Forget the league, let’s win a cup

Ah it’s that time of year again. The days are getting shorter and wetter, and the evenings darker and colder. Conkers are forming and falling, leaves are browning and dying. Favourite coats are restored from their hiding places in the back of the cupboard and teamed with scarves that have laid untouched for months. Spurs are, of course, in crisis.

In fact, the feeling of the late October “crisis” is so familiar to Spurs fans that most can’t even lift a weary finger to point in the direction of the manager any more. Mauricio Pochettino is the 4th manager Spurs have had in the last 30 months, yet each fresh face, new philosophy and 5 year managerial contract is seemingly incapable of stopping Tottenham from being so Tottenham, causing many to feel there’s something rotten with the club at a higher level.

[fullquote]Each fresh face, new philosophy and 5 year managerial contract is seemingly incapable of stopping Tottenham from being so Tottenham.[/fullquote]

There are still a few Spurs fans, as well as the more provocative corners of the media, that have decided that Pochettino has already shown enough in his 19 games to prove he can’t be successful at White Hart Lane. This is plainly ridiculous; a manager introducing a new philosophy to a disheveled, underperforming group of players who he’s still getting to know needs plenty of time, as was said repeatedly when AVB was struggling. He’s also experiencing the toils of a crammed fixture list for the first time as a manager. Tottenham play 20 fixtures in their opening 11 weeks, plus an additional two international breaks. Liverpool last year were a perfect example of how playing fewer games makes it easy to keep a healthy and gelled side firing in the league, just as Spurs’ need to rotate every few days leads to disjointed sides and injuries. It’s worth remembering that in a parallel universe, one of the Kyles was healthy enough to start against Newcastle, and him being an actual right back meant he prevented both of Newcastle’s goals so Spurs won 1-0. Probably.

If you’re a bit skeptical of the ‘it takes time’ line, you can actually see evidence of Pochettino, as time progresses, noticing things he doesn’t like about our football and working on changing them. His pressing philosophy forced the opener at the Emirates. He’s noticed our corners are pathetic, so has developed some short corner routines that worked successfully v Asteras. He’s weaned academy player Ryan Mason into the first team and brought out the best in Harry Kane. He’s noticed Lamela and Soldado were low on confidence after heavily criticised debut seasons in England, but now both are so confident they’re respectively attempting 20 yard rabonas (successfully) and bicycle kicks from corners (somewhat less successfully). He’s noticed Paulinho and Chiriches are pretty bad so both have disappeared off the face of the earth.

Pochettino is doing just fine, and we’ll get better if we give it time. It does seem a bit bleak to just write this season off to transition, though, so lets give ourselves some targets to aim for this season. The first target you might hear Tottenham are aiming to hit, perhaps if you’ve just woken up from a three year coma and think Luka Modric is still at the club, is to get into the Premier League’s top 4. This isn’t going to happen. Media and fan alike might tell you that’s our aim for this season but we’d all be so happier if we accepted that won’t happen this season.

[fullquote]Now I already hear you scoffing at the liberal use of the word “major” to describe the League Cup, but a competition’s only worth how much you want to win it.[/fullquote]

So why not forget the league and focus our attention on one of the cups? Through a winning combination of sheer luck, favourable draws and the magic of England’s best ever player Harry Kane, Tottenham find themselves in the quarter final of a major competition. Now I already hear you scoffing at the liberal use of the word “major” to describe the League Cup, but a competition’s only worth how much you want to win it. If you’re under the age of, say, 27, your favourite Spurs memory might well be Jermaine Jenas sliding a ball across the face of the White Hart Lane box for Steed Malbranque to wrap home the fifth against Arsenal, and Jonathan Woodgate’s subsequent facial heroics to lift the 2008 Carling Cup. After a trophy drought bordering on the one we started laughing at Arsenal for, try telling me you’d rather give 4th our all and ultimately come up short than experience those final cup final seconds when Teemu Tainio reminds Didier Drogba what the score is while taking 45 seconds to take a throw in.

We play Newcastle at home in the quarter final of a competition that has already eliminated Arsenal, Everton, Manchester City, and Manchester United. A performance slightly better than the abomination churned out last week against Newcastle and we could be a semi final draw. We should be resting players in meaningless league games and putting out the best damn team we can in the cup games, as long as Harry Kane is involved. That goes for Europa League and FA Cup games too. Remember, the winner of the Europa League qualifies for next year’s Champions League. Who wants the ‘glory’ of being 4th best?