carmeldevil
Well-Known Member
- May 15, 2018
- 7,686
- 46,069
Can anybody do a cheeky copy/paste of this article LINK
Intrigued by what they’ve got to say but don’t want to sign up (yeah yeah I know)
This wasn’t just about the three points. It wasn’t just about beating the reigning Premier League champions. It wasn’t just about showing Harry Kane what he might be missing.
The roar of celebration from the Tottenham fans that greeted the final whistle of Sunday’s 1-0 win over Manchester City felt like the release of two years of pent-up frustration.
Two years that have taken in the build-up to Mauricio Pochettino sacking, the draining Jose Mourinho era, a pandemic that started with Spurs furloughing their staff (a decision so widely condemned it had to quickly be reversed), the club joining the European Super League (another decision so widely condemned it had to quickly be reversed), the Carabao Cup final defeat when Tottenham barely laid a glove on these same opponents, a humiliating 72-day search for a new head coach and the seemingly endless speculation about City target Kane’s future that dominated the build-up to Sunday’s season-opener against them and will continue afresh this week.
The simple fact that 62,000 fans were in the stadium felt miraculous enough. The noise at the start of the match was visceral, a reminder of how much this has been missed by so many people.
And to get a sense of how omnipresent the feeling of crisis has been at Spurs in recent times, cast your minds back to the last time they played in front of a full crowd at home.
Yep, that was the night in March of last year when things were so toxic that Eric Dier marched up into the stands to confront a fan who was abusing him and his brother. An evening when Tottenham, playing with no recognised striker in the absence of injured duo Kane and Son Heung-min, were knocked out of the FA Cup on their own patch by the Premier League’s bottom club Norwich City.
Or, cast your minds back to the last time Spurs played a competitive game at home. That was the night back in May when they were beaten 2-1 at home by Aston Villa — a match that began with protests outside the stadium and ended with fans venting their frustration from the stands at the team and chairman Daniel Levy. All played out under the shadow of stories emerging that Kane wanted to leave the club.
Let’s be honest, it’s been shit.
But all that only made Sunday feel even more glorious. It was one of those Spurs performances where you spend the whole way home reliving your favourite moments and poring over the elements you most enjoyed.
Which was yours? Japhet Tanganga’s outstanding performance at right-back, where he buffeted both Jack Grealish and Raheem Sterling out of the game? “He’s one of our own…” sang the fans, on a day when in the absence of Kane it had extra resonance. “Japhet was huge today,” that new head coach Nuno Espirito Santo said. “He faced too many one-v-ones against fantastic players and he dealt fantastic with the situation.”
Or how about Dier and Davinson Sanchez both performing with such calmness and class after suffering badly last season? Sanchez is said to have returned from helping Colombia reach the Copa America semi-finals this summer (only losing on penalties to eventual winners Argentina) with a new-found confidence and authority — and it showed.
Maybe it was Oliver Skipp, Tanganga,’s fellow academy graduate, slotting into the midfield alongside Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, and getting the better of Ilkay Gundogan and Fernandinho as if it was the most natural thing in the world? In the lead-up to the game Skipp, still only 20, is said to have been completely unfazed by what appeared to be a hugely daunting assignment. Again, it showed.
Or perhaps what most caught your eye was Spurs’ front four of Dele Alli, Steven Bergwijn and Lucas Moura and Son playing with such synergy and purpose.
Tottenham laid traps for City all afternoon and then sprung forward on the counter at pace, with the latter three all ripping into the City defenders and Dele picking up the pieces behind them. All four of them had enjoyed promising pre-seasons and this was even better. Moura in particular looked a man reborn — another form of redemption for fans who all too often have howled in frustration at his failure to get his head up or make the final pass.
But this wasn’t just about individuals, it was a huge team effort — a contrast from the second half of last season when Spurs often looked like a bunch of ringers chucked together for a game of Sunday league. “What a change in teamwork,” as one dressing-room source put it afterwards.
And it rang true. We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that Tottenham did put in performances like this sometimes under Mourinho — November’s 2-0 win over City here, for instance, was a brilliantly controlled display that sent the team top of the Premier League table.
But doing so in front of a buzzing full house and for a new manager who the fans seem to have taken an instant shine to felt extra special. Nuno was given a huge cheer before the game, and serenaded by chants of “Nunoooooo”. After the final whistle, he high-fived supporters as he walked down the tunnel.
Not since the dreamy post-Ajax euphoria of the home game against Everton in May 2019 that felt more like a festival than a football match has there been an occasion like this for Spurs fans. No angst, no tension, no anger.
Just that warm glow that comes from a big win, and the sense that there might be more to come.
Who knows if there will be? This might all be a false dawn. Come next Monday, we might be mourning the sale of Kane and cursing dropped points at Wolves, Lucas might be running down blind allies; the angst and anger will be back.
