I have been in so much pain from this result that I haven't been able to even talk about it until now. I don't know why but I felt that this was the game the players would step up for. After the result all I could think about was the Spursy nearly men...and you just know that at least one of the cunt collections at Liverpool or Woolwich will lift a trophy this year.
What is bothering me as well are Poch's comments about the project going on with someone else. Now we can speculate what he means, but I can only think it is one of three things. He feels he has come as far as he can without financial investment and is sending a "spend or I'm off message" to Levy. He has had his heard turned or he fears that if he doesn't start wining trophies he's going to be sacked. None of these are good to my mind.
What has annoyed me about Poch is that he has come out and said that the fans need to have reasonable expectations. Well, frankly some of us do. I think this season, given we've played at Wembley the whole time, is a success if we finish top four. A trophy is a bonus. But when Poch talks of League and Champion's League wins it is arrogant. Yes, we should aspire to those things for progression. Of course. But he's got to eat a bit of humble pie and realise that he is just as much a work in progress as the team and the foundations of the club. He can't keep talking down the League Cup and FA Cup when he has thus far proven unable to even win one. He needs to instil that winning mentality in both himself and the players. The difference between us and your Uniteds and Liverpools, and dare I say even maybe Chelsea and the Scum, is that they have shown in the past the ability to rise to the big occasions. In contrast, for the best part of three decades we have failed when it really matters and for all the big wins against Real, etc, it seems that there is still that deep routed mentality in the club that Spurs just can't get over the line. What I don't want to see though is a Poch exit. I want him to mature with us and become the finished article. He will harm his own progression if he leaves before he has truly mastered facing squad changes and learning how to win.
I also think all this talk of us going backwards is absolute and utter tosh. There is maybe an argument we have not pushed on as much as we could have, but the league has been much more competitive this year and the aforementioned Wembley issue will always be a factor. All things considered we have done pretty well and our CL form has obviously significantly improved...and we really need to stop and think about how far we have come over the past decade. If we get top four again that will be our fifth top four finish in a decade. 10-15 years ago that would be a dream that any true Spurs fan would have ripped someone's arm off for. We do not have the global reach and profile of United, Liverpool and Woolwich and the cash of City or Chelsea. We have no god given right to be in the top four. That we are competing nonetheless should be savoured and our expectations should not run away with ourselves. I will be disappointed if Poch goes, the squad collapses and the project goes backwards for a few years, but with the work Levy has put in to transform the club facilities and stadium the foundation is such that we will have another shot in the future, whether it's under Levy or another owner.
I am hurting right now, but my rational side says that we have much to be grateful for and even if Poch goes the club is, in my opinion, going in the right direction.
Now I'm off to top myself....
