Through and through

There was something about those celebrations at Brammall Lane that I’ll never forget. Seeing Ryan Mason and Harry Kane celebrate that victory like Spurs fans cemented in my mind a growing belief that’s been brewing all season. This squad care. And that’s in no small part down to the contagious energy of those lads who’ve spent their lives toiling to make it at Tottenham.

They’re the kind of lads you’d easily see on the concourse at half time. You can see yourself in them. When you’ve grown up with posters of Nicky Barmby, Ilie Dumitrescu and Ruel Fox on your wall, all you want to do is pull on that shirt and run your heart out for the cause. You’d give anything for a chance, just one chance, to walk onto that pitch, play in front of the fans and call yourself a Spurs player. These lads are living that dream.

[leftquote]Those players know how much it means to us and we know how much it means to them.[/leftquote]

Win, lose or draw, I believe in them. It’s something that myself and mates who are Spurs have commented on more and more frequently this season. Watching Spurs is no longer a schizophrenic roller-coaster ride of short-lived joy and then gloriously inevitable despair. Whether they have a good game or a poor one, these players give everything for 90 minutes and beyond. And it’s resonating through the rest of the team.

Years of watching average players turn up, play worse than averagely and go home has often turned my relationship with Spurs into a fractured one. From Dalmat to Bentley, the list is endless. All style, no substance. They were there to do a job. Fulfil an agenda. Prove their transfer fee. The club meant nothing to them.

Clearly, players like Freund cemented their place in cult-hero history by showing passion for the club. Of that there is no doubt. But there’s something that makes you gravitate even more to this latest crop of homegrown, academy-hardened individuals. Inside of them is a burning desire to play for Spurs. To score the winner at White Hart Lane. To walk out at Wembley in a Spurs shirt. To lift a trophy draped in blue and white ribbons.

[fullquote]These players give everything for 90 minutes and beyond. And it’s resonating through the rest of the team.[/fullquote]

When you see Kane run 40 yards at full pelt to make a sliding tackle in our half it makes your soul erupt with delight. That effort and enthusiasm translates from the pitch to the stands just as much as a 30-yard screamer. Those players know how much it means to us and we know how much it means to them. It’s a two way street.

So much has already been written about Harry Kane that there are few superlatives left to use. His talent is obvious and it is up to us as a club – and as a fanbase – to make sure he continues on an upward trajectory. Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb look like a dynamic central midfield pairing for years to come. Even the likes of Ben Davies and Eric Dier, not from the academy, look as if they are part of that rippling winning mentality among the players.

[rightquote]Inside of them is a burning desire to play for Spurs.[/rightquote]

Of course, homegrown talent alone will never be enough to truly compete at the top level. Players like Eriksen, Lloris and increasingly Vertonghen are time and time again proving their class. But perhaps what is gelling all that talent into a unit that is unquestionably one of the hardest-working we’ve ever had is the undercurrent of Spurs. An energy and unbridled love for the club that’s infectious. Sullen and moody men like Super Jan are now looking like they want to be there and fight.

Performances this season have been far from perfect. Lots of winning ugly, but winning. This team is a work in progress in its truest sense. Pochettino has seen ability where many others haven’t, and it’s paid dividends. Spurs being Spurs, there is always a sense of foreboding hanging in the air; that it could all come crashing down at any point to square one. The fact that I’ve ended this article by saying that is literary testimony to it. But perhaps, just perhaps, this is the start of a period in our club that we can look back on in ten years time and be proud of. Proud to say that we were Spurs, through and through.