It’s something a little bit different this weekend for Tottenham Hotspur, as we put the Premier League aside and go into what will be an incredibly tough battle with Manchester City at Wembley Stadium in the EFL Cup Final.
Results and form of late has been mixed and we’ve seen the departure of former manager Jose Mourinho as a result of that (or the Super League nonsense?), but plenty would argue that we’ve seen an almost immediate reaction from the side to the appointment of caretaker boss Ryan Mason, as we turned our habit of losing points late on around with a 90th minute winner against Southampton in midweek. Few however, wouldn’t say our performance should’ve been far improved.
Victory was certainly much needed given how the week started and the confidence boost everyone has taken from that is the perfect preparation for Pep Guardiola’s side on Sunday afternoon, but nobody will be under any illusions as to how difficult this tie will be.
It is a chance for silverware though, so the players will definitely be up for this one and Cup games especially are definitely a ‘funny old game’ as one legend used to say.
The biggest question that remains for fans is will Harry Kane be passed fit for this one, as if he returns our chances of a result dramatically increase. Mason could also welcome Matt Doherty back aswell, but Ben Davies will need longer.
HT – Justifying DL’s lack of spending by claiming he’s “not overspending” is a false narrative.
Nobody is asking the club to spend beyond its means. But surely there is some middle ground to be found between living beyond your means, and proportionally spending less than any other club in the PL.
We’re the only club in the PL dedicating less than 50% of our revenues to wages. Deloitte considers anything between 50 and 70% to be “prudent”.
No fan is asking the club to spend 80% of our revenues no wages, or any sort of unsustainable amount. But there is no excuse for being dead last in the PL, proportionally.
BS,
You wrote abut the legacy for a football club in terms of a comparison between the building of a stadium on the one hand and the number of league titles and cups won.
To me the important thing for the legacy of a club or for the legacy of a human being is not determined by either of these things, but by decency. Neither architectural nor titles and cups mean much in the long run. What counts for an eternity is whether we live decent lives.
I’m more concerned by how a club, or an individual treats the people with whom they work, with whom they live, where they live, and whose lives they bother to affect for better or for worse.
The rest is ego. Or simply silly fun.
My love for Spurs began the day I heard their captain say something of values like those. Winning, he said, isn’t worth it if you need to cheat to do it and if you have play boring football to do so. I thought as I heard these words, that this is the club for me. I pray weekly that both I and my team don’t do too much to shame such sentiments.
Good post, TK. My sentiments entirely.
I respectfully disagree.
I don’t turn to football for guidance on decency, or a moral compass. There are many other things in life which can provide that.
I look at football as both a healthy way to express a competitive streak (an outlet for postive aggression, if you will), and a source of entertainment.
This is just my personal opinion, but if you are looking at a modern football club as a source of inspiration or decency, I believe you are bound to be disappointed. And I’m not really even sure it should ever really be the goal of a football club to be one, if I’m honest.
Personally, I view sports as the ultimate form of competition. There are rules providing a framework for acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, and I think the rules should encourage a degree of respect. But within that framework, anything goes, as far as I’m concerned.
History suggests that attempting to segment life into areas in which we are decent and areas in which we permit indecency tend towards the disastrous. To segment the world into places that call for decency and places in which we can caste decency in the waste bin inevitably disappoint and diminish us. We harm ourselves when we designate some places and practices as open for indecency.
If our club wins a cup or a title by cheating or causing harm, I would not feel at all good about it and would not celebrate. When Maradona, for example, gloated about getting away with “the hand of God” he diminished his place in history. It was a victory that was at the same time a terrible loss for him and for the team that he pretended to vanquish. If you are English you felt pain from, and distain for, his victory, no?
I am not English so I felt nothing.
And my point of view is that Maradona tried something and fgot away with it. The real culprit is the referee, who failed to do his job.