It’s about to get real for Pochettino

I didn’t know what had happened at first. There was a noise, then people around me reacted, in my beer haze I saw smoke bloom to my right and instinctively I shouted “smoke bomb!! Watch out!!” My typical fight or flight reaction then swung into gear and just as I mounted a grey haired chap on my way to safety my friend held up a large white bottle.

Written in a nice blue that would suit our kit’s logo was “Johnson & Johnsons Talcum Powder.” A Hull City fan had thrown a large bottle of the stuff babies and old men at my gym use into the heaving throng of violence that was the lower West Stand at White Hart Lane. Had the police not reacted quite as quickly I may have been tempted to act out a skit of a typical Jake Livermore Saturday night, but thankfully they stepped in and kept my dignity and criminal record clean.

When I sobered up, a day later, this incident did make me ponder my own mortally. This innocuous object, full of stuff that I haven’t had wilful contact with in over three decades could have killed someone. Not in the Sir Alex, Robin Van Persie, Ashley Williams way, but had it hit the wrong person, on the wrong part of their head, there could have been a fatality or at least a serious injury. It also made me consider how something as inoffensive as talcum powder can, in the wrong hands become so dangerous.

Just what does it take to make something dangerous?

Whilst I was dicing with death, a living, breathing through his mouth example of this was pounding across the turf.

Harry Kane.

Soft of voice, lacking the prominent facial edges that make someone like Beckham so desirable and, up until this season, the classic future journey man striker, is the perfect example. He looked unlikely to have any serious careers highs, however, with focus, dedication and an incredible inner will he has become the story of the year. He has also served to remind us that football, a bit like life and Spurs, remain as unpredictable as ever.

[linequote]One swallow or subtle through-ball doesn’t make a career, but compared to this time last summer there is a world of difference in the levels of optimism I have for Lamela next season[/linequote]

TV companies may throw millions at experts and ex-pros to predict and analyse the sport, but the beauty of the game is when something you can’t see coming happens. A young player becoming a man and a leader, a defender so bamboozled by a deft piece of skill he slumps to the floor or Phil Jones tackling a Gooner with his face.

A year ago he was nothing more than Tim Sherwood making a point, now his is our key player, occasional captain and one of the best up and coming strikers in the game. From a figure fun to a figure of fear in less than a year, an amazing feat.

Elsewhere other strange things were afoot at Spurs that didn’t involve my head being split open, but did involve someone else who has looked unthreatening for most of his Spurs career starting to show some teeth.

Erik Lamela cut a sad figure for most his debut season at Spurs. Missing, injured or uninspiring he left most of us starting to wonder what Baldini and the YouTube editors had seen in him, but as the rest of the squad wind down for Vegas and/or Ibiza, he has stepped up.

The Argentine has rediscovered a bit of the form that once had him sharing a dressing room with Leo Messi and Kun Aguero. One swallow or subtle through-ball doesn’t make a career, but compared to this time last summer there is a world of difference in the levels of optimism I have for him next season.

Last summer along with Paulinho ducking out of the way of a football and Vertonghen slumped against a tunnel wall, Lamela was the perfect analogy for the club. Injured, faking, “no bottle” and fundamentally broken, now however in every assist or elbowed goal I see progress and an upwards trajectory. Perhaps once again his the analogy of our club?

Potential, confusion, anger, disappearing and failings turning into slow but meaningful upwards progression. Like Eliott, E.T and that flower, maybe Lamela is linked to us?

Elsewhere across the team there are obvious concerns. Our keeper and captain may pursue a Champions League ambition and leave us, our defence has yet to improve despite further money being thrown at it and Christian Eriksen has slipped back into his early season ineffectiveness.

The importance of these three issues should not be underestimated, however after a season of caring about every single detail of this club, I am looking forward to not having to worry anymore. The “summer transfer saga” once again looks set to take camp at Anfield, leaving us and the club hopefully free to build-up our expectations and enjoy the club making small but effective signings.

Or not.

Players will be sold, players will be bought. The revolving door at Spurs will undoubtedly spin a little faster than usual as the ostracised players are allowed back into the building once more by security to collect their belongings. It been a brave move by the manager this year and apart from a few strange substitutions here and there very little of what Mauricio Pochettino has done, I have disagreed with.

[linequote]Those unwilling or unable to adapt will go, and in their stead should hopefully be players best suited to the team and the system, not the balance sheets or the whim of a sole individual[/linequote]

The Argentine has conducted himself with grace this season. He has refused to be led by journalists, acted with respect towards other managers and handled his younger players extremely well. Looking back now at this season, you get the impression he has treated it as one giant preseason camp.

The squad has been whittled down to the bare bones, something that has affected us short term, but will only reinforce our skeleton for next year. Those unwilling or unable to adapt will go, and in their stead should hopefully be players best suited to the team and the system, not the balance sheets or the whim of a sole individual.

Where we have failed this year it has be down to the mastery of richer clubs, individual players failing or the transfer policies of previous regimes hindering us. However, that last excuse after Sunday will lapse. From June onwards Pochettino will no longer have the luxury of pointing towards the last administration.

Just like when the bottle of talcum powder hit the west stand at a rate of knots, this is where it gets real.