whitestreak
SC Supporter
- Dec 8, 2006
- 833
- 3,417
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/04/16/new-tottenham-rising-everywhere-look-white-hart-lane/
You can see the cranes from miles away, looming over the weathered housing estates and ragged shopfronts as you approach White Hart Lane from the south. When you finally reach the stadium, the eye is immediately drawn not to the existing structure, with its familiar grey bricks and plastic blue seats, but to the vast amphitheatre rising out of the ground beside it: the bowl still open, the concrete still fresh and smooth, the architects’ drawings still garlanding the exterior.
Already, the new Tottenham is beginning to cast its shadow over the old.
Like much of London, White Hart Lane is a place where things are changing rapidly, and in ways nobody can quite predict. For now, New Tottenham remains a draughtsman’s drawing, a skeleton of scaffolding, a promise of progress. But who can really know what the finished article will feel like?
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This applies equally on the pitch as off it. On Saturday, Tottenham beat Bournemouth 4-0 on a glorious spring afternoon. It was a scintillating performance, a systematic dismantling of a spirited Bournemouth team that could even have been more emphatic than the scoreline suggested. Harry Kane strode from the pitch grumbling that he had “left a few chances out there”.
This was New Tottenham all over: ruthless and restless, never satisfied, always hungry.
The new White Hart Lane looms over the old Credit: Martin Dalton/REX/Shutterstock
Bournemouth looked stunned, as if they had been playing phantoms. “One of the toughest games I’ve been involved with, physically and mentally,” Marc Pugh said. “It wasn’t though a lack of effort, but we just couldn’t get to grips with their aggression,” said Harry Arter. “Their movement off the ball was unbelievable. Collectively, they’re by far the best team in the league.”
Days like these are when it most feels like Tottenham have turned the page.
They are about to secure two consecutive seasons of Champions League football for the first time in their history. In Mauricio Pochettino, they have one of the most exciting young managers in Europe running one of its most exciting young teams. And despite a wage budget that should put them on the fringes of the elite, Tottenham are there again, challenging.
Pochettino is one of the most coveted coaches in Europe Credit: Frank Augstein/AP
“To be the team that is fighting for the title, for the second season, is a big credit to the players, the club, and to the fans,” Pochettino said.
“When you are competing with big sides like United, City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea, it is a big achievement to be the second team in the table.”
Pochettino speaks of New Tottenham like a true evangelist. “If you analyse where we came from, it’s a fantastic time for Tottenham,” he said. “And how you build your project is important to analyse. Tottenham is not building in an artificial way. It is not about putting in money, money, money, money and building a fantastic stadium and fantastic team.”
Of course, any team that can absorb an outlay of £30 million on Moussa Sissoko clearly has cash to burn. But here, Pochettino’s choice of words was instructive. It was hard not to spot a sly distinction between Tottenham and their title rivals Chelsea, who they meet in this weekend’s FA Cup semi-final at Wembley. “Tottenham is very genuine,” he went on. “And it is a very natural process, and so exciting because it is unique in the world.”
But wait a minute. We were hearing similar things last year, when Tottenham were also chasing the title with a young and exciting style of football. As it turned out, Tottenham won two points from their last 12.
When it came to the pressure moments – the 2015 League Cup final against Chelsea, this season’s Champions League, the meek surrenders at Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford and Anfield – Old Tottenham resurfaced with a vengeance. You can bulldoze a stadium to rubble in a matter of hours. But it takes far longer to demolish a neurosis.
This is why the next few weeks will define not just Tottenham’s present, but its future. Bournemouth at home: great, lovely, fine. But what about Chelsea at Wembley? Or the upcoming trips to Leicester and West Ham, two teams who will probably have nothing to play for and yet would relish throwing a spanner into Tottenham’s title challenge?
Can New Tottenham finally throw off the shackles of its past? Or will Old Tottenham always be there, lurking in the shadows, sitting menacingly at the controls?
The future is not a windfall but a transaction. When Arsenal broke ground on the Emirates Stadium they were in the middle of their invincible season, and few could have foreseen the years of entropy and ennui that were to follow.
West Ham moved into the Olympic Stadium and landed themselves both the bargain and the headache of the century. Tottenham are giving something up in return for their bright new vision: memories, a history, almost certainly the name of their stadium.
There are no guarantees in football. But as you leave the doomed old ground, another artefact of 19th century London soon to be dust, you pass the new, and wonder whether it might not be worth making the trade. Because as any Spurs fan will tell you, Old Tottenham also meant losing.
