Rucker Haringey makes his debut on the front page by taking a look at our ambitions for the season.
Judging our ambitions
Pre-season predictions for Tottenham centred squarely around the question of whether or not the club could break through and qualify for the Champions League.
The majority of fans and pundits alike felt that, this year, the hill would be too big to climb, and the first three matches have only served to convince even the most optimistic of fans that fourth is unreachable this year. If that’s true, what is the real purpose of this Spurs season?
The most cynical fans would answer that this season’s purpose, like every year, is to bank the maximum amount of money for ENIC. I have detailed my belief that ENIC’s frugality is part of a long-term plan that culminates in the new stadium so I obviously dismiss that line of thinking. That still leaves the fundamental question of what we can look to get out of this season in the absence of a serious top four challenge?
[linequote]The solution is that we must establish a young, exciting core of players that the fans can see growing into a top four side[/linequote]
The first thing the club must do to consider this season a success is to generate a sense of positive momentum amongst the fan-base. Spurs fans don’t expect a top four finish this year, but any back-slide would be tricky considering how close we have been.
The solution is that we must establish a young, exciting core of players that the fans can see growing into a top four side. The value of recent additions like Dele Alli and Clinton Njie is not that they are world-class players today. The value is in the belief that they can be world-class players when we move into the new stadium.
Unconvinced? Let me illustrate my theory with an example. Would you rather Emmanuel Adebayor and Mousa Dembele feature while finishing fifth or Harry Kane and Dele Alli while finishing seventh? Success will be defined by Tottenham settling on a squad of young players who the fans believe can grow into a Champions League team.
This season is not just about the players themselves. It also will serve as a referendum on Mauricio Pochettino and the scouting staff in place (Paul Mitchell, black box and all). ENIC must also be convinced that this administrative combination fits their plan.
Mitchell and Pochettino must prove they are the right people to buy youthful talent and develop it into a finished product. Whether the product is realised as a big sale or Champions League player just depends on the timing of their arrival and development. At the end of this season we will know if these men deserve confidence moving forward.
[linequote]Success will be defined by Tottenham settling on a squad of young players who the fans believe can grow into a Champions League team[/linequote]
Lastly, the year should be judged on the club’s finances. Saying this doesn’t make me less of a fan. It isn’t lack of ambition to want the club to be spendthrift right now. Every penny saved means we are one step closer to achieving a new stadium. Only then, can we really compete with all of our Premier League peers.
So take heart, fellow Spurs fans, and lose your obsession with the top four – at least for a season. Judge this year as a Tottenham fan by the joy of the games we win and the momentum we can create for the future. Revel in the development of our youth and do not despair over the lack of big name transfer purchase.
Each star we don’t buy can further the ability to move into a new stadium that bit sooner. Then we can judge our seasons on our place of finish and the trophies won.
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.
8 Comments
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24/08/2015 @ 9:42 am
To answer one of your questions: I’d rather finish 5th with whoever is playing for us. 7th is unacceptable even if we’re playing ‘hot prospects’. Considering the manager publicly declared an assault on the top 4 and a likely back seat role in the Europa Cup, the pre-season and Levy’s lack of ambition have really stymied us, this has been a joke of a start to the season and we are yet again playing catch up because Levy is a prick. It is ABSOLUTELY NOT okay for us to have yet another year of rebuilding, regardless of the new stadium – which we’ll be lucky to fill if we keep playing turgid football – ENIC has more than enough money to spend on proper players.
Plus there is no evidence the manager is any good and this being his second season and the last time he had a second full season in charge he almost relegated Espanyol. Spurs have been going the wrong way since 2013 and it is not good enough and this is a pointless article.
24/08/2015 @ 10:07 am
The levyout is becoming pretty boring, levy out is only talked about when we don’t buy anyone, but when he sells jake livermore for 8mil or kaboul for 5m everyone loves him.
People seem to forget that it was levy who got us van de vaatt on transfer deadline day for 8mil no one was slating him then. We have had 2 bad games this team is clearly a work in progress and will take a while to bed in, buying players for the sake of it doesn’t make you a good team, look at Manchester United.
If you look back to before levy and enic you will see how far we have come in the season before they took over Stephen Carr was our second highest scorer with 4 goals.
We are a team that look for once like we have a plan and if it takes 2 years so be it.
24/08/2015 @ 10:27 am
hi !Dd65tn
Re your comments you`re blaggering talk re sale of Jake and Kabul .
What about the 100 million he wasted away from the sale of Bale .
The bottom line with spurs is that the club is a “chronically sick” and the sickness is called Levy.There is unfortunately no known cure to such a desease.The only remedy seems to be for the fans who really care for Spurs is to rid of him. We´ve had enough. We have become the laughing stock in the footie world. Buying cheap players will get us nowhere. Quality costs.
24/08/2015 @ 11:32 am
A sickness wow, that’s a strong statement. I dont really think that you can blame levy for wasting £100m, first of all Ericsson and Chadli came from that money and i don’t think that was a waste. Also how can you blame Levy he spent the money on the players that Avb and baldini identified and asked for. Also Levy never spends the full amount on the players it’s all add ons eg soldardo was only 12m Lamela was around the same.
Secondly, we have a £400m stadium and supposedly we have saved the majority of the money I would think that is due to levy being savvy with the money that he got from the bale transfer.
I dont know what you expect from the team we have the 6th highest wage bill and finished 5th that is success for me when we have the new stadium we will be able to invest more on wages so should be aiming higher. I also think that the investment in youth is now paying dividends, pritchard , Ali, kane, mason, bentaleb, townsend and dier are a sign that we have exceptional talent coming through which to buy that group of players would have cost us over £100 million. So maybe we didn’t waste the bale money after all.
25/08/2015 @ 2:21 pm
Guys, you do know that it’s not Daniel Levy that owns the club, it’s Joe Lewis and his company ENIC, that Levy works for? Unless silent Joe decides that he’s going to invest like Roman, then there is nothing any of us can do. Not even Levy who is simply the man sent out to face the music.
24/08/2015 @ 10:42 am
My grandfather watching spurs in the 50s, my father in the 60s onwards and myself from ’81 onwards have accepted Spurs will not always win, but MUST play attractive football. That had always been Spurs. Unfortunately since Redknapp left, I haven’t hardly see any…..
24/08/2015 @ 11:33 am
It seems clear to me that Levy does have ambition for the club but that the plan is a long term one designed to make as much money as possible. Given this approach even if everything goes exactly according to plan the best we can hope for is to emulate arsenal (where profit is prioritised over success) in stature and genuinely compete for a champions league place each year. Just look at those ridiculous high profile friendlies midweek before the prem started. No wonder we started poorly, we thought it better to work on raising the club’s profile than properly prepare for the prem. There is clearly a real problem at spurs and i for one am not sure who to support these days, because i want rid of these meddling, power hungry, profit obssessed owners. I would rather have less money to spend and have a properly run football club.
If we dont bring anyone in we are in danger of a bottom half finish this year imo.
25/08/2015 @ 2:17 pm
What would you rather have, a money and stature building pre season match in Munich – which in the long run may bring us more money in and help us secure better (more expensive) players OR not to do that and keep the squad fresh for the start of the season? There is two sides to any story and I’m sorry, but EVERY big club needs to travel the world now a days, to gain exposure and revenue. sadly with the TV money that is now in the game, the fans that pay to watch are now almost an irrelevance. Do you think the CHAVS can pay JT £200,000 a week on gate receipts only?