Vital Spurs Debate Section

Have Your Say: “It’s That Morning After Feeling” – Dissecting Spurs’ Bayern Nightmare & Looking To The Future

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Writer: Loz

It’s that morning after feeling, isn’t it?

I am not feeling as upset as many mainly, because I try to keep perspective and look into why things are not right and how they can be fixed, accepting there is no quick fix for such things in life. For me, it’s about calm and patience and not ranting too much for too long.

I can see clearly, possibly, why this has happened and it’s few things imo that is expected. We took our eye of the ball, or pitch when the stadium took over, that is perfectly understandable, I have no issue with that because it was a huge project and had delay problems.

Players not leaving started two years ago. Toby and Eriksen didn’t want to sign new contracts, yes two years ago, and players who MP felt he could let go over a year ago didn’t go because players stuck around for the new stadium, this added to the problem of running down contracts.

Last season having no new players was always going to catch up with us and it has now. This all stems back to the stadium build, not being able to invest time and effort on the pitch and players sticking around going into their last year or so of their contracts because they wanted to be one of the first players to play at the stadium.

MP has had a raw deal because of it and I feel for two years he has wanted to start to rebuild his squad and hasn’t been able to due to players staying and no new signings. Then the stadium is done and we scraped through last season and this summer was a new start but the fact is, players once again didn’t leave.

My guess now, this was not so much about wanting to stay and play in the new stadium, they had made their debut in that, it was more about clubs not coming in for players because they knew they could talk to players in January and get then for free in the summer. Like it or not, other clubs have good business people like Levy. With the cost of players and wages, clubs are now being more prudent. Why pay £100m for Eriksen, when in a few months you get him to sign a pre-contract and get him for nothing. But also players have got so much power now and know they can earn mega money.

I’m not in the camp that players are loyal, some are but that percentage is declining. Toby, Vertonghen, Eriksen all know if they run their contracts down they will get a huge wage at their next club, that is more important to them than being loyal to Spurs, money talks. Then add the fact that they haven’t won anything, there is little to keep them at Spurs. Those like Kane who are Spurs through and through are few and far between and even he may feel the time may come that he has to go for the sake of winning something, although he will stay loyal for as long as he can, but at some point he may feel he wants to have trophies to show for his achievements and that overrides his loyalty to the club.

The point is all this started about two seasons ago when the stadium focus took priority and different agendas started to exist. You could say the agenda, is players staying to be the first to play in the stadium, was yet another act of selfishness. They’d rather run their contract down and stay just so they can go in the history books knowing the club will lose out of a transfer fee.

I think MP is struggling for various reasons, the aftermath of the last two years but also he is a good person and he has a good relationship with these players, they have grown together, so it’s hard for him to be ruthless with them. Because of the togetherness, he is trying to do right by them, not drop players who are obviously going, he wants everything to be on good terms when they leave and not create problems, his close relationship that has blossomed over the years is hurting him now, but again understandable.

He is human and he cares and treats people well and I think he knows its not all their fault, the club have to share some of the responsibility, but as I said, understandable due to the massive amount of energy and time put into the stadium build.

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