- Jonathan Liew, at White Hart Lane
You can see the cranes from miles away, looming over the weathered housing estates and ragged shopfronts as you approach White Hart Lane from the south. When you finally reach the stadium, the eye is immediately drawn not to the existing structure, with its familiar grey bricks and plastic blue seats, but to the vast amphitheatre rising out of the ground beside it: the bowl still open, the concrete still fresh and smooth, the architects’ drawings still garlanding the exterior.
Already, the new Tottenham is beginning to cast its shadow over the old.
Like much of London, White Hart Lane is a place where things are changing rapidly, and in ways nobody can quite predict. For now, New Tottenham remains a draughtsman’s drawing, a skeleton of scaffolding, a promise of progress. But who can really know what the finished article will feel like?
ADVERTISING
This applies equally on the pitch as off it. On Saturday, Tottenham beat Bournemouth 4-0 on a glorious spring afternoon. It was a scintillating performance, a systematic dismantling of a spirited Bournemouth team that could even have been more emphatic than the scoreline suggested. Harry Kane strode from the pitch grumbling that he had “left a few chances out there”.
This was New Tottenham all over: ruthless and restless, never satisfied, always hungry.
The new White Hart Lane looms over the old Credit: Martin Dalton/REX/Shutterstock
Bournemouth looked stunned, as if they had been playing phantoms. “One of the toughest games I’ve been involved with, physically and mentally,” Marc Pugh said. “It wasn’t though a lack of effort, but we just couldn’t get to grips with their aggression,” said Harry Arter. “Their movement off the ball was unbelievable. Collectively, they’re by far the best team in the league.”
Days like these are when it most feels like Tottenham have turned the page.
They are about to secure two consecutive seasons of Champions League football for the first time in their history. In Mauricio Pochettino, they have one of the most exciting young managers in Europe running one of its most exciting young teams. And despite a wage budget that should put them on the fringes of the elite, Tottenham are there again, challenging.
Pochettino is one of the most coveted coaches in Europe Credit: Frank Augstein/AP
“To be the team that is fighting for the title, for the second season, is a big credit to the players, the club, and to the fans,” Pochettino said.
“When you are competing with big sides like United, City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea, it is a big achievement to be the second team in the table.”
Pochettino speaks of New Tottenham like a true evangelist. “If you analyse where we came from, it’s a fantastic time for Tottenham,” he said. “And how you build your project is important to analyse. Tottenham is not building in an artificial way. It is not about putting in money, money, money, money and building a fantastic stadium and fantastic team.”
Of course, any team that can absorb an outlay of £30 million on Moussa Sissoko clearly has cash to burn. But here, Pochettino’s choice of words was instructive. It was hard not to spot a sly distinction between Tottenham and their title rivals Chelsea, who they meet in this weekend’s FA Cup semi-final at Wembley. “Tottenham is very genuine,” he went on. “And it is a very natural process, and so exciting because it is unique in the world.”
But wait a minute. We were hearing similar things last year, when Tottenham were also chasing the title with a young and exciting style of football. As it turned out, Tottenham won two points from their last 12.
When it came to the pressure moments – the 2015 League Cup final against Chelsea, this season’s Champions League, the meek surrenders at Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford and Anfield – Old Tottenham resurfaced with a vengeance. You can bulldoze a stadium to rubble in a matter of hours. But it takes far longer to demolish a neurosis.
This is why the next few weeks will define not just Tottenham’s present, but its future. Bournemouth at home: great, lovely, fine. But what about Chelsea at Wembley? Or the upcoming trips to Leicester and West Ham, two teams who will probably have nothing to play for and yet would relish throwing a spanner into Tottenham’s title challenge?
Can New Tottenham finally throw off the shackles of its past? Or will Old Tottenham always be there, lurking in the shadows, sitting menacingly at the controls?
The future is not a windfall but a transaction. When Arsenal broke ground on the Emirates Stadium they were in the middle of their invincible season, and few could have foreseen the years of entropy and ennui that were to follow.
West Ham moved into the Olympic Stadium and landed themselves both the bargain and the headache of the century. Tottenham are giving something up in return for their bright new vision: memories, a history, almost certainly the name of their stadium.
There are no guarantees in football. But as you leave the doomed old ground, another artefact of 19th century London soon to be dust, you pass the new, and wonder whether it might not be worth making the trade. Because as any Spurs fan will tell you, Old Tottenham also meant losing.
