Mate, we were given stick by rival fans because they saw us as a massive threat! We had Woowlich absolutely shitting themselves that they thought we were going to win a title, The CL! We contributed to their meltdown, to their fans at war with each other, with their fans wanting their manager(s) sacked as they were miles off us, they even all wanted Poch to become their manager. But the stick was from rival fans because rival fans give a shit about Tottenham.
Utd wanted our players and our Manager. City wanted our players. Real Madrid wanted our players and our Manager, this all happens because we were fucking great and everyone could see this. Just as everyone wanted Ajax players, Monaco players, Dortmund players). The media wanked over us and rightly so. The annoyance is that they include the likes of Utd, Woolwich in the conversation this is done because they have the most amount of support around the world, so mention their name in any context and it drives views and clicks.
Rice IS being linked to City and Chelsea, has been for 2 seasons now. There's a reason why other players aren't being linked and that's because they clearly aren't that good individually, exactly the same as Leicester (who lost their only two good players Kante and Marhez. The was only one link with Vardy and that was from a shite Woolwich team in decline and that didn't even go through), no one is being linked to Antonio because he's 31yrs old, gets gassed after 20mins of playing, isn't that good technically and wouldn't fit into a high-pressing elite team and why he plays for Jamaica, not England.
No one gives a fuck about West Ham, just as no one gave a fuck about Leicester. 100% Moyes has them set up really, really well but they aren't a sexy team playing amazing football. They are a mid-low block team that sit in very narrow and wait to pick off the oppo if they get too high up the pitch. They aren't a Spurs (under Poch) and Liverpool under Klopp, a City under Pep, a Bayern under (insert last 4 managers), a Barca under Pep, a Redbull under Nagglesmann, an Atalanta under Gasperini, a Monaco under Jardim, Napoli under Spalletti, even a Brighton under Potter.
Of cause there's going to be articles written, they are 3rd!! Same number of points as 2nd placed Liverpool!! And they were in their usual relegation battles when Moyes took over, this is newsworthy. But I've read most articles on them and there's not a huge amount of analysis about the job Moyes is doing, because what he's doing is the same as he's always done, best demonstrated by his 10yrs at Everton and getting that team to compete for challenging for 4th place almost every season (he never quite managed it but Everton should never have been in that conversation in the first place!). He's created a functional team, hard to beat because they are compact and well-drilled, there's no magic being done here. No beautiful football is being played here.