burns. For me, to define “The Tottenham Way” I look at a few of my personal list of great games and what they meant to me:
* 90-91 season, Spurs 2: Luton 1. We found ourselves 1:0 down and down to 9 men (Nayim and Pat Van den Hauwe sent off by an overly officious referee), Paul Stewart moved to a defensive midfield position and we turned it round to win 2:1. The Tottenham Way here was guts, fight and risk taking to turn round an impossible situation
* 94-95 season, Liverpool 1: Spurs 2 (FA Cup). Gerry Francis’ finest hour and a Spurs display that achieved something I have never seen between two top flight sides – at the end of the match the entire stadium stood and applauded off both teams. I’m not one for gushing about Liverpool fans, I have also had the biggest bombardment of coins, flares, beer cans filled with piss and other assorted missiles while watching Spurs at Anfield, but this was something else. The Tottenham Way – going into the lion’s den and playing with character, style and immense self belief
* 97-98 season, Wimbledon 2: Spurs 6. At the end of a dismal season, relegation was still a threat. Spurs fans had been singing “we want our Tottenham back” and things were pretty grim. That season had also seen the beginnings of self-deprecating songs at various football stadia; notable among them was the chant of “it’s just like watching Brazil” at Spotland. But what was ironic when sung at lowly Rochdale became transformed at Selhurst Park. It may have been when Klinsmann notched his fourth but when one Spurs fan began the chant it was soon modified to “it’s just like watching Tottenham”. In a moment it seemed the whole ground (Spurs fans probably outnumbered Dons fans three to one and had the whole of the big old wooden stand that runs the length of Selhurst Park) were as one. This was the Tottenham Way. Fearless, stylish, with swagger but never arrogant. As I looked around me on this beautiful sunny May day, I saw fans young and old with tears streaming down their face, and I confess I was one of them.
I’ve not even mentioned the European nights which also include some very recent ones (both home and away), nor the cup finals or the victories over rivals. To me The Tottenham Way involves passion, fearlessness, a willingness to innovate, respect for great opponents but ruthless destruction of inferior ones. We should not judge ourselves against others but let them judge themselves against us. We should never be satisfied.
Over to you, Poch
15/07/2014 @ 1:01 am
There is and always has been a Tottenham way, it is based on attacking the opponents goal, not sitting back and waiting for the opponents to become bored to death, I believe someone who knew more about football than me, definitely more than this sorry excuse of a journo, has said that before.
Remember the Arsenal and England teams when Don Howe was the assistant manager at both teams, ”If they don’t score then we can’t lose” and there was a never ending string of boring football with one-nil or nil-nil results. England under Hoddle looked like a team who could achieve something, ask Arsenal supporters if they prefer the old one-nil to the Arsenal or the way Wenger has them playing. The Spurs way is to entertain and win with style, it changes but always has the same ethos: attack the opponents goal.
16/07/2014 @ 2:19 pm
Im new to Tottenham(2008), but for me…I fell in love with the way they played the game…the really do remind me at times of the USA team as they always seem in it..even when outmatched.
That being said, for someone with limited knowledge, I feel for their “style” of play…which is attacking…they never seem to bring in the quality defenders they need…the kind that you can trust on the island their style leaves the defenders in….but things are looking up.
Also I believe Spur fans are writing off Soldado and Lamela way too soon…coaching changes and a new league is going to make it tough for most footballers and I really think we should focus mainly on defensive improvement, an upgrade on the wing, and a big attacker to set hold up the ball and allow Soldado to make runs…..I would have loved to see Lukaku here.
Before you slag me off..remember I am a born and bread yank from Detroit…we don’t even have an MLS team…thus I have a major learning curve.