But none of that mattered on Sunday. Even Kane was forgotten about for a period, even the pandemic and the days, weeks and months spent away from this stadium and seeing the same familiar faces was forgotten about.
In so many ways, this was a redemptive afternoon.
The roar of celebration from the Tottenham fans that greeted the final whistle of Sunday’s 1-0 win over Manchester City felt like the release of two years of pent-up frustration.
Two years that have taken in the build-up to Mauricio Pochettino sacking, the draining Jose Mourinho era, a pandemic that started with Spurs furloughing their staff (a decision so widely condemned it had to quickly be reversed), the club joining the European Super League (another decision so widely condemned it had to quickly be reversed), the Carabao Cup final defeat when Tottenham barely laid a glove on these same opponents, a humiliating 72-day search for a new head coach and the seemingly endless speculation about City target Kane’s future that dominated the build-up to Sunday’s season-opener against them and will continue afresh this week.
The simple fact that 62,000 fans were in the stadium felt miraculous enough. The noise at the start of the match was visceral, a reminder of how much this has been missed by so many people.
And to get a sense of how omnipresent the feeling of crisis has been at Spurs in recent times, cast your minds back to the last time they played in front of a full crowd at home.
Yep, that was the night in March of last year when things were so toxic that Eric Dier marched up into the stands to confront a fan who was abusing him and his brother. An evening when Tottenham, playing with no recognised striker in the absence of injured duo Kane and Son Heung-min, were knocked out of the FA Cup on their own patch by the Premier League’s bottom club Norwich City.
Or, cast your minds back to the last time Spurs played a competitive game at home. That was the night back in May when they were beaten 2-1 at home by Aston Villa — a match that began with protests outside the stadium and ended with fans venting their frustration from the stands at the team and chairman Daniel Levy. All played out under the shadow of stories emerging that Kane wanted to leave the club.
Let’s be honest, it’s been shit.
But all that only made Sunday feel even more glorious. It was one of those Spurs performances where you spend the whole way home reliving your favourite moments and poring over the elements you most enjoyed.
Which was yours? Japhet Tanganga’s outstanding performance at right-back, where he buffeted both Jack Grealish and Raheem Sterling out of the game? “He’s one of our own…” sang the fans, on a day when in the absence of Kane it had extra resonance. “Japhet was huge today,” that new head coach Nuno Espirito Santo said. “He faced too many one-v-ones against fantastic players and he dealt fantastic with the situation.”
Or how about Dier and Davinson Sanchez both performing with such calmness and class after suffering badly last season? Sanchez is said to have returned from helping Colombia reach the Copa America semi-finals this summer (only losing on penalties to eventual winners Argentina) with a new-found confidence and authority — and it showed.
Maybe it was Oliver Skipp, Tanganga,’s fellow academy graduate, slotting into the midfield alongside Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, and getting the better of Ilkay Gundogan and Fernandinho as if it was the most natural thing in the world? In the lead-up to the game Skipp, still only 20, is said to have been completely unfazed by what appeared to be a hugely daunting assignment. Again, it showed.
Or perhaps what most caught your eye was Spurs’ front four of Dele Alli, Steven Bergwijn and Lucas Moura and Son playing with such synergy and purpose.
Tottenham laid traps for City all afternoon and then sprung forward on the counter at pace, with the latter three all ripping into the City defenders and Dele picking up the pieces behind them. All four of them had enjoyed promising pre-seasons and this was even better. Moura in particular looked a man reborn — another form of redemption for fans who all too often have howled in frustration at his failure to get his head up or make the final pass.
But this wasn’t just about individuals, it was a huge team effort — a contrast from the second half of last season when Spurs often looked like a bunch of ringers chucked together for a game of Sunday league. “What a change in teamwork,” as one dressing-room source put it afterwards.
And it rang true. We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that Tottenham did put in performances like this sometimes under Mourinho — November’s 2-0 win over City here, for instance, was a brilliantly controlled display that sent the team top of the Premier League table.
But doing so in front of a buzzing full house and for a new manager who the fans seem to have taken an instant shine to felt extra special. Nuno was given a huge cheer before the game, and serenaded by chants of “Nunoooooo”. After the final whistle, he high-fived supporters as he walked down the tunnel.
Not since the dreamy post-Ajax euphoria of the home game against Everton in May 2019 that felt more like a festival than a football match has there been an occasion like this for Spurs fans. No angst, no tension, no anger.
Just that warm glow that comes from a big win, and the sense that there might be more to come.
Who knows if there will be? This might all be a false dawn. Come next Monday, we might be mourning the sale of Kane and cursing dropped points at Wolves, Lucas might be running down blind allies; the angst and anger will be back.
But none of that mattered on Sunday. Even Kane was forgotten about for a period, even the pandemic and the days, weeks and months spent away from this stadium and seeing the same familiar faces was forgotten about.
In so many ways, this was a redemptive afternoon.
